Our board
Our Board of Directors consists of many incredible, passionate people who give their time and talent, without compensation, to bring our mission to life. A collection of scientists, educators, business owners, community organizers and those who have been otherwise compelled to support this cause, make up our board.
Bill Harrison
William A. Harrison, Jr. has more than 30 years of leadership experience in the local nonprofit community, including the Fan Free Clinic (Health Brigade), the Richmond American Red Cross, and ten years as Executive Director of Diversity Richmond. During his tenure there, he refurbished the image and impact of the Foundation, their primary revenue source, Diversity Thrift, and the building itself, while creating partnerships and programming that built the center into a nationally recognized space. Not done serving Richmond, Bill created his Foundation and this premier thrift store to help sustain another under served community. He shares his home with his rescue cat, Billy, and dogs, Lillie and Emma.
Laura Cotterman
Laura Cotterman is a nonprofit fundraising professional with over 20 years of success. She is also a lifelong farmer, animal lover and advocate. She works as a volunteer for City Kitty Project RVA, not only fundraising but fostering kittens and helping with community cats. “Animal rescue organizations need help,” she says, “and the WAHJF has the vision to provide resources, from direct funding to programming to assisting pet owners and rescues, to providing space for adoption events and veterinary care clinics. I have seen firsthand how this support will make a large impact on animal welfare in RVA. I am looking forward to making a difference for animals and their owners at scale with this excellent project.”
Mike Doherty
Mike Doherty is co-owner of Mongrel in Carytown, and has more than a decade of retail and product development experience. Using his background in graphic design and web development, Mike excels at the technical side of creative marketing communications, in addition to his role in operations and finance. Mike is a life-long animal lover with a particular soft-spot for hound dogs. His current hound, Tucker, was rescued in rural Virginia after being abandoned for his lack of interest in hunting or sports— two things he has in common with Mike.
Emily Sanders
Emily Sanders brings her charisma and creative thinking to the board. She spent her teens on a farm in Montana tending to animals and learning the ways of the land. Back in Richmond, she dedicated her time to the autism community before finding her home in hospitality and event planning. She strives to cultivate connection and joy wherever she goes. Good nose- Certified Sommelier. Emily lives with her three rescue dogs including her pitbull Bōbi that she saved running down the middle of Forest Hill Avenue the night before Furbish Thrift opened in the beginning of 2023.
Jerome Legions
Jerome Legions left Anthem BCBS to become an entrepreneur, creating Grass Cutters, LLC. However, his true passion is community engagement and volunteering. Since 2016, he has been the president of Carver Area Civic Improvement League. In addition to his volunteer political campaign strategist work, Jerome serves on several boards, including Reimagining Monument Ave. (Treasurer), Embrace Carver Elementary School Foundation (Secretary), and City of Richmond’s Participatory Budget Commission, among others. He works tirelessly for his passion project, Moore Street School Foundation. “I am so excited to be included as a member of WAHJF. Jerome shared, “ Although Richmonder’s love their fur family members, the agencies that facilitate adoptions and administer care of animals prior to adoption need help. Day to day operations can be a struggle. This mission will help to lessen the load.” Jerome has two dogs, Bella and Shi Shi.
Lisa Cumbey
Lisa Cumbey is a designer and creative director specializing in strategic brand expression, and is well-known for her discerning cross-discipline creative approach. Lisa, along with her team at Design Manifesto and Propolis Design Group, has won numerous awards for branding, packaging, event and print design, and her work has been juried into many publications. She has been an active board member for a number of Richmond non-profits, has rescued, repaired and homed countless urban cats, and is enjoying her first little dog, Lola Grace. “I’m really excited to work on this effort to help the animal community. We’re all animal lovers, obviously. But more than that, we appreciate the impact that caring for these creatures has on the human heart. We want to help people enjoy, and be able to sustain, those relationships.”
Angela Bruce
Angela Bruce is a Richmond native and principal owner of Cannon and Associates Insurance in Midlothian. She has been with the agency for 18 years, serving as an independent insurance advisor for personal and commercial clients. She has loved having pets all her life and has a strong commitment to helping her local community. When the opportunity to serve on the Foundation’s board arose, she was thrilled. “The Furbish Thrift mission is close to my heart,” she said. “I appreciate the reduce-recycle-reuse philosophy and helping people keep their pets and care for them is important to me.” As a local insurance agent and business owner, Angela has seen how challenging it can be for many small nonprofit organizations today to cover their expenses. “The Furbish model of one nonprofit helping other nonprofits within the community really appeals to me, and I am proud to be on the Board working alongside other caring people.” Angela lives in the City of Richmond with her 4-legged companion, Monkey, who can be found napping in the office most days.
Laura Posey
Laura Posey is founder and Chief Instigator at Simples Success Plans, a strategic planning and sales strategy firm. She is an internationally-recognized speaker and author of several books including “How to Plan Your Entire Year on One Sheet of Paper”, and “Mastering the Art of Success” with co-author Jack Canfield. Laura has parlayed her experience working with startups and Fortune 100 companies into board positions for several Richmond-area non-profits. Her experience growing up on a horse farm in Southern Maryland seeded her deep love of all animals. Rarely without a dog at her side, Laura has also recently become a crazy cat lady, currently serving the needs of her four rescue cats. She is delighted to be helping others discover the joy of rescuing and is excited to be a part of this tremendously impactful organization.
Laura Mathies
Laura Mathies is an Associate Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she studies how the nervous system responds to alcohol. She manages federally funded research projects and is dedicated to training a diverse STEM workforce. When she’s not in the lab, Laura volunteers with City Kitty Project RVA, facilitating their TNR (trap-neuter-return) efforts and fostering cats and kittens. Additionally, she is a founding member of Lettuce Reduce Food Waste, a grassroots organization focused on diverting food from landfills and redistributing it to those in need. Furbish Thrift (a program of the William A. Harrison Jr. Foundation) is a perfect marriage of her two of her long-time passions – animal welfare and protecting the environment. She is excited to help create more equitable access to resources for pet owners and animal welfare advocates in Richmond. She shares her home with several canine and feline companions, including her Australian Cattle dog Oscar and Chihuahua Sadie.
Rivka Swenson
Rivka Swenson is a lifelong lover of nonhuman animals. The City Kitty Project initiative spearheaded by Lost Dog Foundation has rescued, rehabbed, and homed 743 formerly feral kittens and cats (as of September, 2024) since 2018. This labor is adjunct to (but no less crucial than) the CKP-LDF commitment to a robust TNR (trap, neuter/spay, return) program; since the inception of CKP, thousands of homeless cats (more than 600 in 2024 alone) have been fixed, vaccinated, and returned to their origins to live healthier lives. Meanwhile, human animals need help, too, and in 2023 Rivka organized the Lettuce Reduce Food Waste group with a few area friends and neighbors as an all-inclusive effort "by community, for community" in which an available abundance is efficiently redistributed. Rivka is also an associate professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University; as author and editor of a variety of scholarly texts (including a monograph, Essential Scots and the Idea of Unionism in Anglo-Scottish Literature, 1603-1832), her research and teaching focuses primarily on late 17th-century and eighteenth-century British literature and culture, as well transhistorical genres and forms such as the Gothic and the Robinsonade. Other loves: nature, water, meaningful connections with humans and other animals, and as much traveling as her other pursuits allow or can (sometimes) be made commensurate with.
Mark Burkett
There would be no Harrison Foundation, much less a Furbish Thrift, if not for Mark Burkett. It was all his idea. Little did we know when Mark suggested we open a thrift store to benefit animal causes, that his idea would blossom into the moving force it has become. This is far from Mark’s first success. He is a co-founder of Mongrel, the award-winning card and gift shop that has evolved into a Carytown anchor store since it opened in 1991. Mark is also a co-founder of chocolatepaper, a greeting card and chocolate shop located in the Roanoke City Market. Both stores are consistently voted a best in their class by local media/readers. Mark’s love of animals, his vision and his years of retail experience, has been more than significant in whatever successes we have experienced. And there have been many.
Karli Woodcock
Karli Woodcock is sales assistant on a wealth management team at a local privately owned investment firm. As a third generation Richmond native and recent graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, she deeply cares about the city and the people and animals that call it home. From a very young age, she’s had a strong love for animals, especially dogs. She has a three-year-old Boxer, River, who is a constant reminder of how impactful companionship can be. She enjoys volunteering with Furbish Thrift and serving on various communities at her childhood church, The Brandermill Church in Midlothian. She is excited to serve alongside the dedicated members of the board and help the organization continue to grow as a vital resource for the local animal community.