BAD RAP Officers & Support Crew

The dedicated humans behind the BAD RAP's dogs and education projects.

Donna Reynolds
Co-Founder, Executive Director

Donna works to keep BAD RAP on track with projects that fulfill the group’s mission to ‘Secure the future of the American Pit Bull Terrier as a cherished family companion.' She directed the nationally recognized breed ambassador Pit Bull Hall project at the East Bay SPCA from 2005-2008 and from 2008-2010, the AmbassaDog Project at Oakland Animal Services. A committed educator, she's written several articles on pit bulls, she develops many of BR's educational materials and presents the group's program models widely to audiences around the country. Through the Partners in Shelter Services project, she assists progressive animal shelters in developing and activating their own pit bull adoption and public outreach programs. To help reach these goals, she directs 'Pit Ed Camp,' a week-long intensive for shelter workers. Donna participated in evaluating the Vick dogs in 2007, then provided federal authorities with disposition recommendations and rescue support in what is being called "the largest dog fighting bust in U.S. history" in the summer of 2009. She shares her life with husband Tim Racer and four personal dogs along with a never-ending rotation of pit bull foster dogs. When the phones quiet down at night, she creates found object illustrations for book and magazine assignments.

To contact: Donna

Donna is an executive member of SAWA (Society of Animal Welfare Administrators), NACA (National Animal Control Association), and serves on the Victims of Cruelty Working Group committee.

Tim Racer
CFO, Co-Founder

A gifted animal handler, Tim once focused on rehabilitating birds of prey for a NorCA wildlife center. He now leads BAD RAP's weekly Pit Ed classes, which earned the American Humane Association's 2006 Award for Best Practices in Behavior and Training. In 2007, he helped assess the Michael Vick dogs and worked with the federal government to secure their placement with qualified organizations. He has since assisted the Humane Society of Missouri in assessing dogs from a dog fighting case and later, served the federal government again by doing the same for dogs housed by the Animal Welfare League of Iowa in what is being called "the largest dog fighting operation in US history." He travels widely to present BR's lessons learned in housing, training and placing pit bulls. Back home, he shares the responsibility of training BAD RAP’s foster dogs and educating their adopters. He's married to Donna Reynolds and is happily owned by four personal dogs. When he's not doing dog duty he’s in his woodshop, carving portraits of dogs in the old world carousel style.

To contact: Tim

Susi Ming-Strohl
VP, Secretary and Bullyhaven Director

Susi provides BAD RAP with support in the areas of business/corporate matters and donor acknowledgement. She directs BAD RAP's Bullyhaven, a project dedicated to geriatric and special needs pit bulls. Her advocacy work with bull breed owners earned her the Wells Fargo Outstanding Community Support Work Award in 2004. When she's not volunteering her spare hours to BAD RAP work, she is the busy president of Bull Terrier Rescue, Inc., a project dedicated to pit bulls' horsey head cousins. In her real job, Susi manages an operational risk department for Wells Fargo and has 30+ years of experience in risk management/loss mitigation; corporate affairs; regulatory compliance; policy implementation; and litigation prevention. She enjoys using her corporate experience to help needy bullies and disadvantaged bull breed owners. She is owned by a bevy of special needs and senior pit bulls and bull terriers.

To contact: Susi

Linda Chwistek
CGC Coach, Training Committee Lead

Linda, a gifted trainer and seasoned pit bull owner, has been teaching BAD RAP's Canine Good Citizen (CGC) prep classes since 2003. Dozens of dogs have earned their prestigious CGC award thanks to her dedication (Hall of Fame). Her class earned the American Humane Association's 2006 Award for Best Practices in Behavior and Training. Linda heads the group's training committee and provides one-on-one support for fine-tuning the ambassador manners of foster dogs and alumnae dogs. She teaches BR's beginning Pit Ed class in Berkeley and has recently expanded this training to pit bull owners in Vallejo. She's active in competitive dog sports, accomplishing multiple agility titles in AKC events (including the Novice Agility Jumper Preferred and CPE Canine Performance Event Level 2, and High in Standard at the CPE Nationals for height and class 2006) with her senior pit bull, Ruby. Linda works for a fine wine importing company and lives in the North Bay Area with her husband, a pit bull savvy cat, and her Pit bulls, Ruby and Aldo. Her newest addition is Audie (shown), one of the pit bulls rescued from the infamous Bad Newz Kennels and a promising prospect for agility.

To contact: Linda

Christine Allen
Legal Affairs Director

In 2005, Christine became the Director of Legislative Affairs for BAD RAP, keeping an eye on pertinent state and national legislation and legal issues, and discussing BAD RAP's position and issues with relevant legislators. She also devotes much of her volunteer energy to expanding BAD RAP's outreach services to surrounding communities via Shot's Fairs that support pit bull owners in low income communities. In addition, she serves as a fosterhome - most recently, for 'Teddles,' a survivor of Bad Newz Kennels. Her work with Teddles was recently highlighted in the Washington Post. Christine began her professional career as a judicial law clerk at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. From there, she worked for a brief time as an associate at a private criminal defense firm in Maryland before moving to California to become a staff attorney at the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. Christine lives with her husband, Rob, kids Sam and Natalie and three permanent resident dogs: Lucy, the mutt, Eddie the german shepherd mix and BAD RAP alum, Isabelle.

To contact: Christine

Donyale Hoye
Pit Ed Class Instructor

Donyale is a popular Pit Ed class instructor with a steady stream of new dog handlers who file in each week. She's got a knack for helping people learn their beginning skills with her down to earth style, her endless enthusiasm and happy sense of humor. Donyale understands how new handlers feel - She started out as a shelter volunteer herself, taking Berkeley shelter dogs through class and helping them get adopted. She showed so much natural ability that we recruited her for a new role as class instructor for the Beginner and Novice Drop In classes and we've been humming along ever since. Class members may not always realize that Donyale comes to a good number of classes right off of a 48 shift at her 'real' job. She's a San Francisco fire fighter and does a lot of shift trading so she can be there for the dogs on Saturday mornings, with or without a full night's sleep. She's owned by Muggy and BAD RAP alum Lola and two cats.

Carolyn Jones
Bookeeper

Carolyn has been helping BADRAP with QuickBooks support, financial consulting and controller services since 2008. Her support allows BR to map out its budget so our many programs can be actualized. The owner of a busy financial management firm, Carolyn has a long list of professional clients and is especially drawn to supporting innovative and socially-conscious companies. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of Fearless Women Entrepreneur Network (since 2010). She also served on the board of Young Women Social Entrepreneurs (YWSE) from 2006-2009. Her pit bull mix, Penny, serves as her muse. Shown here with Elliot, Carolyn's willingness to support BR's founders with dog sitting help is one of the main reasons the group can respond to emergency rescue assignments in far away places at a moment's notice.