Diana has been a board member of Angels with Paws since 2016 and the board president since 2021. She has a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Individual and Family Studies and a Master’s degree in Psychosocial Science from Pennsylvania State University. She received her Juris Doctorate degree in 1982 from the University of Denver School of Law. She has been a practicing attorney from 1982 until 2021 when she retired. She dedicated her legal career to representing children. She started her legal career as a trial attorney in the Denver Public Defender’s Office and served for six years which included supervising the Juvenile Division. In private practice, she represented children either as a defense attorney or as a Guardian ad Litem for dependent and neglected children. In 2015, she was honored by the Colorado Juvenile Defender Center with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Diana also is a registered veterinary technician and graduated from Bel Rea in 1999 with an Associate degree in Applied Science. She has been a volunteer with the Denver Pet Partners Animal Assisted Therapy program since 2009. Through this program she currently partners with her registered therapy cats Harold and Finn to tutor children through the Colorado Dream Foundation at the Westwood Housing Project. Diana, Harold and Finn also visit seniors at the Eaton Senior Living Community while Finn and Diana participate in the Paws to Read program at the Bemis Library in Littleton.
Diana is passionate about special needs animals particularly diabetics and paralyzed/incontinent cats. With the help of other rescues, she has saved a number of these special cats who were facing euthanasia at the county/city shelters. Her first back leg paralyzed, incontinent cat was Simon who became her first registered therapy partner. In 2012, Simon was honored with the Colorado Animal Hero Award in the service category for his outstanding work as a therapy animal. Diana is the author of Simon’s story “Simon, My Cat with Special Needs, Gives Hope to Children” in the book “Animals and the Kids who Love Them” by Allen and Linda Anderson.
Diana has volunteered with the Red Rover Readers program which uses animal-related stories to help children develop critical thinking skills and build empathy and compassion. She hopes to start a humane education program at Angels with Paws using the Red Rover curriculum.