Humane Society of Southern Arizona competitors

Following her magna cum laude graduation from Southern Utah University, Julie Castle and some friends made a brief stop at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary while on vacation in the mid-90’s. Forever transformed, Julie decided to forgo a career in law for a low-paying, high-demand job working in a remote Utah canyon helping animals in need. As employee number 17 at Best Friends Animal Society, Julie worked her way up the ranks to become the organization’s first female CEO in March 2018. In between she helped build the organization into a $130M, 800-employee strong national leader in animal welfare. Julie started her tenure as CEO with the bold commitment to end the killing of dogs and cats in America’s shelters by the year 2025. Prior to her CEO role, Julie served as Best Friends’ Chief Development & Marketing Officer, doubling the organization’s revenue and support within a four-year span. Under her leadership, Best Friends earned the Harris Poll EquiTrend “Non-Profit Brand of the Year” four times, including most recently in 2018. Julie has championed the concept of multiple non-profit organizations, private and public municipalities and the corporate foundation sector putting aside competitive interests and joining forces to publicly tackle a shared social problem. Named by InStyle magazine as one of the “Badass 50 Women Changing the World” in August, 2018, Julie has spoken at TedX in Salt Lake City, Columbia Business School, the BUILD Series in NYC, and headlines the closing session at the Best Friends National Conference every year. Julie lives with her husband Gregory Castle, a Best Friends’ founder and CEO-emeritus, and their two dogs in Kanab, Utah.

Pam Stegora Axberg is an Interim Chief Executive Officer at Union Gospel Mission and is based in Minnesota. She has worked as SVP, UnitedHealthcare, Network Transformation and Operations at UnitedHealth Group Inc; Senior Vice President, UnitedHealthcare Strategic Alliances and COO Medicaid at UnitedHealth Group Inc; and Senior Vice President at Qwest Communications, formerly U S WEST and Northwestern Bell Telephone Company. Pam works or has worked as Senior Vice President at Optum. She attended Carlson School of Management between 1986 and 1989, Humphrey School between 2018 and 2019, and St Catherine University between 1981 and 1985.