The Oakland City Administrator’s Office is pleased to announce the incoming new Director of Oakland Animal Services, Emily Wood. Director Wood brings decades of experience to the role, including leadership roles at the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Pasadena Humane Society and SPCA, Yolo County Animal Services, and most recently a three-year term as Director of Broward County Animal Care in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Director Wood will begin her work as Oakland Animal Services Director on June 24.
Wood is an awarded and nationally recognized expert in her field and comes to Oakland having most recently overseen a full-service animal welfare department which serves a county of nearly 2 million people. In her role at Broward County she developed equitable, community focused programs to keep animals in homes and swiftly return them to their homes and neighborhoods. Under her leadership, Broward County reduced euthanasia to only severely sick, injured, and/or dangerous animals and focused on strong behavioral intervention programs with Fear Free techniques both within and without the shelter. She led a strategic reorganization of the program, retaining all staff and introducing new key positions and worked with her entire staff to write a new strategic plan while engaging the community to increase donations and grants.
Wood called the East Bay home for about 20 years, most of which were in Oakland. She first fostered for Oakland Animal Services in 2006, and first volunteered for OAS beginning in 2008. She still counts many of the people she met volunteering as her dearest friends, and she attributes the experience of volunteering at OAS to starting her on a new career path (formerly she was an environmental researcher at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories). She has lived in North Oakland and Fruitvale and expresses a deep love for the diversity and culture of the city.
"I am beyond thrilled to be able to return home to serve a city and a people I love by assisting them with their animals," said Director of Oakland Animal Services, Emily Wood. "I look forward to getting to know the staff and volunteers - to hear what they have seen and done in the years that I’ve been in other cities, learning how to serve people and their pets even better. I also look forward to eating good food again!"
Wood’s arrival in Oakland will be coordinated with the departure of Director Ann Dunn, who has served admirably as Oakland Animal Services Director since February 2020. Director Dunn’s tenure has seen Oakland Animal Services successfully navigate numerous challenges and has brought euthanasia rates to record lows while increasing successful foster and adoption placements – all this despite animal intake rates that have increased sharply since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It's been an honor to serve as OAS Director and to work with such an incredible team of staff and volunteers,” Director Dunn said. “I am thrilled that Emily Wood will be the next leader of OAS and ask this community to join me in supporting her as she steps into a very challenging role. Oakland is lucky to have her."
“Oakland is grateful to our leaders and volunteers at Oakland Animal Services,” City Administrator Jestin Johnson said. “Director Dunn has set a high bar together with her staff and the incredible community of volunteers that make a difference every day for Oakland’s animals and the humans who love them. We know that same staff and volunteer community have more success to look forward to with Director Wood, whose arrival is great news for this essential program. She is a renowned expert and leader in her field and her commitment to Oakland will help us achieve new heights caring for our vulnerable pets and pets-to-be.”
To learn more about Oakland Animal Services, including how to volunteer, upcoming events, and how you can consider fostering or adopting an animal in need, please visit www.oaklandanimalservices.org.
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