If She Can Do It, So Can You!

As the CEO of the Richmond SPCA, Tamsen Kingry oversees the development of the Richmond SPCA’s short- and long-term strategies to achieve maximum lifesaving. Before being named CEO in 2019, Tamsen was the COO for 12 years and in that capacity oversaw operational development, design analysis, evaluation and improvement; regulatory compliance; emergency preparedness; community relationship building; fundraising; communications; and program and service delivery. She is passionate about developing innovative programming to proactively reduce pet homelessness and engaging in crucial advocacy to save and protect the lives of animals.

Tamsen earned her bachelor’s degree in communications from Virginia Commonwealth University and completed the Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management course within the Executive Education program at Harvard Business School. Tamsen joined the staff of the Richmond SPCA in 2002.

When she’s not busy working alongside the Richmond SPCA’s talented and dedicated staff, Board and volunteers, Tamsen enjoys spending time with her husband and daughter, as well as their two cats and two dogs—all of whom they adopted from the Richmond SPCA.

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Ellen Kanzinger is a documentary photographer and journalist based out of Charlottesville, Va. She currently works as the travel editor for Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine, covering outdoor recreation and environmental issues in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. Whether it's climbing into the open cockpit of a hand-built airplane or biking 184.5 miles along the C&O Canal, she does whatever it takes to get the story. Ellen also volunteers as a transcriber for the Prison Journalism Project, an organization dedicated to telling stories from inside the justice system. In her free time, you can usually find her hiking the trails of Shenandoah National Park, biking around town, or sitting on her balcony with a book in hand. 

Instagram: @photo.zinger and @blueridgeoutdoors

Website: ellenmkanzinger.com

Valley Haggard has written in short and long-form all her life. She is a big fan of the postcard, the 6-word memoir, and drawers full of unfinished manuscripts. She has slept in tents, hostels, motels, couches, tool sheds, log cabins, bunk beds, and ship bowels for short periods of time, and the house she grew up in for much longer than that. She has lived in Virginia, New York, Italy, Colorado, Arkansas, and Alaska, holding jobs as a Waffle House waitress, Dude Ranch Cabin Girl, cruise ship stewardess, and hotel maid. She has written book reviews, author interviews, and first-person columns; judged fiction contests and fellowships, and sat on non-profit writing boards. She is the recipient of a Richmond Magazine  2014 Theresa Pollak Prize, a 2015 Style Weekly Women in the Arts Award, and the winner of the 2018 James River Writers’ Emyl Jenkins award. The founder of Richmond Young Writers in 2009, Valley now leads creative nonfiction marathons, workshops, and retreats for adults. She is the founder of Life in 10 Minutes, the author of The Halfway House for Writers and Surrender Your Weapons: Writing to Heal, and the co-editor of Nine Lives: a Life in 10 Minutes Anthology. She has a handsome husband, a brilliant son, an addictive personality, and a voracious appetite for all things word. Her memoir, There's No Accounting for the Strangeness of Things will be published in December 2021.

Courtney Paulk, the first female president of Hirschler Law,  discusses how long-distance, open-water swimming makes her a better lawyer and a stronger person. “The hardest thing is jumping  off a perfectly good boat in the dark," Paulk says. " You just gotta get in and do it, over and over and over again. One arm and then the other arm until I get there."

Despite her family’s best efforts, Anne Moss Rogers's 20-year-old son Charles died by suicide on June 5, 2015, after many years of struggle with anxiety, depression, and ultimately addiction. Emotionally Naked motivational speaker and award-winning author, Anne Moss shares how she survived her son's death by suicide, and discusses the work she does to help others heal. Her newest book, Emotionally Naked: A Teacher’s Guide to Preventing Suicide and Recognizing Students at Risk, comes out in August. 

Trigger ⚠️: This episode discusses the topic of suicide, and may be triggering for some listeners. If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, please text the Crisis Text Line at 741-741, or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. 

She is a writer who founded her own small press. She is not even a freshman in college, but is already a twelve-time world champion competitive target shooter. She swam across the English Channel. Want to know more about these women's stories? Check out Season 1 of If She Can Do It, So Can You! The first episode will air on August 1, 2021.