Laura Simmons-Wark began her career at Humane Ohio in 2019 as Director of Outreach and Development. She was promoted to Executive Director by a unanimous vote of the Board, becoming their youngest Executive Director and achieved an 18.25% profit increase in the first year. Since then, Humane Ohio has been awarded $124,187 in grants and gifted $589,961, an increase over prior years. Simmons-Wark came to NW Ohio in 2011 working for Lucas County Canine Care & Control (LC4) as Operations Manager and Outreach Coordinator. She was instrumental in enabling LC4 to adopt out the first Pitbull type dogs in its history, improving the Live Release Rate, creating a volunteer base, facilitating adoptions events, teaching dog safety, and creating the dog field trip program.

She serves as an advisor to regional animal shelters and rescue groups, has regular TV news segments associated with promoting animal adoptions. At LC4 she helped bring Dogs Playing for Life and BAD-RAP’s founder to Toledo to evaluate dogs and to train staff to run dog play groups. She is a member of the Ohio Animal Welfare Federation, sat on the committee for the Glass City Dog Park and has been a wildlife transporter for Nature’s Nursery since 2019. She was a volunteer and past board member for Good Shepherd Animal Sanctuary. She held a leadership role in the Humane Society of the United States’ Pets for Life Program assisting pet owners and matching animals to families through their Adopter’s Welcome program.

Simmons-Wark graduated from Michigan State University.