Meet Our Team

On the Ground in Guatemala

Tessa de Goede

Guatemala Board President, Director, US Board Member, and Volunteer

Tessa has been part of our team since 2014 became our director in Guatemala in 2022. She supports Unidos by assisting in fundraising, event planning, volunteering at most spay and neuter clinics, and managing a portion of the social media. She does this in addition to running her own foundation for cleft palate babies (Tess Unlimited). Tessa and her husband Gerson have been rescuing, fostering and homing animals for many years. They have a large ‘family’ of 30 rescued dogs in their home, including several paralyzed dogs who have no idea they are differently abled.

In her spare(?) time, Tessa trains and runs road races and loves to explore the lesser visited areas of Guatemala.

Catherine Corry

Guatemala Board Treasurer and Volunteer

Catherine is a British citizen and a retired teacher. She lived for many years in El Salvador, and moved to Antigua in 2017, where she built a home. She is very active in many areas in the community and has been our treasurer in Guatemala since 2021. Catherine also volunteers at sterilization clinics and frequently fosters dogs for the organization

Carin Steen

Guatemala Board Member, Volunteer

Carin Steen is an artist and dog lover. She has been a volunteer with Unidos para los Animales since 2015, fostering dozens of puppies, assisting in clinics and developing our activity book ¿Cómo cuidar a mi chucho? Carin shares her heart and home with 4 rescued pups and currently divides her time between Spain and Guatemala. You can see more of Carin’s beautiful murals, pet portraits, and other work at:

www.handpaintedpetportrait.com

Francesca Luissi

Volunteer

Francesca is from Guatemala and is a passionate animal welfare advocate. She joined forces with Unidos in 2016, volunteering in clinics, transporting animals to and from veterinary appointments, making connections with medical supply companies, wholesalers and more. She began the CSVR (Capture, Sterilize, Vaccinate, Release) program with the free-roaming dogs around Antigua and continues to spearhead that effort.

Noreen Durkin

Guatemala Board Member and Volunteer

Noreen moved from the US to Antigua with her husband Luis Velasquez in 2018. Wanting to give back to the community, she began volunteering in our mobile sterilization clinics, monitoring the cats during recovery. She does a stellar job of this and has generalized to helping in many different areas on clinic days. We are very grateful to have her on our team.

Luis Velasquez

Guatemala Board Member and Volunteer

Luis and his wife Noreen have been living in Antigua since 2018. Luis began volunteering at clinics alongside Noreen in 2022 after seeing the profound effect that our clinics have in local communities. Luis was instrumental in connecting us to his home town of Comalapa where the free-roaming dog and cat population is far too large. Luis helps facilitate clinics by connecting with the local authorities and churches. He has also completed construction of a small veterinary clinic in a nearby community, with the aim pf providing affordable veterinary services to those who most need them. He has become an integral member of our team on the ground in Guatemala.

Flori Batt

Guatemala Board Member and Volunteer

Flori is from El Salvador but lived in the USA since 1994. She has been married to John Batt for 33 years and has 2 amazing children, Alejandro and Sofia. After becoming empty nesters the couple decided to move to Antigua with their 3 dogs. They now also have adopted 2 kitties. Flori has been living in Antigua for 2 years now and she works tirelessly to capture, transport, and return the free roaming dogs we sterilize. No task is too small or too big for Flori to offer to lend a hand.

Jimmy Mattrell

Volunteer

Jimmy is a big animal lover. He was born and raised in Guatemala, and has several businesses including Union Cafe. During the pandemic he approached us to ask for help sterilizing dogs and cats in a desperately poor village called Guayabal very close to Antigua. We obliged, and Jimmy has been volunteering at clinics whenever his schedule allows every since. He also generously provides delicious sandwich lunches from Union Cafe to our dedicated volunteer and medical team on clinic days.

Carli Johnson

Volunteer

Carli began volunteering with us when she was only 8 years old. An ardent animal lover, she was one of our youngest student volunteers. Along with the other children in the program, she donated every Saturday morning to walking the big dogs, socializing and training puppies, cleaning runs, grooming and bathing dogs, and any task we asked her to do. She fostered multiple puppies for us over the years, and her family adopted Boh, one of our special needs puppies.

Carli is somehow all grown up now, and she still volunteers in our clinics. Her animal handling skills are excellent, and she does an amazing job monitoring the animals in recovery. She’s always ready to help with any task, from tattooing to vaccinating.

Our Veterinary Team

Lead veterinarians Doctor Andrea Merida, Doctor Andrea Ramirez, and Doctor Francisco Franco head up our skilled veterinary team. They are specialty trained in high volume microsurgery techniques and have performed tens of thousands of successful sterilizations between them. They travel to each clinic and bring several technicians, a tattooist, and support staff along with them. Their skill, expertise and enthusiasm make our clinics the astounding success they are and are at the core of what we do.

Our International Team

Dr. Jim Bader

Veterinarian, US Board Member, Volunteer

Board member Dr. Jim graduated from the University of Illinois in 1988 and lives and works in Holland, Michigan. He started Mapleview Animal Hospital in 1992. Dr. Jim completed two certificate programs from the University of Florida in Shelter Medicine and Veterinary Forensics in 2013 and also completed a certificate program in non-profit management from the University of Illinois-Chicago in 2014. He is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Shelter Medicine from the University of Florida. He loves the diversity and challenges of veterinary medicine and learning as much as possible about all species from chameleons to kangaroos.

Dr. Jim has been traveling to Guatemala for more than 20 years to support Unidos, performing multi-day mobile spay and neuter clinics. He typically performs 150+ surgeries as well as multiple consultations on difficult cases in each week long trip.

He volunteers his time generously both locally and internationally to multiple lucky rescue groups. He wrote the first published article documenting the incidence of heart worm and tick-borne diseases in Guatemala. He is currently working with Travelling Animal Doctors, The Native American Veterinary Services, and Unidos para Los Animales. When not working, Dr. Jim enjoys travel, cooking, home improvement projects, golf and archery. Dr. Jim is married and has four children and multiple animals

Keri Peyton

US Board Treasurer

Wanting to give back, Keri started volunteering for Unidos in 2016 after cofounders Linda and Terry supported her when she rescued Mr. Bones, her beloved Labrador who was found in horrible condition on the coast of Guatemala. Working first in the shelter, she started taking on more duties and fostering puppies whenever she could. In 2018 she took over managing the organization’s accounts.

Keri left Guatemala in 2021 with her four rescue dogs. Mr. Bones passed away in 2022, but former Guatemalan street dogs Arrow, Clementine and Fletcher now all call Florida home too. Keri continues to manage the US accounting and non-profit tax reports.

Linda Green

Founder, US Board President and Volunteer

ounder Linda moved to Antigua in 1992. She was the acting director of Unidos, and coordinate training, mobile sterilization clinics, adoptions and the foster and volunteer program in addition to fostering and training countless puppies and dogs in her home.

Working with Unidos allowed Linda to merge her two main passions; teaching people and animals. A retired elementary school teacher and director, and a multi-certified professional dog trainer. Linda oversaw our training program, and continues to coordinate adoptions, and offer remote support for our foster families and our adopters.

In 2022 after 30 years in Antigua, Linda moved to Calgary, Canada where she started Green Dogs Training and Behavioural Consultation to support guardians and dogs struggling with behavioural issues. She continues to be involved with Unidos on many levels and travels to Guatemala yearly to coordinate and volunteer in clinics with Dr. Jim.

Terry Kovick Biskovich

Founder, US Board Vice President and Volunteer

Founder Terry is a 36 year resident of Antigua. She has been rescuing animals all that time, and in 2010 joined forces with fellow-rescuer Linda to form Unidos para los Animales.

Terry and her husband John built our facility and generously donated space on their beautiful mountain property for the rehabilitation center. Terry took care of all the cats in the Kitty Garden as well as various cats who live in her home. She and John also cared for the ‘porchies’, our senior dogs who lived with them in their home and beautiful separate garden. They share their home with dogs Livia, Sam and Alice, all rescue dogs as well as several indoor cats. They currently care for our two remaining seniors, Koda and Dallie on the porch with their crew.