Nevada Humane Society hires new interim CEO following complaints of leadership; Carson City animal control, shelter unaffected

On May 15, the Nevada Humane Society, which also serves as animal control for Carson City, hired Jerleen Bryant as interim CEO following a number of complaints alleging prior leadership failures.

According to a statement from NHS in communication with their donors, Bryant, who officially started remotely on May 16, is the founder of All For Dogs Rescue — an animal shelter in Redmond, Oregon — and recently served as CEO of the Maui Humane Society. The permanent NHS CEO position search will begin soon.

Bryant is taking the position of the former NHS CEO Greg Hall, who announced his departure on May 9, according to KOLO TV. The new interim position was established at the Washoe County Regional Animal Services Advisory Board’s special meeting on May 15 to discuss the complaints against the NHS.

More than 20 complaints and roughly 76 pages of complaints are included in this compiled file regarding issues about Hall and the NHS Board of Directors. They cover issues with financial suspicions, higher turnover rates, animal care concerns and lack of transparency.

Financial Issues

In the compilation, the third page covers NHS financial statements. The charts show that since Hall became CEO in 2018, executive members have given themselves a raise of 540% even though animal adoption rates — a measure of shelter success — have plummeted over 34% since 2018 before slightly increasing in 2020. By 2021, the top 6 managers at NHS were earning $607,430.00 combined, according to the chart.

One of the complaints alleges changes were made to IRS Form 990, when Hall was a board member, to remove payments of over $30,000 made to him.

Turnover Rates

Complaints allege that during Hall’s tenure between 2018-2023, the turnover included three experienced Chief Operating Officers (COO), at least nine other director level staff members, six veterinarians, at least 11 manager level staff members and at least 19 coordinator/lead staff members.

Many members who wrote letters of complaints in this compilation were fired out of claimed “wrongful termination” or resigned due to Hall’s leadership.

Nicole Theodoulou, the previous Director of Marketing and Communications at NHS, is one of the complaints who discusses “wrongful termination” as the reason for her departure.

In December, Theodoulou said Hall verbally informed her she would be promoted to Chief Marketing Officer and given a $2,000 annual raise. The following day of return, Theodoulou was fired.

“Upon returning from having taken one flex day off (a standard practice for overtime worked) I was immediately terminated for ‘incorrectly utilizing the time keeping system’ to track this flex day off,” Theodoulou wrote. “Greg Hall personally instructed me and the entire marketing and events team in March of 2022 not to utilize the official timekeeping system (Paycom) for flex days as our team was given special permission to use flex days outside of the pay period the overtime was worked.”

Theodoulou said they kept track of their flex days in their personal Outlook calendars and via email with managers. She claims she was terminated for doing what she was requested and that the issue she’d been terminated for had never been discussed with her.

Animal Care

According to the independent assessment of NHS that is required by contract with Washoe County, the society “lacks standards for sanitation, animal care, stress reduction and enrichment for all animals, humane animal handling, professionalism, courtesy, staff training, customer service, adoption follow-up, OSHA best practices and many other areas essential to shelter operations.”

A complaint by a recently resigned staff member who started work at NHS in August 2022 and left in April of 2023, said he did not have any background in animal care when he worked as a Kennel Technician and as the Dog Foster Coordinator. The previous staff member explains that this is a “common and problematic” issue with the NHS — hiring people without animal care experience.

In other letters of concern, many volunteers and staff members of NHS have written letters specifically talking about the high percentage of dogs who are on Gabapentin or Trazadone, which according to some can be dangerous for dogs.

Unvaccinated animals were also a focus of concern for staff and community members since shelters have specific requirements about taking in animals that need to be vaccinated. When 170 cats in the Reno facility had not received basic vaccines last fall, a Panleukopenia disease outbreak occurred in Reno that killed many cats and closed down cat admissions into shelters.

Lack of Transparency

The main areas of concern in the letters covered the NHS’s failure to publish “clear and comprehensive” animal information and data for the public, the lack of a “transparent process” during Hall’s hiring — which was given to him without a national search or a formal process of hiring according to the complaints — and failure to properly utilize grant and donor funding “in accordance to guidelines.”

Many complaints were also angry with the the lack of action by the NHS board presidents since they were supposedly “made aware of widespread concerns about Mr. Hall in November 2019 and again in January 2020.”

Looking forward

As a result of Hall leaving and the new interim, Bryant, starting in-person on May 23, NHS will begin staff rebuilding and work to reestablish trust with the community.

“Everything our team does is to benefit the animals who need our help in this community,” NHS said in their statement made in a communication with their donors. “We appreciate the area’s continued support as it is especially critical at this time.”

According to a source close to the organization, the board wishes to reiterate that Carson City operations are continuing, and encourages the public to remember there are still many animals in need of a loving, supportive home. To date, the board has taken the following actions:

• Installed interim CEO, Jerleen Bryant, on Monday, May 15. Bryant was the former CEO of the Maui Humane Society and is the founder of All For Dogs Rescue, an animal shelter in Redmond, Oregon.
• With the interim CEO installed, the board is now preparing to launch a national search for a permanent CEO.
• Approved an ad-hoc bylaw committee to review and, if necessary, adjust the Nevada Humane Society bylaws as necessary per state and federal guidelines.
• Created an email that goes directly to all board members at the same time so that any individual may provide information or share concerns directly to the board of directors. That email is nevadahumanesocietyboard@gmail.com.
• Inviting and evaluating additional board members who bring diverse experience and talent to the organization’s governing body.

"The board is excited to fully support Ms. Bryant’s endeavors as she takes the reins and leadership of Nevada Humane Society, and continues their success of achieving the nonprofit’s mission," they said.