Kevin Corcoran

President

Kevin joined the Summit Board of Directors in 2017 and assumed the role of President in 2020. Kevin is an AVP- Washington Sales and Account Services at Providence Health Plan. Prior to his current role, Kevin was the Regional Sales Director with PacificSource Health Plans. He has also served as the Director of Sales and Account Management for United Healthcare in the states of Washington, Alaska, and Montana. In this role, he was responsible for the under-100 employee market and associations and trust clients. 

Tracy Doering

Vice President

Tracy has been an ardent volunteer for Summit since 2015, initially through Microsoft’s Giving Campaign events. She joined Summit’s Board of Directors in 2018 and continues to passionately support Summit in its mission. Tracy has been employed at Microsoft since 1996 and is a Senior Paralegal in Microsoft’s Corporate, External, & Legal Affairs group. She worked at Perkins Coie prior to joining Microsoft and has over 35 years’ experience in the legal industry. Prior to her involvement with Summit, she was Vice Present of the Orange County Paralegal Association in Newport Beach, CA, a board member of the Denny Creek Neighborhood Alliance that preserved and maintained the greenspaces and waterways in the Finn Hill neighborhood of Kirkland, and President of the Kirkland Off Leash Dog Group that lobbied for, funded and built Jasper’s Dog Park. Tracy has had a lifelong love of dogs, having shared her home with many beloved canine family members throughout her life. She and her husband, Haris, live in Redmond with their Siberian huskies.

Stephanie Drenchen

Treasurer

Stephanie is a Principal Software Engineering Manager at Microsoft. After graduating from the University of Washington with a degree in Computer Science in 2002, she has spent over 16 years working at Microsoft on products such as System Center, Cortana, and Windows Search. She joined manufacturing startup Bright Machines in late 2018 as a Senior Director, building a team of software engineers and scientists working on building intelligent industrial robots. She returned to Microsoft in 2022 and currently leads an engineering team within Industry Clouds and Solutions.  Her involvement with Summit started through the Microsoft Giving campaign, and she raised a puppy in 2011 through the Summit program. She is a proud Summit supporter and hopes that others will join her by empowering people with disabilities to greater heights. 

Chris Blanchard

Chris Blanchard has been involved with Summit since receiving his first service dog, Ben, from Summit in 2004. Chris now has his successor dog, Griffin, beside him as he continues to be a great ambassador for our agency. 

Chris brings his experience as a client, combined with his professional experience as a drafter / designer at Dale Chihuly Studio to contribute to the board, especially as we move forward into our next phase with the creation of our new facility. He is also co-founder of Pinwheel Corporation and the former owner of Blanchard Construction. 

Michael Hughes

Elected to the Board of Directors in 2015, Michael is a Senior Portfolio Manager with Northern Trust. Prior to joining Northern Trust in 2019, Mr. Hughes was the Chief Investment Officer at Cornerstone Advisors Inc.. In his role of Chief Officer, Michael was directly accountable for managing and directing the investment team in traditional and non-traditional global manager research and selection, asset allocation and risk management. His involvement with Summit stretches back over a dozen years, when he referred a very good friend to Summit to get his first mobility service dog. Mike and his wife Sally live in Mill Creek with their Summit career-change Labrador, Kelly.

Meg Jones

Meg is the Regional Director of Government Relations for PacificSource Health Plans, where she serves Washington’s newest commercial nonprofit community health plan through legislative and regulatory advocacy and community engagement leadership. Meg has a wealth of leadership and legislative experience, gained over many years of service in both corporate and nonprofit sectors. 

Leslie O’Brien

Leslie became involved with Summit in 2016 and joined the board in 2020. Leslie is the Director of Channel Partnerships at One Medical, where she brings exceptional leadership, problem-solving, and client retention skills focused on building the foundation for a superior client experience. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two children. She enjoys choral singing, jogging, and spending time and traveling with her family. She is proud to support Summit's tremendous and impactful work. 

Carlene Schmelke

Carlene has been volunteering for Summit Assistance Dogs for the last 20 years.  She joined the Summit Board of Directors in 2023.  Carlene has been employed at IDEX Health & Science in Oak Harbor, WA for the last 15 years, currently as the Procurement Director.  IDEX Health & Science, LLC is the global leader in life science fluidics, microfluidics, and optics for analytical instruments and diagnostic instruments, including DNA Sequencers.  She currently leads a team of Buyers that supports engineering and manufacturing.  She has been in Supply Chain for the last 30 years.  Carlene has always had dogs of her own and shares her love of animals and helping others with her husband, David and their two dogs.

Kerri Villeneuve

Kerri is the Vice President of Growth for Optum Healthcare Company. She is a highly accomplished sales leader with a proven record for exceeding sales goals, building market share and increasing local market revenue. Kerri also has expert knowledge in disability training. She graduated from the University of Montana with a Bachelor of Education, Health and Human Performance and has been a board member for Pacific Northwest Insurance Council for 8 years. Kerri joined the Summit Board of Directors in 2024.

Thomas White

Secretary

Tom joined the Summit Board in 2022. He is a Senior Analyst with Cascade Asset Management Company, performing wide-ranging analyses on institutional and high net worth investment portfolios. He brings a great depth of experience in financial and performance management, gained over 16 years of working in the field. Tom is also a member of the Journal of Performance Measurement Advisory Board.

Sue Meinzinger

Founder & Executive Director

Sue’s love of animals started in early childhood. She trained her first dog at nine years of age and through this early experience developed a life-long interest in animal training. Sue spent many years first training horses, then later moving on to train dogs professionally. An entrepreneur at heart, she started and managed a couple of small businesses, including her own pet dog training business. When introduced to the concept of service dogs in the late 1990’s, Sue was intrigued and inspired by the thought of using her skills to make a difference in the lives of people. After graduating from The Assistance Dog Institute in Santa Rosa, where she gained an education in training assistance dogs for people living with disabilities, she founded Summit Assistance Dogs. She has served as the Executive Director of Summit Assistance Dogs since its founding in 2000 and she remains very enthusiastic and committed to her life’s calling.

Alli Paul

Associate Director

Alli and her family have called Whidbey Island home for the past 24 years.  Prior to joining Summit in April of 2024, Alli was a long time L&D Nurse.  She served the community as a volunteer for non-profits in positions such as board member, founder, and in philanthropic roles.  Alli’s experience with animals is through their family pets, where she delved into agility, blind retrieving, K9 search & rescue, and even their chickens are whistle trained.  With her role as a mom of two teenage daughters now shifting toward an empty nest, Alli spends her spare time volunteering as a K9 handler for Island County Department of Emergency Management, as an air scent resource in a search and rescue capacity. 

Rita Cooper

Administrative Manager and Dog Adoption Coordinator

Rita joined Summit in 2008 after relocating to the PNW from the Midwest. She brings with her a lifelong love of dogs, an understanding of how they positively impact our lives, and over 20 years of experience as an office manager with GE Commercial Finance and Deloitte and Touche. Summit is a perfect fit for her, encompassing her skills and passion to help better the lives of others. Rita and her husband share their home with three dogs (two of which are Summit released dogs) and one cat. She enjoys kayaking, hiking, playing with her dogs, and traveling.

Lindy Langum

Trainer

Lindy started out in the marine animal training and husbandry field after graduating from college, beginning with clicker training fish, then sea turtles and all the way to dolphins. In 2009 she moved to the Pacific Northwest and decided to stay when she rescued a dog who presented many behavioral challenges but gave her the perfect reason to learn more about canine behavior. She graduated from the Northwest School of Canine Studies in 2010 and has been training and helping people build better bonds with dogs since. Lindy started out as a volunteer teaching the Seattle area Summit foster home classes in 2016 and has now become a staff instructor and trainer at Summit Assistance Dogs.

Melissa Mitchell

Client Support Specialist

Melissa joined Summit’s training staff in the fall of 2015, which is also when she received Tanner, her second Summit mobility dog.  She received Shiloh, her first Summit mobility dog, in 2007.  Tanner is now sort of an “adjunct” staff member, since he is always with Melissa and can help other potential service dogs learn by example.  Tanner does such things as pick up dropped items, open and close doors, turn lights on and off and other things for which Melissa, who has Cerebral Palsy, would need help from a human. Prior to joining Summit’s staff, Melissa ran a community inclusion and employment program for adults with developmental disabilities.

Jen Walker

Client Services Coordinator

Jen’s background serving pets and people started twenty years ago in animal sheltering. She has extensive experience in community education, companion animal behavior and training, volunteer coordination, and program management. She is a certified dog trainer, has coached handler-trained Service Dogs teams, created humane education programs, and partnered in juvenile justice and animal sheltering projects. Jen is devoted to continuing her education through webinars and in-person coursework, voracious reading, and learning from those she works with daily. “Any day I haven’t learned something from the dogs, is a day I haven’t been paying enough attention!” 

Heather Anderson

Kennel Manager

Heather was born and raised on Whidbey Island and began volunteering with Summit in late 2020 as a puppy raiser. Heather joined the Summit staff in summer 2021 as the weekend Kennel Technician and Puppy Raising Program Assistant. Heather loved having pet dogs growing up and raised and trained her current dog, Ita, who is now beloved by all in her family. Heather always had dreams of working with animals or helping people and is thrilled to be a part of the Summit team to help create life-changing service dog partnerships and continue her own canine training education.

Kat LaRue

Puppy Raising Program Coordinator

Kat LaRue is from Kayenta, Arizona, and grew up on the Navajo Reservation. She recently moved to Whidbey Island after living in Portland, Oregon for the past 10 years, where she spent five years working at the Oregon Humane Society. During her time working in the shelter, she facilitated hundreds of successful pet adoptions and saw the huge need for service dogs of all kinds in her community. Particularly passionate about canine behavior and body language, Kat is on a mission to use that knowledge to strengthen the bond between people of all backgrounds and their canine companions. Kat is also a published writer and spends her free time writing poetry and nonfiction, when not exploring Whidbey Island with her own dogs, Ruby and Opal.

Mark Bunje

Facilities Project Manager

Mark joined the Summit staff in 2014 as Facilities Project Manager, after volunteering for many months conducting feasibility studies during Summit’s search for a property. He retired from the Shoreline, WA Fire Department as their Fire Chief in June 2013, after serving the Shoreline community for more than 25 years. Mark’s background also includes 20 years as a general contractor and a degree in marine engineering.