Phyllis Matsuura

Phyllis Matsuura will join the Humane Society Silicon Valley to oversee complex projects such as helping the shelter meet the Association of Shelter Veterinarians Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters.

“Encore made me comfortable leaving my corporate life. I learned about an industry I had no knowledge in, and now I’m at the heart of operations for an organization whose mission I so passionately support. I love coming to work…. I’ve never said that before. I offered my skills, which I had taken for granted and they were deeply appreciated.”

When Phyllis considered retiring from Hewlett Packard, after 34 years, the opportunity to undertake an Encore Fellowship as part of the retirement package and learn about transitioning to the nonprofit sector helped her make her decision. The Humane Society Silicon Valley (HSSV) needed someone to manage the complex project of meeting the Association of Shelter Veterinarians Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters, a match with her skills.

The ASV Guidelines were created to provide information that would help any animal welfare entity meet the physical, mental and behavioral needs of the animals in their care. Phyllis managed the work across the organization, keeping people on task, organizing the work and seeking process improvements, to meet the guidelines. “There are 543 guidelines from animal handling to feeding to public health to spay/neuter to even HVAC and sanitation.” Phyllis had a 543–line spreadsheet to manage the project and track each guideline! She had to ensure that HSSV would be able to show proof of compliance of all guidelines when they were audited.

“Everyone was on board and committed to meet the standards. It was truly a team effort tweaking our processes, training our staff, and writing lots of standard operating procedures. Since our leadership came from business, there was an openness to process improvement and a camaraderie that really helped.” The Humane Society Silicon Valley became the first shelter to meet these ASV Guidelines. Says Dr. Cristie Kamiya, Chief of Shelter Medicine, and her manager, “We are so grateful to Encore Fellowships. We couldn’t have done it without Phyllis’ project management skills.”

Another project that Phyllis took on was to oversee the implementation of a new shelter management system already in progress. Given her experience in IT, she was able to step back and examine each team’s requirements and create scenarios and test cases to ensure the software would meet their needs. After much testing, it became obvious that the system was not yet able to support the operations of the shelter, so the implementation was deferred. As
difficult as that decision was, it was the right one.

Phyllis continued on at HSSV after her fellowship ended. She works on projects such as IT implementations, PCI compliance, and operational process improvements.

“We love the concept of Encore Fellowships…it’s brought us some great people like Phyllis,” commented Yvonne Saucedo, VP Human Resources, Volunteer Programs and Humane Education.