LUKE ZUKOWSKI, Chair

Luke is an accomplished entrepreneur, researcher, and consultant with over twenty years of experience in market research, IT, and business development. He has a reputation as a critical thinker who excels in identifying opportunities, proactively managing risks, and devising creative solutions.

Luke has served on boards of directors, advisory boards, and change control boards. Through this work, he has gained valuable experience in fostering stakeholder consensus by translating complex visions into clear, achievable, and win-win objectives. Currently, Luke serves as the Chair of the Advisory Board for Cyber-Seniors, an international nonprofit organization that connects generations through technology to bridge the digital divide.

Luke holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree, as well as the Chartered Manager (C.Mgr) and Certified Analytics and Insights Professional (CAIP) designations. He is a member of the Canadian Institute of Management. Luke has been a VOKRA volunteer, along with his family, since 2014.

LEA TKATCH, VICE CHAIR

Lea has a deep-seated love for all animals but is especially passionate about kitties. She and her husband, Randy, have fostered more than 110 VOKRA cats and kittens. Lea says she volunteers with VOKRA because she is proud to be part of an organization that works tirelessly to rescue, care for, and find loving homes for the many in-need kitties. She began volunteering with VOKRA in 2016 and has worked on various teams, including two prior terms on the board, and has managed VOKRA’s finances since 2017.

Lea brings over 40 years of administrative experience working in the high-tech sector, providing senior executive-level support, office & personnel management, budget management, project and events. She is a strong team player who is resourceful, detail-oriented, diplomatic, and open-minded. Her positive attitude and tireless work ethic complement her organizational and leadership abilities. Lea is honoured to be once again serving on VOKRAs Board and to be able to continue working together with staff and volunteers cross-organizationally to ensure that the best possible decisions are made for the kitties in our care.

karen duncan, director at large

Karen and Maria Soroski founded VOKRA in 1999 with a mission to care for kittens that needed around-the-clock bottle feeding and treatment. With assistance and training from Dr. Brondwin at Arbutus West Animal Clinic, they were able to make their dream a reality and things grew from there.

Over the years, Karen has seen VOKRA expand with ever-growing teams of people who organize and share the work. She's thrilled the organization now has the Operations Centre, which has enough space to allow for safely housing incoming cats, storage, and all of VOKRA's volunteers. She's also proud of VOKRA's TNR program which has effectively eliminated the endless flow of tiny kittens from Vancouver streets.

maria soroski, director at large

Maria co-founded VOKRA with Karen Duncan in 1999, after years of volunteering with cats and kittens. While volunteering, Maria saw a desperate need to develop a holistic approach to cat and kitten care, as well as a TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) program in order to keep the feral and homeless cat population down.

After VOKRA’s inception, Maria’s dream started coming true. Local shelters were seeing a dramatic drop in feral cat and kitten numbers in Vancouver – something Maria is proud to have helped with. She paved the way with VOKRA’s founding values and continues to ensure that as a no-kill organization, the TNR program is one of the best in BC.

With a passion for giving homeless and feral cats a happy and healthy life, Maria always ensures VOKRA uses organic and nutritious food for all cats. With VOKRA keeping her busy, the former prairie gal loves to reward herself with time spent at home relaxing with her cats.

michael sheldrake, director at large

Michael is an avid foster of kittens and moms. With his wife, Viktoryia, he’s fostered more than 35 cats and kittens. He is also involved in learning the trapping process and is keen to become even more active in the organization.

Michael is a local RE/MAX agent and has plenty of experience from building his business over the past 12 years. He is also formally educated in sciences with a B.Sc from UBC. His strengths are problem-solving, transparency and communication.

shelley dowson, director at large

Shelley has volunteered for more than 12 years, since discovering VOKRA and adopting her two kitties Chookah and Ubu. She has volunteered for VOKRA in many capacities: as a foster coordinator, adoption interviewer, adoption contracts, surrenders, event coordinator, adoption event coordinator, and cat care. More recently, Shelley was instrumental in getting our Operations Centre up and running and she continues to coordinate building logistics.

During the day, Shelley works in the “not so real world“ of film and television, spending the past 25 years as a paint coordinator. As a result, she has been able to access materials that are to be recycled or she has been in the right place at the right time to receive that perfect item the Operations Centre needs. She can usually be found at Ops whenever she is not working, busily moving, or organizing things to run more smoothly for the volunteers.

MAIRI BUHLER, director at large

Mairi has been a volunteer with VOKRA since 2012 after adopting her beloved VOKRA cat Shadow. Mairi has held multiple volunteer roles within VOKRA including southlands volunteer and manager, driver, cat care, fundraising, trapping and socialization. Since 2023 she has been team lead for the socialization team. 

Mairi is deeply passionate about VOKRA's mission to end cat overpopulation and cat homelessness. She joins the board with 12 years of front line experience in helping VOKRA carry out their mission.

Mairi graduated from UBC with a Bachelor in Science in 2007. Since then she has been employed as a Registered Dietitian in a variety of areas within the public health care system and is currently employed as a Certified Diabetes Educator. She also worked as. a professional cat sitter from 2015-2019.

In her down time Mairi enjoys high-intensity interval training, cross stitching, listening to true crime podcasts, reading, travelling or spending time with her husband and three cats or close friends.