Board Members
Cathy von Haartman, Founder and Executive Director
Cathy is an elementary school teacher in Seattle, Washington. Her dog, a beagle named Bailey, was Dr. Sullivan's second transplant dog, April 2006, who along with Comet is the inspiration for this charity. Students at her school, the Art from the Heart Kids, meet with her weekly to make paper quilt wall hangings, and draw portraits of people's pets for donations to Comet's Tale. She is in the process of writing a book about Comet's and Bailey's ground breaking cancer treatment for pets, a stem cell transplant performed by Dr. Edmund Sullivan. She has four grown children and is kept busy tending to her Beagle family.
Sally Iritani, DVM, PhD
Sally is a veterinarian who specializes in the care and maintenance of research animals. She attended Veterinary School at Iowa State University and received her laboratory animal certification and PhD in Environmental Toxicology from the University of Washington. Sally works in the academic and biotechnology industry providing regulatory oversight of animal programs. She is very interested in seeing therapies that have been developed and extrapolated for humans applied to care for pets. She lives in Seattle with her husband, Brian, also a veterinarian, and their three children.
Linda McVay,CCS
Linda has always loved dogs and began working with them in 1990. After graduating from the first Canine Studies Program she was awarded a full scholarship to the San Francisco Academy of Dog Training. She soon found herself as manager and head trainer at SDW. She is full member of the APDT and looks forward to taking the CPDT test. She continues to keep abreast of industry literature and attends seminars and lectures, as her busy schedule allows. Now embarking on her own venture, she looks forward to continuing to help people effectively communicate with their dogs at Seattle's own University Canine Learning Academy.
Andrea Stone, CCS
Andrea has been working with and training dogs for 15 years, including being owner/breeder/handler to multiple champion dogs. She finished the highly regarded Canine Studies Program taught by Cristine Dahl as valedictorian and has made the commitment to share her enthusiasm and talent by helping people and their dogs live and learn harmoniously together. Andrea brings to University Canine Learning Academy a wealth of hands-on knowledge and a strong desire to strengthen a healthy bond between people and dogs.
Martha Marian
Martha Marian is Vice President of Acquisitions at Kennedy and Associates Real Estate Counsel in Seattle, WA. She received a BA in business administration with an emphasis in accounting from the University of Washington. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Washington Society of Certified Public Accountants. She and her husband, Gabriel, share their lives with their three grown children, grandchildren, and of course, pets.
Veterinarians
Dr. Edmund Sullivan, DVM
Dr. Sullivan, attended Montana State University where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology in 1981. He received his Doctor in Veterinary Medicine in 1986 from Oregon State University. Dr. Sullivan and his wife, Theresa Westfall, also a veterinarian, operated a small clinic on Orcas Island, Washington, before moving to Bellingham, Washington where Bellingham Veterinary and Critical Care is located.
Concerns including lack of twenty-four hour care for sick and injured pets, insufficient blood products for dogs and cats in need of transfusions, and poor outcomes for pets suffering from cancer motivated Dr. Sullivan to offer twenty-four hour veterinary care and to establish the Northwest Veterinary Blood Bank in 2001 which is the only volunteer blood bank for pets in Western Washington. Blood and blood products are sent out daily to pets in need in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
For the past six years Dr. Sullivan has been partnering with cancer research centers, universities, and others to develop new cancer treatment protocols for pets including stem cell transplants, anti-cancer vaccines, and novel chemotherapy drugs.
Dr. Sullivan and Dr. Westfall live in Bellingham with their three daughters and two dogs.
Dr. Patrick Gavin, DVM, PhD
Dr. Gavin, graduated from Washington State University with a Doctor in Veterinary Medicine in 1971. He was state certified by the American College of Veterinary Radiology in radiology and radiation oncology in 1981. He began his work in MRI in 1986. For twenty-two years Dr. Gavin was on the faculty at Washington State University as a professor and served as chair of the Department of Clinical Sciences. He retired from the university in 2008. Recently he formed MR VETS, Inc, a consulting company that provides diagnostic services to veterinary MRI centers.