Making a Difference

One dog at a time

Our Mission:

In many areas of the country, especially in the South, the situation for animals is desperate:   Chained outside and starving, homeless and running loose, or just simply no longer wanted and abandoned in an overburdened and underfunded facility that can’t possibly take another.  For these animals, there is not much hope…except to look in the night sky for the North Star, their only way out.  We are a group of passionate volunteers committed to saving these innocent dogs and finding them a new forever home. NorthStar Pet Rescue was founded in 2017, and although we might be a relatively new name among New Jersey animal rescues, you may recognize some of us from the work we’ve done volunteering with other rescues to help animals over the past decade. We are 100% dedicated to operating in a safe, transparent, and ethical manner, and to ensuring the best veterinary practices are followed with regards to the care and transport of our animals. NorthStar Pet Rescue is IRS 501(c)(3) charitable organization (EIN: 81-5348036).

Operational Transparency

NorthStar Pet Rescue, founded in October 2017, has achieved the GOLD certification level from GuideStar!  GuideStar is the world’s largest source of information on nonprofit organizations. More than 8 million visitors per year and a network of 200+ partners use GuideStar data to grow support for nonprofits.  View NorthStar’s GuideStar Profile for more information.

NorthStar Pet Rescue Board of Directors

Our Board of Directors, listed below, sets the overall policy and goals of the rescue, as well as volunteering for various functions like fundraising and administrative activities. But the true heart and soul of our rescue are our volunteers and fosters. Won’t you consider joining our cause by volunteering and/or fostering a dog?

Tammy Probst-Smith

Tammy is the President and founder of NorthStar Pet Rescue.

After her beloved dog Trent passed away in 2007, Tammy was devastated and seeking an outlet for her grief.   She decided to spend some time volunteering to help a local animal rescue, Eleventh Hour Rescue, at local adoption events.  It only took one event before she was forever hooked!  Over the next ten years, Tammy spent nearly all of her spare time volunteering with Eleventh Hour, eventually becoming foster coordinator and then working to help the rescue source dogs for adoption.  A single chance contact with a Great Pyrenees in Texas that needed help slowly grew into a network of volunteers and rescue organizations in Texas that needed help that Tammy could provide by locating homes for dogs that otherwise wouldn’t have a chance.  In 2017 Tammy decided to follow her heart and found her own rescue, NorthStar Pet Rescue.  Tammy assembled an experienced and enthusiastic board of directors to guide the organization through it’s founding and growth.  By day, Tammy is a legal secretary at a local law firm, and most of her spare time and weekends are spent volunteering to help animals.

Jeff Smith

Jeff is a founder of NorthStar Pet Rescue and serves as Vice President/Secretary.  Jeff is an Information Technology Consultant for Springfield Clinic LLP and is responsible for maintaining the NorthStar website, back end administrative systems, linkages to adoption sites, and provides other operational support to the rescue.

Colleen Cunningham

Colleen Cunningham is a founding board member and treasurer of NorthStar Pet Rescue.

Colleen  is an internationally recognized expert on corporate financial reporting and accounting. Colleen is currently the Senior Vice President and Corporate Controller for Zoetis, Inc.  Zoetis is a global animal health company, delivering quality medicines and vaccines, diagnostic products for livestock and companion animals.

Colleen has frequently been named as one of the top 100 influential people in finance by Treasury & Risk Management magazine, one of the top 100 influential people in accounting by Accounting Today, and one of the 60 top influencers in finance by Business Finance.  She spent several years as a member of the standards advisory committees of both the FASB and the IASB.  She has appeared as a subject matter expert on several financial related television shows.

She writes and speaks frequently on accounting and finance topics having served as a  columnist for Compliance Weekly and sits on the Advisory Committee to Pennsylvania State University’s Accounting Department. Colleen earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and an MBA in Management from New York University’s Stern School of Business, where she was a Stern Scholar.

She, her husband and five adult children have been active in animal rescue for the last 12 years, having fostered several hundred dogs over the years, and having previously served as fundraising chair, foster chair and Treasurer for an animal rescue organization.

Dana Delger

Dana M. Delger is a founding board member of NorthStar Pet Rescue.

Dana is a graduate of Columbia Law School and New York University. She is currently an attorney at a non-profit, where she is focused on improving the quality of forensic science used in criminal ​proceedings​. Dana previously worked as a public defender and as a white-collar criminal defense attorney. She lives in New York City with her husband, Daniel, and their rescue dog, Bryce.

Tracy “Tray” Hubler McCauley

Tray McCauley officially joined the board of NorthStar in 2020. Tray is a founding volunteer with NorthStar and has been involved in every aspect of the day to day operations of the rescue since it’s inception. Tray’s primary responsibility is maintaining NorthStar’s first class social media presence on Facebook and Instagram. She also heads up our Annual Super 50/50 Raffle which grows bigger every year.

Tray began her rescue work in March 2011 after adopting her first rescue pup, Pippa. Forever changed by the experience, she knew she needed to do something to help animals in need and she never looked back, now spending most of her spare time and weekends volunteering to help animals in need.

A licensed Realtor, Tray is also the Office Administrator at a leading commercial real estate brokerage, consulting and property management firm.

When not working tirelessly to share the NorthStar love, Tray likes to spend time with her husband, family and friends… plus cuddle with her two rescue pups Tink and Pippa, of course!