Meet The Team!
This is your Team section. It's a great place to introduce your team and talk about what makes it special, such as your culture and work philosophy. Don't be afraid to illustrate personality and character to help users connect with your team.
Meet the Dedicated Rescue Leadership Team!
Get to know the passionate individuals who volunteer their time to support the Rescue Program.
Chelsea Clarke
Renee Schmidt
Melissa Cooper
Meet Chelsea! Chelsea joined COPAW as the Rescue Director in July 2024. She has been passionate about animals since she was a little girl and cannot remember a time that she has ever lived without one kind of critter or another. She is also passionate about giving back to the community and has been volunteering with non-profit organizations for the past 10 years, dabbling in a variety of different interests - with the most profound impacts in animal rescue and sexual assault/domestic violence advocacy. Chelsea prides herself in her organizational skills, streamlining internal processes, and building lasting relationships with foster homes.
Chelsea resides in Syracuse, New York with a full-time career in Emergency Management. She is also a Registered Medicolegal Death Investigator and holds advanced graduate degrees in Forensic Science and Homeland Security from Syracuse University and Penn State, respectively.
Chelsea and her husband, Frank, share their home with their 6 dogs (ranging from ages 3-15 years!), 3 cats, 4 mudskippers, and 1 turtle. Locally, Chelsea serves as a foster for Friends Forever Animal Rescue and as a volunteer for Fixing To Help.
Meet Renee! Renee joined COPAW in late 2024 after many years of fostering and volunteering with other organizations around the state. Renee took on the Adoptions Coordinator role in August 2025 as a way to further give back to the organization. She works as a dog walker for Social Paws and you can find her on the game day promotions teams for the Cleveland Monsters and Cleveland Browns. Renee runs her own company, Doggy I Do, where she assists couples who want to include their dogs in their weddings. She also serves as a board member of Friends of Cuyahoga County Animal Shelter and is a volunteer dog walker for the shelter. In her free time Renee enjoys reading, trying new mocktails and taking vet tech classes.
A self-described “notorious foster failure" (which is a personality trait I’m not working on...) Renee lives in Brooklyn, Ohio with her husband, 10 dogs, 2 cats and whichever foster dog is currently calling their house "home".