Laura Pople, PhD
Executive Director, Founder
Laura Pople, Executive Director of Seer Farms, is a long time community activist and leader. Born in Pittsburgh, Pople came to New Jersey for graduate school, receiving her PhD from Rutgers in Applied Social Psychology. Her background perfectly suited her for an editorial career in Higher Education Publishing, helping transition the field to the Digital Age.

Always passionate about social justice, Pople was at the helm of several volunteer community groups through the 90’s, founding one that she still leads to this day. In 2005, following Hurricane Katrina, she joined the American Red Cross as a Disaster Relief Worker, and ran a shelter for Katrina and Hurricane Rita evacuees in Deep East Texas. What a difference it made when I was able to facilitate the opening of an animal shelter for the animals making the journey from the Gulf Coast with their owners as Hurricane Rita approached.

By mid-2008, the news stories about the economic crisis and the specific disaster of foreclosure pets pointed Pople in her current direction. The grief and trauma that these families – and in fact all families going through life crises – were experiencing, compounded by the difficult decisions they had to make about their beloved animal companions, underscored a clear problem to be solved. Pople founded Seer Farms, a community service organization that provides temporary care to the animals of families in crisis, to help these families recover their self-sufficiency and reunite with their pets. Pople’s innovative work with Seer Farms was recognized by People Magazine in their “Heroes Among Us” series in 2010.

Immediately following Superstorm Sandy, Pople joined other non-profit activists in Ocean County to found the Ocean County Long Term Recovery Group, serving on the Board of Directors of that group for two years. Continuing her service to Ocean County in the areas of disaster preparedness and advocacy for pet owners, Pople was appointed Director of the Ocean County Animal Response Team in 2015.

Chris Velasco
Chris Velasco is a Product Manager at Merrill Lynch and has been a volunteer at Seer Farms since July, 2009.  Shortly after Seer Farms opened its doors in Jackson, Chris saw an article of our facility and what our mission was.   Chris and her son began to volunteer as dog walkers on Saturdays but it quickly turned into a full-weekend activity.  

Chris grew up in a family that had pets and learned how to train and discipline without harsh punishment.  Adding Oscar to her own small family in 2005, helped her son learn how to be a responsible pet owner and how much a pet relies on its owner.  In March 2010, Chris was asked if she could foster an animal at Seer Farms that was not adapting well to being apart from his owner.   He fit right into the routine and family life.  Angus joined the family permanently after a difficult decision made by the owner to surrender him.  Chris also took in Bear after an owner surrender in 2014 and Brooke, a dog from a hoarding situation in 2015. 

Chris is a very community-minded person and has volunteered in many organizations throughout her home town.   She has served as President of the West Freehold School PTO, Vice President of the Clifton T Barkalow School PTO, as Coach for 6 years with Freehold Recreation Soccer, CCD teacher at St Roberts of Bellarmine, Secretary of the Freehold Township Band Parents Organization and is currently Secretary of the Freehold Township Heritage Society. However, she is devoted to her work at Seer Farms and the animals she interacts with.   Chris becomes their family during a time when their family cannot care for them or visit.    She gives each animal the attention and affection they are looking for.  She also enjoys leading visitors on tours of the Jackson facility and educating them on what we do and how they can help and coordinates volunteer group activities at the Jackson site.  

Former Members
A huge debt of gratitude is owed to the original founding members of the Seer Farms board of directors, who believed in the mission of Seer Farms and got the project underway.

More information available here.