Our Story
MHCR was founded in November 2019, by three rescue veterans Jenni Stienike, Jen Dudley and Kailey Blackman. They believed dog rescue needed to be more than just pulling dogs from shelters. It is about preventing that dog from being there in the first place. They created a Full Circle Rescue to do just that.
Board of Directors
Jenni Stienike
President, Executive Director & Co-Founder
Jenni Stienike, Mile High Canine Rescue Executive Director, lives with her husband and two children in Mead, CO. Her love of Mastiffs is what brought her into animal rescue in 2014 when she began volunteering with a giant breed rescue. Jenni quickly found her niche within the rescue world. In her leadership role, she’s helping to grow the rescue and its impact in the community. At MHCR, Jenni oversees the day-to-day rescue operations, including volunteers and foster homes, intake, health management, transport, and marketing. Jenni married her high school sweetheart, Tyler, in August of 2000. She graduated from CSU in 2001 with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in accounting. Her professional career is in oil and gas where she has worked for the same company since 2001. She enjoys spending time with her two children, Hayden (19) and Hayley (17), both of whom share her love for animals. When not working on dog rescue, you’ll find Jenni and her family lounging in their backyard with their dogs and their mini farm of chickens and turkeys.
Kailey Blackman
Vice President & Co-Founder
Kailey Blackman, Mile High Canine Rescue Vice President, found her calling for fostering in rescue after being a sole provider and caretaker for Doc, her stepdad who lost his battle with cancer in 2017. Once where a hole was is now filled with fostering and running a dog rescue! Kailey handles applicants, application processing, marketing, foster support, and pulling dogs for rescue. These days she can be found fostering ferocious littles and those dogs who are often overlooked. At MHCR every life matters, especially those that have been passed by for far too long. Kailey’s love for aggressive pups started with Tony, a terrier who enjoyed biting humans in his free time. He lived to be 19 years old and for her every dog saved is in his honor! She lives in Englewood, CO with her pitties and feisty little terriers! Most days are filled with friends, family, and an abundance of dogs, except when working as a partner at her real estate and property management company in Denver.
Jen Dudley
Secretary/Treasurer & Co-Founder
Jen Dudley, Mile High Canine Rescue’s Secretary & Treasurer, lives in Castle Rock, Colorado with her husband and four children. Jen started fostering for a local puppy rescue in 2014 when she and her family were looking for another dog to join them. From there, fostering became a way of life and she started fostering adult dogs and dogs with behavioral issues. At MHCR, Jen provides pre and post adoption behavioral and training support and handles accounting and financials, email marketing, business filings, and the outreach programs (including the spay and neuter clinic relationships). In her non-rescue life, she obtained a B.S. of Marketing Management from Park University and is an Army National Guard veteran. She owns a boutique software engineering staffing firm. She is married to Erik Tappenbeck and they have four children – Alexis (20), Kiersten (18), Kora (6), and Ewan (3). Jen has three dogs – Grizzly, Lolo and Raven. For fun, Jen and her family enjoy a domestic and international travel, skiing, mountain biking, and are major foodies. Jen has completed the State of Colorado Nonprofit Board Member Course on 6.8.2021.
Administrative Volunteers
Sharon Siegel
Sharon has been with Mile High Canine Rescue since the beginning and couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. Sharon’s rescue journey began in August 2018 when she wanted to give more dogs a better life after having many wonderful years with her own rescue dogs. She currently has a pit bull who is a great mama dog to her small dog fosters. Prior to joining MHCR, she worked with rescues whose values and missions weren’t truly focused on the dogs in their care. At MHCR, she discovered the health, safety, and happiness of the dogs really mattered and the whole team shared the same core values. Sharon helps with maintaining the website, helps process applications, answers emails, creates and manages medical records, and tracks home checks. Sharon works as the Head of Class Operations for an online coding school and uses her tech skills to keep things running smoothly and efficiently on the admin side of the rescue.
Mandy Kauffman
Mandy lives in Laramie, WY, and has been a volunteer with Mile High Canine Rescue since January 2020. She started with home visits, has fostered a few pups, including one foster failure, and now also helps with reviewing applications a couple days per week. Outside of MHCR, Mandy is data manager for the Dog Aging Project and is a co-owner and instructor at a dog training school. In her spare time, she can be found running trails or getting into other mischief with her pack of huskies (aka The Poopertons), spending quality time with her Kindle, or playing with her strongman implements. She volunteers because she loves dogs and believes investing time with MHCR is a valuable and effective way to help less fortunate dogs.
Alexa Callahan
Alexa joined Mile Hile High Canine Rescue in March 2020 after fostering and volunteering for several other rescues. As an MHCR volunteer, Alexa fosters small dogs of any age and especially loves senior dogs. She also manages medical records and helps keep applications moving along by tracking home checks and communicating with adopters. Alexa loves fostering because of the joy and love the amazing dogs bring to her home. She enjoys being part of a community of people who share her love for dogs and feels honored to be a part of a family who will pour their hearts into helping dogs find their best life. She loves MHCR’s mission to give back to the community and to help with overpopulation/strays through spaying and neutering dogs across the country. For work, Alexa is a database engineer at Charles Schwab. She enjoys going for walks and hikes, traveling, spending time with dogs and family, and playing board games.
Kari Dale
Kari joined the Mile High Canine Rescue team as a foster mom in 2019 and fostered for a year and a half before moving out of state. Now she works full time at a tattoo studio in South Carolina but stays involved with MHCR by answering adoption inquiry emails and processing adoption applications in her free time. When she’s not working or helping to rescue dogs, Kari can be found snuggled up with a book, creating chaos with her daughter, and spending time with her own dogs. Kari volunteers because she believes that every dog deserves a loving home and every loving home deserves a dog
Emily Rolfe
Emily has worked in dog rescue for about eight years and joined Mile High Canine Rescue in February 2020 when she saw MHCR’s post about the need for foster homes related to pending lockdowns. Since that first MHCR foster, she has been helping with administrative tasks, such as responding to emails, processing adoption applications, and helping to manage the MHCR Volunteers and Fosters Facebook group. She still fosters and her favorite fosters are ones who are shut down and need time to heal. She studied behavior modification in college and is drawn to dogs who need behavioral help. When she’s not volunteering with MHCR, she works as an Agile Coach and follows her passion through working on her small farm with donkeys (Monica and Chandler), chickens, cats, and dogs. She hopes to add sheep and cows in the near future.
Kelsey Harmon
Kelsey was introduced to the rescue world in 2017 when she and her husband rescued their english bulldog, Groot. Since then, Kelsey has volunteered with MHCR conducting house checks, transporting dogs and fostering. Kelsey also assists in application processing and adoption events. Professionally, she works as a project manager for a construction management company and enjoys spending time with her now two english bulldogs and senior chihuahua. She’s an avid sports fan and enjoys attending sporting events. She volunteers because she believes every dog deserves a home and bright future, no matter what the circumstances are.
Hallie Urdahl
Trish Sizemore
Cynthia Martinez
Cynthia has been with Mile High Canine Rescue since February 2021 and can’t imagine doing anything else. Cynthia has always had a love for animals and has been involved with several volunteer agencies. When she started working from home, she decided that fostering dogs would be her next volunteer experience. Since then, she has fostered and found homes for 29 dogs and had 10 other visiting fosters. Fairly quickly, Cynthia started helping with volunteer events, conducting and managing home checks, and helps to manage the flow of applications. Her partner even helps with transporting dogs too. She has three dogs of her own, one of which she rescued from MHCR. She works full-time, enjoys mountain/road biking, climbing, yoga, and pilates “in her spare time.” Saving dogs has become a passion for Cynthia.
