Administrative advisor still working with local shelter 1 year after evaluation

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) – In July 2023, the Washington County/Johnson City Animal Shelter Board asked local organization Summit Leadership to evaluate ways the shelter could improve.

In August 2023, Brooks Blair was recommended to the board to become an administrative advisor for six months. Almost a year later, Blair is still working with the shelter to continue improving their day-to-day operations.

“We realized that there’s a lot of things that we want to do to make the shelter the best it can be,” said Blair.

The shelter’s executive director, Tammy Davis, said the decision to bring Summit in came from a desire to better serve the animals.

“We know no business, no company is completely perfect,” said Davis. “And having an outside person come in and kind of analyze everything with us, figure out what we were doing well and what areas we need to improve. We knew that we weren’t perfect, and we welcomed any feedback that we could get.”

When Blair joined the team, she realized the work was going to last longer than the six months that she was initially brought on for.

“What we’ve wanted to do, why I’m still here, is looking at taking everything down to the studs,” said Blair. “Doing the research, looking for best practices, which was a part of the goals that the board had for my role here.”

Part of Blair’s job includes helping determine the best policies and procedures for the shelter, which Davis said will help improve the shelter’s operations.

“Now we have these policies and procedures in place,” said Davis. “We can go to these policies and procedures, and it kind of takes out someone’s opinion. We can say ‘This is the best practice, this is what we’re doing.'”

Blair told News Channel 11 she stayed longer than intended due to the need to continue building a lasting foundation for the shelter to operate on.

“We wanted to continue to make things sustainable,” said Blair. “Create a foundation where we can continue to build on it. So when I’m no longer here, it wasn’t just an opportunity that was great for six months; it actually lasted after I’m gone.”

Blair said she will continue to work part-time with the shelter for the next three months.

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