ST. GEORGE — Holly Sizemore has grown from a “traumatized” young woman interested in animal welfare to her current position as chief mission officer at Best Friends Animal Society.
But she didn’t get there by “doing it all.”
Sizemore has worked with the Kanab-based nonprofit for over 23 years. She was awarded Utah Business Magazine’s Chief Experience Officer of the Year in 2022, according to a news release issued by Best Friends.
“There are days where I adore it,” she told St. George News. “And there’s days where I don’t like it one bit. But net, it’s a very rewarding and wonderful career that I feel blessed to be able to be a part of.”
In the 1980s, Sizemore became disheartened by what she saw at her local animal shelter in Salt Lake City, which later led to her cofounding the Community Animal Welfare Society with Susan Allred in the early 90s.
“As a young person who just was really traumatized by what I saw in my local shelter, I wanted to do something about it,” she said.
The nonprofit focused on pet rescue and trap-neuter-return programs, in which cats are trapped, transported to a veterinarian, and sterilized before being returned to the area where they were found.
This was “very controversial at that time — we were considered criminals,” she said. Despite a previous Salt Lake County Animal Services director telling her he’d never condone trap and return programs, Sizemore said the shelter was the focus of “one of the best moments” of her career.
“I was in a giant cat suit next to a giant, life-sized, humane cat trap, doing a honk and wave at Salt Lake County Animal Services’ front lawn to celebrate our public-private partnership to do trap-neuter-return,” she said. “And so I got to be a small part of the transformation of Salt Lake County Animal Services, from being a place where most animals died and maybe just the lucky few got out alive to a place where they just recently celebrated 10 years of saving 90% or more of the animals coming into their care, which is the no-kill benchmark.”
“It took an incredible amount of vision and strategic thinking and leadership, and quite frankly, sometimes backlash and controversy,” Sizemore continued. “But that’s what makes me so grateful for Best Friends, is that they’ve been bold and brave enough to think in those terms. And I can tell you, as a young woman, I never, ever thought I would have the opportunity to play a small, tiny role in such a big transformation.”
Currently, nearly 88% of Utah’s shelters, including 100% of those in Iron and Washington counties, are no-kill, according to Best Friends. Of the state’s 57 shelters, 56 report this data to the nonprofit.
Sizemore continued her career in animal welfare, working at the Best Friends-spearheaded No More Homeless Pets in Utah and taking a job with Best Friends in 2010 as the nonprofit’s senior manager of Community Programs and Services, according to the nonprofit.
Still, she wasn’t “doing it all,” which she said is a myth that’s harmful to women.
“I finally got the opportunity to really make this my career in a way that I could actually pay the bills, and it was so all-consuming that I was like, ‘Well, there’s no way I can handle being a mother and doing this at the same time,'” Sizemore said, adding that while she has wistful moments, she believes she made the right decisions.
“They led me to where I am today,” she said.
Sizemore said while it can still be challenging for both men and women to find a work-life balance, with increased diversity and employer understanding, more women can begin their careers with “the expectation that they don’t have to make a choice between career or family.”
For Sizemore, her day-to-day work focuses on how she can help her teams succeed. And she and other leaders are thinking about how to open the door to more people from various racial and ethnic backgrounds and those who previously couldn’t afford to enter the field.
“We’re seeing more women in top leadership positions in animal welfare. … So now I think one of the biggest priveledges that we have as women is to now look at the next generation of diversity and see how we can open it up even more so that someday animal welfare represents, truly, the diversity that we see all throughout this country,” she said.
Photo Gallery
Best Friends Animal Society Chief Mission Officer Holly Sizemore cuddles with her cat, date and location not specified | Photo courtesy of Best Friends Animal Society, St. George News Best Friends Animal Society Chief Mission Officer Holly Sizemore speaks at a Best Friends National Conference, date and location not specified | Photo courtesy of Best Friends Animal Society, St. George News Best Friends Animal Society Chief Mission Officer Holly Sizemore (L) stands on stage at a Best Friends National Conference, date and location not specified | Photo courtesy of Best Friends Animal Society, St. George News Best Friends Animal Society Chief Mission Officer Holly Sizemore plays with a dog, date and location not specified | Photo courtesy of Best Friends Animal Society, St. George News Best Friends Animal Society Chief Mission Officer Holly Sizemore speaks at a Best Friends National Conference, date and location not specified | Photo courtesy of Best Friends Animal Society, St. George News Best Friends Animal Society Chief Mission Officer Holly Sizemore (R) speaks at a Best Friends National Conference, date and location not specified | Photo courtesy of Best Friends Animal Society, St. George News L-R: Trisha Yearwood and Holly Sizemore attend a pet food drive for Best Friend Animal Society's pet food pantry, where Yearwood donated $3,000, Salt Lake City, Utah, June 18, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Best Friends Animal Society, St. George News Holly Sizemore attends a pet food drive for Best Friend Animal Society's pet food pantry, where Trisha Yearwood donated $3,000, Salt Lake City, Utah, June 18, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Best Friends Animal Society, St. George News
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2024, all rights reserved.