PORT ANGELES — Jason Stipp is the new lead at the Olympic Peninsula Humane Society.

The nonprofit with two campuses in Clallam County announced in late February that Stipp is OPH’s new executive director. He succeeds Luanne Hinkle.

Stipp was selected after an extensive nationwide search and took over as executive director of the 77-year-old agency on Feb. 22, organization representatives said.

“I am honored to be selected as the executive director here at OPHS,” Stipp said in a press release. “My passion for animals runs deep. I look forward to taking the organization to even greater heights while serving the animal-loving community here on the beautiful Olympic Peninsula.”

OPHS hired Hinkle, a veteran of several nonprofit, director-level positions, to lead the organization in December 2017.

Stipp’s background includes eight years as executive director of Pet Network Humane Society in Incline Village, Nevada, located on Lake Tahoe. There, OPHS officials noted, Stipp led several animal rescue missions, including saving 181 dogs from New Orleans after Hurricane Harvey and 80 cats from fire-ravaged Northern California communities.

In addition, he started Healing Hounds, a program that matched veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, with shelter dogs. Success of the program, OPHS representatives said, drove the Dave and Cheryl Duffield Foundation to take the veteran/canine partnership even further by funding Liberty Dogs, a 27-acre campus in Reno, Nevada, due to open in 2026.

“We are pleased to welcome Jason to the OPHS team,” said Marti Oldham, Olympic Peninsula Humane Society’s board president. “He comes to us with many years of animal welfare experience. We feel extremely fortunate to have him join OPHS and our community.”

For more than 77 years, OPHS has maintained an active presence in Sequim, Port Angeles and surrounding areas. A no-kill shelter, the organization cares for domestic animals of all types, is financed primarily by private donations and is not associated with any national organization.

About 1,200 animals pass through the doors of the facility on an annual basis. Its dog campus is at 1743 Old Olympic Highway, Port Angeles, and cat campus is at 91 S. Boyce Road, Sequim.

For more information about OPHS, call 360-457-8206 or visit ophumane society.org.

________

Michael Dashiell is the editor of the Sequim Gazette of the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which also is composed of other Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News and Forks Forum. Reach him at editor@sequimgazette.com.