Our Mission
Our mission is to provide the day-to-day care of sink, injured, and orphaned wildlife in the Northern Virginia area.
Our Cooperative
We achieve our mission by bridging our knowledge and practices with local licensed rehabilitators who share our philosophy and practice of care. ReWild NoVa works with other rehabilitators and volunteers to “work together agreeably for a common purpose or goal”. We embody the spirit of a “cooperative” of like-mined individuals who work collaboratively to rehabilitate sick, injured, and orphaned native wildlife and release them to their natural habitat.
Our cooperative works as a team to balance the needs of our “patients” with our own needs as rehabilitators and volunteers. Each rehabilitator in our community manages their own intake processes, including initial contact with good Samaritans and then leverages ReWild for shared administrative services, such a Wildlife Intake Forms, donation collection, shifting overcapacity of patients, vacation coverage, etc. This model works as a “cooperative” of rehabilitators, with minimal shared responsibilities other than ensuring the integrity of the animal’s health and release back into the wild. Our volunteers work as transporters and care providers at a time and place of their choosing.
Our Volunteers
Laura Schultz, PhD
Rehabilitator, President, Board Member
Laura Schultz is a graduate of Georgia Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and a master’s degree in Applied Statistics. After working in private industry for 10 years, she returned to academia where she recently earned her PhD in Systems Engineering and Operations Research at George Mason University.
She is a licensed Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (VDWR) rehabilitator caring for small mammals, rabies vector species (RVS), and opossums. She is one of the few local rehabbers with a high success rate in saving orphaned newborn mammals. As a high-volume rehabilitator, Laura focuses on injured and sick animals who are most at risk not to survive. She applies a fact-based approach to her practice of care and is continuing to research new approaches for rehabilitating our Virginia wildlife.
Janet Schultz
Vice President, Treasurer, Board Member
Janet grew up in Arlington and is a graduate of the University of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University. Shortly before retiring from her position as a Vice President at IBM, she moved back to this area to be closer to her family.
Post retirement, she volunteered with a wildlife group where she led the wildlife transport team and then chaired their Rehabilitator Committee. She first became a licensed wildlife care provider in 2020. Her accounting, financial, computer and operations experience is put to good use in her current role as our Vice President and Treasurer.
Clare Thorp, PhD
Rehabilitator, Board Member
Clare Thorp has a PhD in animal science and has had a life long interest in the welfare and behavior of animals, large and small. She became interested in wildlife after rescuing a baby squirrel in poor health. A search for a rehabilitator to help brought her to Laura Schultz.
As a result of this experience, Clare recognized that there is a massive need to rehabilitate injured and orphaned wildlife in Virginia and also to support local ecosystems where every species, not matter how common, has an important role to play.
Clare is a licensed Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (VDWR) rehabilitator caring for squirrels, cottontails, and opossums and releasing them back into the wild.
Joy LeBaron
Rehabilitator
Joy LeBaron is licensed Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (VDWR) rehabilitator specializing in squirrels. Her impressive knowledge and over 20 years of experience is an invaluable resource to the other members of our group.