Mickaboo's Leaders

During the almost 30 years of its working existence, Mickaboo has slowly evolved its structure to allow us to continue taking in the increasing populations of birds needing homes.  Starting with two women work-a-holics, it has over time added a board of directors,  a website, a financial guru, and then more and more volunteers.  None of the growing volunteer force that rescues, and cares for our birds, or governs our operations, is paid.  

Board of Directors

Tammy Azzaro

Tammy is one of the two original founders of Mickaboo, which took in its first bird as a rescue group in 1996. Tammy is a Registered Veterinary Technician and has worked at several of the avian veterinary clinics in the Bay Area. Tammy also serves as Mickaboo's President.  Read more about Tammy's story and the founding of Mickaboo here.

W. Ted Davids

Ted has been involved with Mickaboo for over 20 years. A dear cockatiel got Ted started enjoying the company of parrots, their intelligent personalities and this led him to Mickaboo. Ted worked in Silicon Valley for almost all of his career, in Electronic Engineering. 

Dr. Bridget Ferguson, ABVP-Certified in Avian Practice

Dr. Ferguson completed her undergraduate degree in Avian Sciences at the University of California in Davis with a minor in Veterinary Medical Entomology and Nutritional Sciences in 1992. She graduated from the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University in 1997. After working in an "exotics only" clinic in San Francisco, California she obtained her Board Certification in Avian Practice in 2003.

Over the past 18 years, Dr. Ferguson has treated a wide variety of companion animals including birds, reptiles, ferrets, rabbits, rodents, and hedgehogs, in addition to cats and dogs. She enjoys consulting with local veterinarians as well as performing advanced diagnostics, treatments and surgery on exotic patients.

Dr. Ferguson has consulted with several rescue groups for non-traditional pets, including Mollywood Avian Sanctuary, Zazu's House Parrot Sanctuary, All Parrot Rescue, Hookbill Aviary, and Everlasting Hope Rescue in Washington. She also served as the medical director for Mickaboo Companion Bird Rescue in California for 14 years. In addition, she consults with Traipse Bengals, a USDA-licensed Bengal cat breeder located in Snoqualmie, and Beaker's Parrot Place in Wilkeson.

In her spare time she enjoys hiking and gardening, as well as spending time with her family and menagerie of pet animals including three horses, three goats, a hawkhead parrot, three dogs, two cats, twenty or so chickens, four hives of bees, and a salt water habitat filled with reef critters.

John Kelleghan

Pamela A Lee

Pam has been a long-standing member of Mickaboo's volunteer community and leadership team, as the Development Director, CFO and Events Lead for 20+ years.

Kathleen Wunderlich

Katie is a long time volunteer and foster home for Mickaboo, with a particular focus on budgies, having served as Mickaboo's Budgie Coordinator for some time. Katie has experience with several species including budgies, cockatiels, poicephalus, rosellas, lovebirds, finches, and african greys. 

Michelle Yesney

Michelle Yesney has been a volunteer with Mickaboo for over 18 years, and was CEO of the organization from 2009 until April 2022. She has fostered over 400 birds for Mickaboo. Michelle was a professional planner for the City of San Jose. You can read more about Michelle's experiences volunteering with Mickaboo in this newsletter and this online article. 

Rhonda Bennon

Sarah Lemarié

Sarah became involved in Mickaboo around 2013 after moving to California and discovering an active parrot rescue community. After fostering birds for a couple of years, she became the team lead for the Wild Parrots Species team and began volunteering in several different roles leading to the Chief Operating Officer title in 2019 and Acting CEO as of April 2022. Sarah stepped down as COO and Acting CEO in October 2024.

Sarah has never purchased or owned a parrot, but has fostered over 250 different birds through Mickaboo. 

Sarah began her career as a software engineer, and spent 17+ years at Sony Interactive Entertainment working in R&D in London, UK until 2012, and then Program Management within the Data/R&D/Client/Platform Ops/Security groups.

Susan Zuniga

Susan Zuniga has been a volunteer since 1997. In her time with Mickaboo she has been a basic bird care class teacher, phone screen and home visit class teacher, species coordinator, adoption fair event coordinator and foster parent. Susan has fostered over 250 birds.  She was also on the Animal Advisory Committee for the city of San Jose for 5 years where she participated in research and writing Title 7 code for the city’s animal population. 

Executive Committee of the Board

The Board of Directors is evaluating what would be the most effective and efficient structure for continuing into the future.  To manage the day-to-day operations of our organization and oversee the safety and well-being of our 400+ birds, the Board appointed an Executive Committee of experienced senior staff. These volunteers are:

• Tammy Azzaro
• Pamela Lee
• Michelle Yesney

Chief Financial Officer

Pamela A Lee

Technical Director

Matt Linton

Matt has been involved with Mickaboo for over 18 years, after first meeting a Mickaboo volunteer at Wildwood vet during his Cockatoo's first vet checkup. Since 2004, he's run our technical infrastructure, providing free and reliable online resources to ensure every possible fundraising dollar goes straight to the birds, not to software expenses or overhead. In his day job, Matt leads a team of incident managers in cybersecurity response at a very large tech firm.