Board of Directors

Diana Vance

President

Diana has been rescuing dogs since she was in high school and has been doing volunteer work to save lives ever since. She is the hub of Surfers for Strays in Southern California, managing airport pick-ups, fostering dogs, taking care of their medical needs, making sure donated supplies get to the Rescue Center in Mexico, and so much more. She's also a Middle School PE teacher. Diana loves spending time with her family of three dogs, three adult children with growing families of their own, including two grand babies and six grand dogs.

Minette Ozaki

Secretary and Treasurer

Minette lives in Del Mar, CA with her husband Andy and dogs Ellie and Ceviché. Dogs have been part of her family since early childhood. Andy and Minette started fostering dogs in 2015. After the loss of their dog to cancer, they weren’t ready for another full-time dog, but fostering helped fill the void and mend broken hearts. Since then, they have fostered more than 30 dogs. After graduating from UCSD, Minette worked as a scientist at the Scripps Research Institute of Immunology, then as a Holistic Health Care Practitioner on her own. She gained her non-profit experience on the Board of Directors for the San Diego Mountain Biking Association. She currently works as the office manager for a surfer/chiropractor. Her education in biology and holistic health care helps her manage the medical care for the Surfers for Strays rescue dogs. Minette also manages the SFS remote volunteers, SFS programs and oversees the daily activity for this busy nonprofit organization. She loves traveling to explore new destinations to mountain bike and surf. Surfers for Strays has become the perfect outlet for her energy and interests.

Founder and Ambassador

Natalie Ritenour

Founder and Ambassador

Natalie is a surfing yogini that moved to Troncones in 2007 to teach yoga. She started surfing in 2009 and adopted her first cat Coco the same year. Those events radically changed the course of her life. After living in a kitty rescue center for four years she developed a network of people to help local street animals. In 2017, Surfers for Strays was formed. Natalie feels that improving the lives of suffering stray animals can help keep a symbiotic relationship with the beautiful nature of this region. It is something she can do to give back for all the waves that she has been blessed with. She teaches yoga at Yoga Del Pacifico (@YogaDelPacifico) in Manzanillo Bay and leads a yearly yoga and massage tour to Chiang Mai in Thailand (@ThailandWellnessAdventures).

Pack Leaders

Jenni Reyes

Zihuatanejo Rescue Center Manager

Jenny gained her vet tech experience through apprenticeships with our main veterinarians in Zihuatanejo, Ixtapa, and Troncones. She has worked tirelessly to save the lives of callajeros (strays) on the streets of Mexico for many years and has been working with Surfers for Strays since 2018. As the manager of the Surfers for Strays Zihuatanejo Rescue Center located in Barrio Limon, she provides a safe place to live, medical care, and food for 15-20 animals at a time. With her help, animals like Amarillo (in the photo) are now living their best lives!

Sandrine Provensal

Manager of the Surfers for Strays Hopequarters

Sandrine is our dog whisperer from southern France. Her passion is working with local communities that don’t have enough resources. She helps provide services and education about the importance and benefits of spaying and neutering and proper health maintenance. From 2019 until 2022 she was the Troncones Rescue Center Manager. Now she manages the Surfers for Strays Hopequarters in Nuevo Troncones. She is completely dedicated to making a difference for the strays in and around Troncones.

Eva Schwaizer

Executive Director and Communications Coordinator

Eva moved from Austria to the Rescue Center in November 2021 where she began as a short-term volunteer. She immediately fell in love with the organization, the people behind the scenes, and obviously the sweet mexi-mutt-furbears, so she decided to stay as a full-time volunteer after prolonging her stay multiple times. Previously working as a restaurant manager, patissiere and teacher, she finally found her passion and is now living the life of her dreams improving the wellbeing of animals. She brings all her energy, passion, and dedication to the project and loves everything that comes with it. After leading the groundwork and community outreach for a year she decided to continue her travels while staying loyal to SFS as a remote volunteer being responsible for communication, coordination and the social media accounts. This means juggling tons of messages from people seeking help. She has already spread her love to thousands of dogs and has a special place in her heart for dogs with behavioral issues. After adopting Saiya, one of her first rescues, she would like to continue adopting all the dogs that are considered "unadoptable" cases, but she can only do so much - maybe someone reading this is willing to help her in her dilemma and take on a special case dog?

Remote Volunteer Leadership

Marco Muñoz

Google Workspace And Website Administrator

Marco became involved with Surfers for Strays as a Remote Volunteer in 2023 and is currently helping maintain the Surfers For Strays website. Marco's parents are from Mexico, and he has traveled to many parts of the country, including Troncones, Mexico in 2015. Marco will be working remotely from Las Vegas, NV where he is hoping to start a foster care facility, in the near future.