Our Staff & Board

Leila Qari, Executive director

Leila is the founder and Executive Director of Denver Cat Rescue. Leila has been working in the cat rescue world since 2014, and has found both her passion and her purpose in helping cats.

Leila also founded and continues to operate Denver Cat Company, Denver’s cat cafe, which showcases rescue kitties up for adoption in an interactive social environment.

Before rescue, Leila worked as a litigation attorney. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in mindfulness-based counseling at Boulder’s Naropa University.

Leila is originally from Pakistan but loves Colorado and considers herself lucky to live in Denver.

Our Board

Denver Cat Rescue has an involved and dedicated 6-member Board. From left to right, Malissa Spero, who has a long history of fostering and volunteering for cat rescue, owns and operates the beloved Hooked on Colfax; Kristin Hoerth, who has been a long term foster for the rescue and is an Editor of a magazine; Kitty Scott, also a foster and a specialist in corporate project management; Han Uitenbroek, an astrophysicist who found us through fostering but is now also our photographer and treasurer; Lisa Didion, an insurance specialist who participated in the Great Resignation and decided to devote her free time to rescue; and Jill Kepler-Fritter, an engineer by day, started with us as a volunteer and has fundraised copiously for the rescue.