What is The Community Cats Podcast?
The Community Cats Podcast is the brainchild of Stacy LeBaron. Stacy has over 20 years experience working with Community Cats in Massachusetts. She was the president of the Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society for 16 years and since 2011, she ran the MRFRS Mentoring program, assisting over 80 organizations with setting up TNR programs and getting funding to support those programs.Our Vision
To create a humane community for all cats.Our Mission
To provide education, information, and dialogue that will create a supportive environment, empowering people to help cats in their community.What We Do
We offer a podcast, an informative blog, a grant and mentoring program, online conferences, and networking and sharing opportunities. We participate in cat-related events, and we offer consulting and visioning workshops for organizations.Meet Your Host, Stacy LeBaron
Stacy LeBaron has been involved in animal welfare for almost 30 years. She currently hosts a weekly podcast called the Community Cats Podcast where she interviews nationally and internationally renowned experts helping with the problem of cat overpopulation and cat welfare. She has recorded over 500 episodes. In addition to the podcast, Stacy is committed to the model of virtual education by holding three weekend conferences, the Online Cat Conference, The United Spay Alliance Conference and the Online Kitten Conference. She hosts day-long sessions covering specific topics around Feline Leukemia and Behavior, and she partnered with Neighborhood Cats to hold monthly virtually trapper training and certification workshops to better introduce individuals to best practices for trapping community cats. In 2023 she also introduced a surrender prevention certification workshop series with Dr. Rachel Geller. The Community Cats Podcast also has a Community Cats Grants Program helping small grassroots learn fundraising skills to raise the desperately needed funds for spay/neuter surgeries and match the money raised from the Community Cats Grants program. This program has assisted over 200 groups.
Her mission is to encourage folks to “Turn their passion for cats into action”.
Previous to starting the podcast, Stacy served for 16 years as president of the Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society (MRFRS). An expert in her field, she is President of the Board for PAWSitive Pantry in Vermont and Massachusetts, Treasurer at the Vermont Humane Federation, Treasurer for the Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society, and Treasurer and strategic director at the United Spay Alliance. She is a past board member of Massachusetts Animal Coalition and the New England Federation of Humane Societies. She serves as the current administrative trustee for the LeBaron Foundation.
In addition to the above Stacy is also available for individual and group consulting to encourage others to think strategically about how they are reducing cat overpopulation in their communities by utilizing the Community Cat Pyramid and Community Cat Calculator needs assessment.
Stacy graduated from Vassar College with a degree in Urban Studies. She now lives in Vermont with her husband.