Gail Vacca
President

Laura Donohoe
Secretary/Treasurer

Sarah Ely
Board Member

Stephanie Shirkey
Board Member


Gail Vacca has been engaged in the horse industry for nearly four decades. Her career within the industry began on the east coast where she taught riding lessons, trained, and competed hunter/jumpers throughout New England. In 1984, she passed the New Hampshire Racing Commission licensing exam and began her career as a Thoroughbred racehorse trainer. While no longer actively training racehorses, she still owns and operates a Thoroughbred lay-up farm in Wilmington, IL where she also cares for several retired and rescued Thoroughbreds of her own. Active in equine rescue and rehabilitation for over 30 years, her most visible role in recent years has been as a grassroots advocate for both national and state-based non-profit organizations dedicated to reducing equine cruelty and neglect through education and legislation.

Laura Donohoe, originally from Kentucky, has lived in the Chicago area since 1994 and has been around horses since a very young age. While a supporter of the ILEHC since its inception, Laura became actively involved in the ILEHC in the spring of 2010 during the efforts to retire Scooter Roach. Having been a fan of Scooter's for several years, Laura wanted to ensure that this champion was brought home to Illinois to the retirement he so well deserved. Since then, Laura has been a frequent visitor, volunteer, extra set of hands, and photographer at the ILEHC barn and provided the photos for the  ILEHC calendars.  She currently resides in the western suburbs of Chicago with her two dogs and two cats, not too far from the stable where her 14-year-old Quarter Horse is boarded.