Board of Directors

Nancy Gavin is from Baltimore and moved to Black Mountain, NC with her husband, Mike, and four cats in 2015.

With Master’s degree in Education from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland and a Master’s in Church Ministries from the Ecumenical Institute of Theology, St. Mary’s Seminary, Nancy has had a few careers. She worked in desktop publishing in the corporate world and as a Director of Education, Director of Church Ministries and Director of a food pantry in the nonprofit world. Volunteer experience includes garden therapy with the elderly, hospice work and many years working with cats for animal rescues. She is currently sole proprietor of Cat Caterer cat sitting business and finds joy in growing and using medicinal herbs and foraging for wild foods.

Nancy looks forward to helping build Laps and Naps from the initial idea to the wonderful senior cat sanctuary it will become.

Lisa Davis was born in England, graduated from high school and went to medical secretarial school where she graduated with a two year degree. She worked at The London Hospital for 2 years and then emigrated to the US when she was 20 years old. In the US, she worked in administration at different hospitals before working at the Montgomery Humane Society as the Volunteer Coordinator. In Virginia, she worked at a primary care veterinary practice for 13 years and then moved to Asheville in 2019. She is currently an “as needed” employee at Veterinary Emergency Group. Lisa and her husband live in east Asheville with their senior rescue dog, Maggie, and a Laps and Naps alumni, Spooky. Lisa loves to walk 3-5 miles a day, hike, play Pickleball and volunteer. 

Lea Fegley is an accountant who relocated to Black Mountain with her family in 2022. Lea began her accounting career specializing in nonprofits, including a 2+ year tenure working for Mountain Humane in Hailey, Idaho where she volunteered as a cat and dog foster and dog walker. As a mother of young children, she looks forward to adding fur babies to the family when the time is right. Meanwhile she is pleased to join the Board at Laps and Naps and serve as Treasurer.

A North Carolina native, Dr. Laurin Cooke earned her undergraduate degree from Duke University, with majors in Psychology and Biological Anthropology and Anatomy and a Certificate in Primatology. After a fascinating adventure teaching kids about animals in zoological parks, she decided to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a veterinarian. She graduated from NCSU College of Veterinary Medicine in 1998. Since then, she has become an avid student of truth in medicine, natural therapies, and nutrition. Dr. Laurin is a trained and certified laser therapy practitioner. In addition to her conventional medicine degree, she completed Dr. Richard Pitcairn's Professional Course in Veterinary Homeopathy in 2008. She holds professional memberships in the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association, the Academy of Veterinary Homeopathy, and the Veterinary Botanical Medicine Association. She owns a comfort care mobile practice in the Asheville area, is Associate Editor of Innovative Veterinary Care Journal, and serves as a copy editor for the Journal of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association.

Lauren Hellendall was born and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and moved to Washington, DC to attend college. After completing a degree in Environmental Studies, Lauren lived in DC, working in veteran’s advocacy, and then in volunteer administration at the Smithsonian Office of Visitor Services. In 2021 they returned to North Carolina, venturing westward to Asheville, and began to re-engage themselves in their long standing passion for animal welfare. Since 2021 Lauren has worked in operations at Asheville Humane Society and volunteers at various animal welfare organizations in and around Asheville. 

Lauren lives in the Oakley neighborhood of Asheville with their two cats, Basil and Blache, as well their two rabbits, Bart and Beverly. 

Tina Kannapel is a retired national program manager and artist who has been fascinated by cats all her life. She has lived with, and loved, cats for 46+ years. Tina and her cats (Jackson, Luna, and Cooper) settled in Black Mountain, NC in 2017. When approached to help establish Laps and Naps for Senior Cats, she agreed as everyone should have the option of a good home for their senior cats when they can no longer care for them.

Jim Thompson is originally from Missouri. After getting degrees in Building Construction Management and Civil Engineering from Purdue University, he served in the Active-duty Army for ten years and then ten years in the Army Reserve, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. After leaving active duty in Hawaii, he spent 32 years doing construction management as a Project Engineer, Quality Control Manager, Superintendent and Project Manager on projects ranging in size from $2500 to over $117M in both Hawaii and Washington State. Upon retiring from the construction industry, Jim and his wife Beth moved to Hendersonville, NC. Jim spends his time now working on remodeling the home they bought, hiking and sailing. Jim and his wife have eight cats that they care for and occasionally show. They have shown numerous cats to numerous International and Regional wins.