About Us
Each day at Rosie’s Farm Sanctuary, we aim to educate the public about the suffering of billions of individuals abused by animal agriculture — and inspire others to help us bring about an end to that suffering. You can make a difference, too!
Mission
To inspire compassion in the hearts of all people and be the voice for animals by rescuing and rehabilitating farm animals, and providing educational programs and advocacy.
Vision
A world where no animal suffers to produce products for human use.
Values
Compassion I Education I Advocacy I Equity I Kindness
Who Is Rosie?
Three weeks after Michele, Craig, and their children first moved to Maryland in late 2020, they rescued a beautiful golden retriever named Rosie, for whom the farm is named.
Rosie came from a traumatic past in a backyard breeding operation. Watching her recover from trauma and blossom into a bright, joyful and loving dog was inspirational and is exactly the type of message we want the Rosie's Farm Sanctuary to convey.
With love and compassion, we all have the capacity to heal and flourish.
Founders
Michele Waldman
Founder & President
Founder
Founder and President of Rosie's Farm Sanctuary. Michele is a licensed psychotherapist focusing on trauma and relationship issues. Michele graduated from UC Berkeley with a Bachelor of Science in Conservation and Resource Studies, hence her love of nature and ecology. She received a Master's in Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integrated Studies in San Francisco and a Master's in Latin American Studies with a focus in International Marketing from UCLA. Michele also trained with Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). Michele was born in Auckland, New Zealand, and spent her childhood in Australia. She has worked and lived in 40 countries around the world.
Michele
Michele is deeply involved with animal activism and animal rights. She was first made aware of the suffering of animals in the food industry by PETA when she was a student at UC Berkeley. She became a vegetarian right away and became vegan later in life – after learning about the atrocities of the dairy and egg industries. Michele started her journey in animal activism by volunteering at animal sanctuaries in California and helping to rescue calves from the dairy industry. It was her lifelong dream to open an animal sanctuary.
Co-Founder
Craig Waldman
Co-Founder
Co-Founder
Craig's day job is as co-chair of Jones Day's global Antitrust & Competition Law Practice. Craig has more than 20 years of experience representing companies in antitrust government investigations and private litigations and counseling them on how to manage antitrust risk in daily business activities. He has served as an adjunct professor at both Berkeley and Hastings Law Schools, has lectured at Stanford Business School, and has served in numerous roles within ABA Antitrust Leadership. In addition to his legal work, Craig is passionate about charitable endeavors. For over ten years, he has served on the board of directors of Global Strategies, an international charity whose mission is to reduce early mortality and treat survivors of sexual violence in impoverished and war-torn regions of Africa.
"I was an avid meat-eater until November 2019 when Michele, my wife (and co-Founder) cleverly "suggested" I watch the Game Changers documentary. That movie caused me to commit to being a vegan for a month. At the end of that month, after feeling much healthier and using the time to open my eyes, mind, and heart to the horrific harm that comes to animals, I decided to keep going. Four years later, I remain a vegan."
-Craig Waldman
Team
Communications and Development Manager
Carrie Frey
Communications and Development Manager
Carrie has been involved in animal rescue and animal activism for over four decades. At the age of 10, she spontaneously associated the steak on her plate at dinner with some cows she had seen earlier in the day and from that moment on, she, her mother, and her sister all became vegetarian. As they became more educated on the cruelty of the dairy and egg industries, they embraced veganism. At the University of Pennsylvania where she received her B.A. in Communications and English in 1996, Carrie was the President of Penn Students for Animal Rights and completed internships at PETA and HSUS. For years she worked in Marketing at Animal Planet/Discovery and has since gone on to earn an integrative nutrition certificate with a focus on plant-based nutrition. She loves cooking, baking, and sharing delicious vegan recipes and taking people on “grocery store tours” to learn more about compassionate food choices. She is also very involved in companion animal rescue, serving as the President of the Board of Directors of PetConnect Rescue, and adopted Rosie to the Waldman family.
“I love showing people how easy it can be to make more compassionate choices in their diet and lifestyle and the benefits it brings to their health, the Earth, and the animals. By the same token, I love inspiring people to connect with animals to help change the belief systems that consider one type as companions and the other as food. Rosie’s is the perfect place to do this work!”
Farm Manager
and PR Director
Jason Bolalek
Farm Manager & Tour Director
Jason began getting involved in animal rescue in 2019. While living in Vermont, he learned the harsh realities of dairy production. Coming face to face with these truths motivated him to start Destination Liberation, an organization that rescues, transports, and homes calves (mostly male) that are deemed waste products by dairy farms. Jason has to-date rescued and transported around 75 calves to sanctuaries and private homes all over the United States. Jason's story and liberations have been featured by news organizations, including Dodo, We Animals Media, Now This News , and The Guardian.
"I am extremely passionate about my mission and hope to inspire others by creating a thriving, diverse community where we can connect and learn from each other. I believe that empathy functions like a muscle and that we can create a better world by encouraging and fostering it to grow in others around us. My goal at Rosie's is to connect the public with the animals (individuals) that they are intentionally being disconnected from by the industries that exploit them, but to create awareness about similar systems of oppression, how they are all connected, and how we can work to dismantle them."
-Jason Bolalek
