Lusiana Hadi is the Founder of BARK Rescue CA. She is a Chinese-Indonesian-American born in Indonesia and raised in the United States, specifically in the small, college town of Urbana, IL. Since a young age, she has always loved animals. As a child in Indonesia, a country where animal welfare was basically non-existent at the time, she and her mom rescued a few stray cats, kittens, dogs and puppies. She also spent her childhood with an adult dog that had been abused by a family member- this is Lusiana’s first experience with an abused companion pet that had turned aggressive due to the abuse. 

Prior to her career in Animal Welfare, she had earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Accounting, with a concentration in Financial Analysis, from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She then worked in Finance & Accounting in startups and public corporations for a decade when she decided to pivot into a career that aligns with her passion: Animal Welfare & Social Impact (also known as Social Justice).

Lusiana’s journey in the animal welfare and social justice space started with the following roles: 

• Content Creation Project Manager & Membership Program Manager role at Orang Utan Republik Foundation, an LA-based non-profit organization whose mission is to help rehabilitate rescued orangutans in Indonesia & Malaysia.
• Having been a part-time YouTuber for 4 years, she also took on a volunteer role as a video editor at Paws of LA Rescue, an LA-based 501c3 animal rescue organization.
• Social Impact Intern at Logitech in a team that was in charge of the company’s employee giving & volunteering program 
• Content Creation Project Manager at PEERS, a government-funded non-profit organization in the mental health space
• Project Manager at Trauma Speaks, a 501c3 non-profit organization in the mental health space. 

She went to UCLA Anderson to pursue an MBA with a concentration in Social Impact. However, after her first year she decided to withdraw from the program so she could focus on building BARK Rescue CA.

During Covid, she and her husband adopted an 8-week old Chihuahua Mix puppy from Humane Society of Silicon Valley and named him after an Indonesian traditional design Batik. Batik is also the inspiration of the name BARK Rescue CA. Outside of work and BARK Rescue, she loves to dance (especially fitness hip hop dance), watch movies on Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Video/YouTube, go on spa days, hanging out with her husband and dog, and talking on the phone with her mom for hours every weekend.

She has always been passionate about the well-being of animals and the importance of fostering and adopting a pet. She used to repackage bulk dogfood into smaller bags to distribute to the homeless for their pets. As she owns two large dogs, she believes in advocating for big dogs and debunking the false negative stereotypes that are attached to their breeds. 

She earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Applied Psychology from Loyola Marymount University and University of Southern California (USC) and is most recently a full-time UX Researcher and Designer at Fitscovery, a startup fitness company based in the Phillipines. She also joined Trauma Speaks, a non-profit org that helps raise awareness for mental health and accessible mental health services, as a project committee member to help host fundraisers as well as creating social media and blog content.

Ramona Kraeutler was born and raised in Germany before moving to Los Angeles at the age of 23 in order to pursue her educational career as a psychologist. Other than volunteering at BARK Rescue CA, she currently also works part time at Trauma Speaks, a non-profit organization in the mental health space, as an Operations Director. She has always raised  a cat or a dog since she was 8 years old. She also has fostered 9 kittens from her friend who worked with an LA-based non-profit kill shelter. She fostered those kittens for 8 months before adopting 2 of them and helping to find loving forever homes for the remaining 7 kittens. Last year she also volunteered at a shelter in Germany as a dog walker for 3 months. 

She received her B.A at CSULA before entering the master’s program at CSUDH. Next to her academic achievements, she enjoyed working in multiple research laboratories for neuropsychology and trauma while working as a substance use counselor in Los Angeles and later, in Texas. Currently, she is residing in Germany again due to COVID but is looking forward to her return to the US in the near future. 

Journee Isip is an Advisor at BARK Rescue CA and our Founder’s husband. Although he did not grow up with pets, as an adult his family has a couple of dogs and a cat. He has a professional background in Management Consulting & Business Strategy and an educational background in Physics and Mathematics from Columbia University and an MBA from Booth School of Business (University of Chicago). He loves to lead an active life and travel around the world!