Monroe County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Mario Benedetti brings a record of service, leadership, and community engagement to the Pawsitive Beginnings board of directors. He began his career with MCSO in 2016 after serving in the U.S. Army, where he was an infantryman with the elite 82nd Airborne Division. 

During his tenure with MCSO, he has held a wide range of assignments, including road patrol, general investigations, major crimes, road patrol supervision, and serving as a sergeant overseeing general investigations. His professional background reflects not only tactical expertise, but also a deep commitment to public safety, compassion, and trauma-informed service. 

Lieutenant Benedetti is a devoted husband and father of two sons, and is widely respected within the Keys for his integrity, leadership, and generous spirit.  Those qualities drew him naturally to Pawsitive Beginnings’ mission of healing — and he has embraced the role with characteristic conviction.

His position on the board solidifies the long-standing relationship between MCSO and Pawsitive Beginnings — a partnership rooted in trust, resilience, and shared commitment to healing.  From the 82nd Airborne to the Florida Keys, Lieutenant Benedetti has spent his life showing up for others. We are honored to have him show up for us.

Known throughout the Florida Keys as “Farmer Jeanne,” Jeanne Selander oversees the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Animal Farm at the Stock Island Detention Center — believed to be the United States’ only facility of its kind on jailhouse property — and the care of 150 animals across dozens of species. 

Jeanne moved to the Keys in 1998 with a degree in marine biology and served as assistant curator of the Key West Aquarium for seven years.  Her path to the MCSO Animal Farm came through a chance encounter with a veterinarian who invited her to see the facility’s potential — and she never looked back. When the zoo faced multiple USDA violations and was on the verge of shutting down, Jeanne told the sheriff she would make it something special if given the opportunity. Ten years later, the farm had grown to 150 animals and a thriving inmate work program. 

The farm serves as an animal sanctuary, taking in animals that have been abandoned, abused, confiscated, or donated — giving each one a forever home.  Over the past 15 years, “Farmer Jeanne” has mentored more than 1,500 low-risk detention center inmates who assist with animal care  — a program that brings measurable healing to both the animals and the people who tend to them. What started as an oddity beneath a jail has become internationally recognized , drawing visitors from cruise ships, across the country, and around the world.

Her dedication runs deeper than the job description. In her spare time, Jeanne fosters and provides hospice care for senior Chihuahuas.  She has weathered hurricanes alongside her animals, coaxing horses and alpacas onto elevators and sheltering them in detention cells during Hurricane Irma — remaining on-site as their sole caretaker for 28 days. 

It is no coincidence that Pawsitive Beginnings Founder Nicole Navarro traces her very first fox encounter to the MCSO Animal Farm in Key West. Jeanne’s philosophy — that every animal deserves a lifetime commitment — is one that runs through the heart of everything Pawsitive Beginnings stands for. Her presence on our board is both a full-circle moment and a natural one: two sanctuaries, one mission, and a friendship forged in the Florida Keys.

Jessica Walker is an Owner, Partner, and Project Manager at Steel City Pharmacy Solutions LLC , a Pittsburgh-based specialty pharmacy consulting firm she co-founded to bring expert, customized accreditation solutions to healthcare organizations across the country. Steel City Pharmacy Solutions launched in December 2022, drawing on many years of experience in the pharmacy accreditation industry to streamline services and align with the constantly changing healthcare landscape. 

Jessica brings over 15 years of experience in the specialty pharmacy and HUB services space, with 8 years dedicated specifically to accreditation consulting with a concentration in patient management and data collection. She holds a degree in mathematics with a minor in chemistry and has completed post-graduate coursework in IT, analytics, and database programming.  Her analytical mind and systems-level thinking have made her an invaluable resource to the organizations she serves — including building and implementing a proprietary tool used by 2,700 staff members at one of the top specialty pharmacies in the country to perform daily pharmacy job functions.  She is also an ACHC Certified Consultant  with a 100% pass ratio across her accreditation clients. 

To Pawsitive Beginnings, Jessica brings the same precision and purpose she applies to her professional work — paired with a genuine heart for animals and the communities that care for them. As a trusted friend of Founder and Executive Director Nicole Navarro, her presence on the board reflects the kind of friendship that evolves naturally into partnership: one built on shared values, mutual respect, and a belief that the right systems, in the right hands, can change lives.

Whether navigating complex compliance frameworks or championing a fox sanctuary in the Florida Keys, Jessica Walker shows up with expertise and intention.

​​Patricia Navarro is a Certified Public Accountant with over 30 years of experience in accounting, payroll, and tax services , and the owner of Patricia M. Navarro CPA LLC, based in Roswell, New Mexico. Over the course of her career, she has worked with individuals and small businesses from California to New York, helping them simplify and streamline their financial matters  — bringing expertise, steadiness, and genuine care to every client she serves.

Her firm provides a full range of accounting, payroll, and tax services, customized to the unique needs of each client.  Known for her low-pressure approach and high client retention, Patricia has built a practice grounded in trust, accessibility, and results. 

To Pawsitive Beginnings, Patricia brings far more than financial acumen. As a longtime family anchor and one of the organization’s earliest believers, she has walked alongside Founder and Executive Director Nicole Navarro from the very beginning — offering not only professional guidance but the kind of steadfast support that makes bold missions possible. Her commitment to sound financial stewardship helps ensure that every dollar entrusted to Pawsitive Beginnings goes where it matters most: to the foxes, the healing programs, and the people whose lives are changed by them.

From Roswell to the Florida Keys, Patricia Navarro is proof that family, purpose, and good numbers can change the world.

Some foundations are built in boardrooms. Others are built on horseback, on a farm, beneath the sea, and in the quiet daily act of showing a child that every living creature deserves dignity and care. Barbara Froelich built hers the latter way — and in doing so, laid the groundwork for everything Pawsitive Beginnings would one day become.

A Pittsburgh native with an entrepreneurial spirit and a lifelong love of the natural world, Barbara owned and operated a successful dive shop in Pittsburgh before following the pull of the ocean south, relocating her business to the Florida Keys in the 1990s. That move — from landlocked Pennsylvania to one of the most ecologically rich marine environments on earth — was not just a career decision. It was a declaration of values. Barbara has always gone where the water, the wildlife, and the work call her.

Long before Pawsitive Beginnings existed, Barbara was teaching her daughter Nicole that animals are not possessions to be controlled, but lives to be respected. That lesson — absorbed early and carried deeply — became the moral spine of Nicole’s life’s work and, by extension, the mission of this organization. The reverence for animal welfare that defines Pawsitive Beginnings did not begin in 2020. It began with Barbara.

Today, Barbara serves as the sanctuary’s essential anchor. She is the primary caretaker of Pawsitive Beginnings’ rescued foxes when Nicole is away — a role that requires patience, skill, attentiveness, and an unconditional commitment to the animals in her care. She brings to that role a lifetime of hands-on experience with animals and an unwavering passion for rescue and welfare that has never dimmed.

The sanctuary sits on Barbara’s property — a detail that speaks volumes. She did not simply support her daughter’s dream. She gave it a home.

Zachary James is a stage and screen actor, recording artist, and international opera singer from Spring Hill, Florida.  He is a 2022 Grammy Award winner for Best Opera Recording  — recognized for his role in the Olivier Award-winning production of Philip Glass’s Akhnaten — and was named BroadwayWorld’s Vocalist of the Decade for 2010–2020, Classical Post’s Most Innovative Artist, and is among Opera Wire’s 30 Most Influential LGBTQ+ Artists. 

Beyond the spotlight, Zach brings to Pawsitive Beginnings a deep commitment to the belief that art and compassion are inseparable. As a proud Florida native and an out LGBTQ+ artist who has used his platform to champion authenticity and inclusion, he understands firsthand the power of bearing witness — to pain, to healing, and to the bonds that make us human. That understanding aligns naturally with Pawsitive Beginnings’ mission: using the healing power of the human-animal bond to serve trauma survivors, at-risk youth, first responders, and those in recovery.

Zach’s voice has moved audiences around the world. His heart, we are proud to say, belongs here too.