Co-Chair – Janet Chamberlin Sembroski
Janet is currently the Co-Chair of Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society. Although she’s only had her own horses since 2014, she has been a horse lover ever since she can remember. Growing up near the beaches of Orange County, Janet rarely had opportunities to spend time with horses, let alone ride.
Janet joined Bluebonnet in 2014. She decided to begin by fostering and almost immediately “failed” as she adopted her first 2 foster horses (BEHS Vega & BEHS Branigan O’Blue). Although Janet had always had a love of horses and a life-long desire to rescue horses, she had never personally cared for horses of her own before. She was thankful to have found Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society so that she could see her dreams come true. Being able to give back by volunteering seemed like the next logical step. Soon Janet began volunteering by creating the monthly ads for several magazine publications. In addition, she began doing neglect inspections and then volunteered with the Meet the Horses at the Bluebonnet Horse Expo in 2015. She soon was invited to join the Board of Directors and then was appointed to the role of Co-Chair in 2018.
Janet works full time as a corporate Operations Risk Manager. She resides near Fulshear, TX with her husband and 4 of their 5 children. Her oldest daughter is married and lives north of Seattle, WA. Her 2 adopted horses (barn names Snickers & Annie), her 2 dogs (Rocky – German Shepherd and Gunnar – Golden Retriever), and the dozen or so turtles in their pond complete their home.
Director – Julie Upchurch
Julie learned about Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society from a friend. We attended the Expo in 2009. In 2010 I adopted BEHS Punzi ( Maggie). As Julie learned more about BEHS she started volunteering more doing inspections, booths, Expo, trailering, and fostering. Julie has been on the Board of Directors since 2014.
Julie was born in Arizona, moved to Texas as a child. My sisters and I would go to Arizona for the summer. I’ve been around horses all my life. Riding retired ranch horses in Arizona and race horses in Texas. As a teenager Julie was showing Arabians and open shows. Julie has also trained for and ridden the MS 150 bicycle ride several times.
Julie along with partner Leonard enjoy the challenges of trailering and fostering for BEHS. We especially enjoy meeting the new and interesting people along the way.
Julie lives in Louise, Tx. She works for Prasek’s Family Smokehouse as a receiver, stocker for the retail store.
Director – Tracee Casarez
Tracee serves on the BOD of Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society. Tracee wanted a horse of her own since childhood. Instead of dolls, she had a large collection of model horses to play with. Finally after college, and getting a job, she bought her first horse, a black Arabian named Aramis. She and her husband, Pete, currently have 4 horses. 3 are Arabians that were bred, born and raised with them. Tracee does competitive trail and endurance, and loves to go camp out with her horses and riding buddies.
Tracee learned about Bluebonnet from her riding instructor around 2014 and immediately joined and began to help by donating, with a goal to get set up to foster. Tracee and her husband were able to start fostering in 2018. Their first fosters were two young fillies from a severe neglect case. “I just can’t describe the emotion I had when I first saw those starved fillies. It is very rewarding to see these horses come back from severe neglect and be adopted into long term, loving homes. It’s not easy to let them go, but I know I must in order to make room to save more horses.” In addition to fostering, she volunteers to do welfare inspections and enjoys meeting others in the Bluebonnet family.
Tracee works full time as a corporate Supply Chain Manager. She and her husband live near Gonzales, TX. In addition to their 4 horses, they have 2 dogs, 4 cats (all rescues) and several head of beef cattle.
Director – Allen Johnson
Allen and his family became members of Bluebonnet in 2014 after relocating near Bastrop, Texas. Allen was around horses in his early years and moving to a more rural area opened the opportunity to reconnect with these wonderful animals. Over the years, they fostered hundreds of puppies and young dogs so fostering horses was a natural fit for the Johnson family.
The Johnson’s have two horses of their own (Cheyenne and Grand). Allen met Grand at the 2018 Expo. Grand was Bluebonnet’s 1000th rescue. He came to Bluebonnet from a neglect case and was at the Expo to show the public the importance of Bluebonnet’s work. Allen and “Mr. 1,000” connected at the Expo and he came home with Allen to continue his rehab. Months later, newly named Grand became the family’s largest Christmas present and their second foster failure.
Allen is a long-time paramedic and currently serves as Chief Product Officer for an Austin-based healthcare software company. Allen provides medical support for the annual Bluebonnet Expo and Training Challenges. He lives in Cedar Creek, Texas with his wife, Kristin. They have three college-aged daughters and a middle school son. Between the horses, 4 dogs, a goat and a few chickens, the Johnson house is a busy place.
Director – Kelly Lazo
Kelly Lazo is a horse trainer and retired teacher who has spent her life educating horses and people alike. She has trained multiple world champion horses and riders in the American Paint Horse Association, as well as several Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society Training Challenge winners. Kelly lives and runs her training business, Lazo Performance Horses, out of Caldwell, TX with her husband Salvador and daughter Sabine. She hopes to bring a unique perspective to the board with her business experience and horse savvy.
Director – Dr Natalie Lord
Dr. Lord grew up in Texas and Spain and is fluent in Spanish. Before vet school, she worked as an assistant at a busy, equine referral and surgery hospital. Dr. Lord received her Bachelor’s Degree from Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX and completed her Veterinary Degree at Ross University in 2017. She spent her first three years after graduating vet school working in a busy, and fast paced mixed animal clinic in Belton.
Dr. Lord has an interest for large animal medicine, surgery, emergency and small animal medicine. But her passion is caring for horses. She is an active member in AAEP, AERC, TERA and is on the Board of Directors for Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society. She also developed a passion for helping working horses around the world through the Equitarian Initiative. Some weekends you might find her vetting endurance rides around Texas and Oklahoma.
In her spare time, Dr. Lord loves to spend time with her husband, her two dogs (a Coconut Retriever and a Golden Doodle with 3 and 3/4 legs), two cats (Archibald and Sebastian), two turtles (Watson and Rosalind) and too many fish! When Dr Lord is not at work, she is most likely at the barn riding her Azteca mare in Dressage, cow events and Working Equitation.
Executive Director – Jennifer Williams
Jennifer Williams is co-founder of Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society. She served as President and Executive Director until 2019 when she stepped off the board to focus on the Executive Director duties: building Bluebonnet, implementing and managing meaningful programs that help horses and their humans, fundraising, and public relations.
Jennifer’s involvement with horses began with riding lessons at the age of 12, and she’s been riding ever since. She’s shown Arabians, Quarter Horses, and National Show Horses and rides sidesaddle, saddleseat, huntseat, western pleasure, and dressage.
Jennifer earned her BS in Psychology from Northeast Missouri State University (now called Truman State) in 1996 and earned both a Masters in Animal Science in 2001 and a Ph.D. in 2002 from Texas A&M University. While working on her Masters and Ph.D., Jennifer did research primarily in equine behavior and learning. Jennifer is also an award-winning author with articles in EQUUS, the Chronicle of the Horse, The Andalusian Magazine, Young Rider, and other regional and national magazines. Her first book, How to Start and Run a Rescue, is available on Amazon. Jennifer has also served an expert witness in court cases involving equine behavior in multiple states.
Jennifer lives in Rosharon, Texas with her husband, daughter, adopted horses and ponies, cats, dogs, and a big flock of Swedish Flower Hens (chickens).