BOD Bios

Darren Binder

BOARD CHAIR, VICE PRESIDENT, TREASURER
Rescue Co-Founder​​

Darren is a co-founder of City Dogs Rescue & City Kitties and lived in D.C. for 20 years prior to moving to Bend, Oregon two years ago for a new position. Darren was motivated to start the rescue in 2011 after seeing a plea on Facebook about a beautiful Labrador retriever puppy named Bentley who was going to be euthanized at a high-kill shelter in Georgia. Darren and his husband Dave Liedman quickly acted to raise funds to rescue Bentley, who became CDCK’s first rescue dog. Once in DC, this friendly guy soon found his future adopter while walking through Dupont Circle with an “adopt me” vest on. It became abundantly clear that the lives of so many other wonderful animals could also be transformed if resources could be mobilized to relocate them to a place where they would receive much more visibility. Hence, City Dogs Rescue (now City Dogs & City Kitties) was born.

Darren serves as Senior Vice President & Chief Legal and Risk Officer as well as Corporate Secretary for a health system in Oregon. In his role, Darren oversees the Legal, Internal Audit, Compliance, and Information Security Departments, and is a member of the health system’s Executive Care Team. He was recently appointed by Governor Kate Brown to serve as the industry representative on the Executive Committee of the Central Oregon Regional Solutions Advisory Committee. He is also a member of the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health System’s Health Equity Advisory Taskforce.

Darren previously served as Vice President & Deputy General Counsel at Bon Secours Health System, Inc. in Columbia, Maryland. Prior to serving as in-house counsel, Darren worked for eight years in private practice at the national law firms of Arent Fox PLLC in Washington, D.C. and Jenkens & Gilchrist, P.C. in Houston, Texas.

Darren received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics-Economics (magna cum laude) from Union College and was elected as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He is a graduate of Boston College Law School, where he served as Senior Notes & Comments Editor of the Boston College International & Comparative Law Review.
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Darren also served for many years as a Board member of Premier Homecare, a home care agency affiliated with the Jewish Social Service Agency of Metropolitan Washington.

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Dave Liedman

PRESIDENT
Rescue Co-Founder​​

Dave is a co-founder of City Dogs & City Kitties Rescue and lived in D.C. for 15 years prior to moving to Bend, Oregon with husband Darren Binder and along with their 2 children Austin and Keira, dog, Cody, and cats Schweppes and Scotch. Dave had been looking to use excess boarding space at his dog daycare business, City Dogs Daycare, for housing dogs available for adoption, when his City Dogs & City Kitties co-founder found a black lab named Bentley needing rescue from being euthanized at a shelter. The success of Bentley’s adoption led them to found City Dogs Rescue & City Kitties, a rescue dedicated to rescuing pets in kill shelters and adopting them into loving families in the Washington, DC area.

Dave’s professional background is in communications systems engineering, however, in 2004, he acquired City Dogs Daycare with a business partner. Dave grew the business, adding dog walking, grooming, and a pet supplies store, and added a second location on DC’s H Street NE to the existing location on 18 th Street NW. City Dogs Daycare has supported many local
charities and organizations over the years, including countless donations of services to local school fundraisers. Dave’s philanthropic interests as well as experience in the pet care industry were key in establishing City Dogs Rescue & City Kitties as an organization that became known for providing high quality care for shelter pets with medical needs. Dave’s business City Dogs Daycare has donated boarding space for up to 6 dogs at a time, at a value of over $100,000 per
year.

Together with husband Darren, Dave has had nearly 50 foster dogs and cats since starting City Dogs & City Kitties. Dave finds reward in the joy that each foster dog or cat brings to their new family. He has often volunteered to foster pets that needed extra help in their health or behavior. He has been an emergency contact for all sick pets in the rescue to make sure the all receive the care they needed.
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Dave earned his Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering (with distinction) from the University of Virginia. There he played the trumpet in the Virginia Swing Jazz Orchestra. Upon completion of his degree, Dave initially worked for the Mitre Corporation in air-ground communications systems for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). He is currently an Epic Application Analyst at St. Charles Health System in Bend, Oregon.

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Sasha Miller

​SECRETARY
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Sasha is a partner at Zuckerman Spaeder LLP in Washington, DC. She is a is a nationally recognized litigator in food and drug law and focuses her practice on representing clients in FDA regulatory matters and in Hatch-Waxman litigation.
Sasha also maintains a robust civil litigation practice focused primarily on securities and SEC enforcement.  Sasha received her A.B.  from Brown University and a J.D., cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School.

Sasha is one of CDCK’s original board members and served as a rescue volunteer for many years. ​

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Dr. Dan Teich, DVM

BOARD ​MEMBER
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Dr. Teich is the founder and medical director of District Veterinary Hospital. His practice provides veterinary medical services in the DC Metropolitan area with a focus on serving the unique needs of pets and clients in an urban setting.  Dr. Teich previously  served as the medical director for the Washington Humane Society, finding forever homes for homeless pets and assisting DC’s too-often forgotten pet population. ​With a passion for veterinary medicine that developed in childhood, the foundation for Dr. Teich’s practice is providing compassionate care and nurturing a lifelong bond with both clients and their pets. Dr. Teich received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from The Ohio State University.

Dr Teich adopted rescue dog Brian ‘T’ Dog (named for Monty Python’s Life of Brian), who accompanies Teich to the hospital from time to time to welcome clients. 

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Jodi Sirotnak

BOARD ​MEMBER
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Jodi currently serves as a competitive intelligence specialist at Cherokee Federal, a tribally owned contracting company. 

Jodi joined the board in 2015 after serving as a volunteer for many years.  That same year, she was instrumental in adding the cat rescue program and oversees the program’s volunteers and shelter coordination. Jodi hails from New Jersey, where she comes from a long line of cat rescuers. Her family always took in neighborhood strays. Jodi moved to Northern Virginia and received a master’s degree from George Mason University. ​

​Jodi fosters for the rescue, mostly nursing moms and kittens. She has adopted several times from the rescue over the years, a dog Piper, and cats Cassius, Oberon, Jonesy, Goose, and Jim.

Raymond Gonzales, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR