board of directors

sami monsur - founder & president

For the last 20 years, Sami Monsur has dedicated herself to public service, both professionally and privately.  As a long time community volunteer, activist and advocate she has worked to make the place we live more connected through the things that matter most, a sense of worth in being.

As an employee at San Jose State University, she participated with CommUniversity to turn her front yard into a neighbor’s garden where families could grow their own food. This garden ultimately turned into Garden 2 Table, an Urban Garden in San Jose that brought gardening classes and local organic vegetables to the community.

As a dedicated employee and manager, she personally started and funded two scholarships for staff and students.  One for students majoring in Spanish Literature and the other for staff who were also matriculated students. This last scholarship has grown and many across campus are now participating in it to help staff pursue their degrees.

Looking for the next way to help her community, she took inspiration from her dear dog, Filomena.  Filomena, like Sami had a nurturing spirit to take care of her furry friends. Filomena Farms was a natural next step for Sami to honor the caring spirit of Filomena.

With the help of animal rescuers from different walks of life, Sami turned her backyard into a beautiful dog play area where fosters can bring their pups to meet, greet and play. While the dogs have the opportunity to interact, their human caretakers share their stories.  Through the love of these cast aside pups, all come together sparking new ideas and ways to help our four-legged buddies. I invite you to join us in helping spread the compassion of the woof!

sandra zampino - secretary

​Sandra has been an educator for over 25 years. Her communication, leadership, and financial skills were acquired through her experience as teacher, technology coordinator, assistant principal, principal (where she managed over a $1 million budget), and university professor. She became involved in animal rescue, specifically being a vacation foster and in fundraising, after adopting Mowgli, a chihuahua and Rusty, a chihuahua/rat terrier mix from a local animal rescue group. They are lovingly called “the boyz” and we all live happily with poppa, Marc.

aubrey bowen - Director of communications

Founding Farmer Aubrey came to Filomena Farms as an animal rescue friend and later became the Operations Manager of a local rescue group. Aubrey is a dog mom to Bunkin (Terrier mix), Flea (Chihuahua mix), and Oliver (Lab/Hound mix), collectively nicknamed the “3 Brown Dogs”. They’re all lazy old men, rescued from various stray/shelter/animal control backgrounds in Florida and Georgia. Once upon a time, Aubrey spent a while as a law student; she loves and misses writing, so that is her main capacity at Filomena Farms. She and her husband, Drew - who also finds himself up to his ears in animal rescue alongside Aubrey - now live in Atlanta and love to travel, eat, kayak, and garden. Aubrey currently works as a Veterinary Assistant and loves getting her hands dirty to help save lives on the daily.

meghan newell - Treasurer

Meghan has come to Filomena Farms looking to help all animals across all rescues. She currently is a dog mom to two special pups! Dashaboo Jackerson is her black lab/corgi/doxie mix who was adopted from Doggie Protective Services. Leila Bear, a lovable 40 pound pibble, is a foster fail (oops!) who has captured the hearts of her pawrents. Meghan has a background in statistics and political science and earned a masters at UC Davis. Currently, she works in the running industry as a sales rep for Brooks Running, where she has plenty of opportunities to bring her pups to work! Dash and Leila definitely get their exercise in, running 5-10 miles a week! She's worked with various rescues over the past few years and can't wait to help more in the future through Filomena Farms!

founding farmers

DEB CODIROLI

She lives for adventure - the adventure of befriending that one animal and improving their life. She believes in exploration of nature and relationships. She works for conservation - for the welfare of pets and the people that own them. She's a dog/cat nerd who outdorks on a mission to learning anything and everything about animal and human behavior.

armani Mondragón 

Armani is a rescue mom, artist, and author. She finds peace and tranquility in nature; Armani shares her little slice of country heaven with shelter dogs who deserve solace and respite from their harsh pasts. Armani works tirelessly to provide a safe haven for the unwanted. Her quiet demeanor hides the spirit of a ferocious advocate and thus she founded Brave Dogs Advocacy. Armani’s daughter, Dylyn, is also an animal lover and her mother’s absolute pride and joy.

marc zampino 

After his 16 year old Westie passed away, it took two years of grieving before Marc and his wife, Sandra were ready for new four legged additions to their home. They had met several of the now Founding Farmers through various social circles and were introduced to the world of animal rescue, seeing first hand the need and joy involved in helping bring life, happiness, and security to otherwise abandoned pets. They adopted two pups through a rescue group and then helped vacation foster other dogs and participated in fundraising events for various rescue organizations before becoming a Founding Farmer. Being an engineer and tech worker by profession, Marc provides technical and logistics support to the fundraising activities, including putting his passion for digital photography to good use as one the of the photographers documenting activities.