The Humane Society of Central Illinois in Normal has announced Nicole Monson as its new executive director.
Monson, alongside newly promoted Director of Operations Mandy Hawker, will lead the adoption service into a new era highlighted by an upcoming dog floor renovation in September.
Monson was previously the nonprofit's event coordinator and then director of community engagement for two years at the shelter. After spending most of her time working with logistics and fundraising, she will now focus on the humane aspects of the shelter.
“The focus will still be on the animals ... and still a ton of community involvement. But the new role will give me more opportunity to see the whole organization,” Monson said in an interview on WGLT's Sound Ideas. “Previously, I would work mostly with just the fundraising and the income side, and now I'm working with the whole team and learning more about the animal care side.”
With a background primarily in marketing, events and fundraising, the new hire felt like a “natural progression” to Monson.
Although Monson sees it as natural, this is still new territory for the Humane Society’s executive director, who is getting to know her staff and the animals in a new way.
“I'm learning, over the last week or so, just all of the things that I didn't know. And so I'm just coming in curious and ready to learn,” she said, adding, “We have incredible staff and just learning more and more about what each of them does on a day-to-day basis has been really eye-opening.”
Under a newly hired executive committee, Monson is working with the group to establish a collective vision that continues to put the animals first. That starts with new shelter flooring for the Humane Society’s dogs.
“Our goal together is to kind of figure out what is our vision as a new group ... but obviously, the mission is always to care for animals in need in Central Illinois,” Monson said. “We're trying to get our animals adopted out, especially the dogs, so that we can take care of our new flooring project as well. So our main focus right now is that, but we're excited to roll out in the next few months a bigger visionary project.”
Upcoming renovations
The Humane Society began its dog floor renovation — set for major undertaking in September — by finishing the project’s first step of trenching.
After the Humane Society raised $120,000 for the shelter renovations in 2025, the organization realized it would need new dog kennels to replace the outdated ones it has now. Monson said that raised the cost of the renovations to $255,000.
The approximately 20-year-old kennels will be replaced alongside the floors.
“We're really excited about [it]. It's going to create safer, larger spaces for all of our dogs,” Monson said. “The flooring on our dog floor is just not sustainable. So, there's tiled floors in the dogs' kennels and as you can imagine, it's just impossible to clean fully.”
By the time of the renovation, the Humane Society is hoping to have many of its dogs adopted, but Monson is aware that it's unlikely that every dog will have a new home within the next two months.
“We're hoping that we only have to have [the dogs] out for under a week, so we are hoping to get a lot of dogs adopted in the next two months ... but if we need to find some fosters for some dogs to stay in for a couple days, we will absolutely do that,” she said.
Along with the renovation to the dog floor, Monson sees the Humane Society completing other renovation projects to positively impact the animals and their shelter.
As a nonprofit organization, the Humane Society does not receive federal funding. Monson credited the community as being the main source of aid for the organization.
“We’ve been incredibly supported by this community, and I don't foresee that ending anytime soon,” Monson said. “A main goal for me coming into this executive director role is just to grow those partnerships and the community support and give back to our community as they've given to us.”
