San Diego artist helps special needs and senior pets find a home
By Geneen Montgomery
Meet local artist and animal special needs rescue advocate, Carla Naden, of Synergy Animal Rescue Carla is a San Diego animal rescue advocate who is dedicated to saving and finding homes for special needs and senior shelter animals. She is also an incredibly talented local artist with a passion for animal artwork. She combines her artistic skills with her love of animals to create custom pieces of art for people nationwide (and a portion of the proceeds helps to support Synergy’s lifesaving rescue animal work).
Carla’s artwork is tangible and easy to gaze at for long periods of time. Each time you look, you’ll see a new element or detail you missed the last 100 times. She uses paint, fabric, ink, letraset, collage, etc. to create these amazing pieces. What’s the best part? They so beautifully and so accurately capture each animal’s soul.
The Art of Saving Animals
“I like art because I get to be messy, dirty, and creative. There are no rules,” says Carla. She also applies that same logic to her animal rescue work, thinking outside the box and doing whatever it takes to help an animal in need.
It all started with a dog named Nugget. “I was taking a tour of a shelter with another rescue organization, and there was this little, old, skinny dog—he looked like an opossum—barely moving in the back kennel. The shelter said he had one more day and that was it. I decided then and there that I would take him to spend the remainder of his old life with my animal family and me.”
Nugget was given two weeks to live, but with the help of local veterinarian, Dra Rebeca Serrano, he lived for another seven months.
In 2013, she started Animal Synergy to work with shelters to save the geriatric, the broken, and those with missing limbs or eyes. “This is the sector of the animals in shelters that everyone tends to ignore, as they are not considered ‘adoptable.’ Initially, the shelters told me it was too hard, or would cost too much. I knew I had to open people’s eyes and hearts and homes to these beautiful animals that have so much to teach us.
“We overcame the odds and accomplished exactly what everyone had told me was impossible! Thirty animals have been saved to date!
“Elvis was one of them. He was rescued from animal control. Elvis could not use his back legs or control his bowels, but there was a flicker of light in his eyes and we knew he wanted to live. We provided him with love, medical care, and support. With the help of Tsavo’s Canine Rehabilitation & Fitness Center, Inc. (who graciously donated rehabilitation services to Synergy), along with many hours of hugs and snuggles, Elvis is not only walking, but he even goes on hikes with his new family!
“Tinkerbell was rescued from animal control a few months ago, scared and broken. Tink was loved, rehabilitated, and recently road tripped to her new forever home in Oregon!”
If you want to help: “We now have an opportunity in San Diego to go into the shelter system as volunteers and practice the art of kennel enrichment. This means not just walking the dogs, but enriching their lives, changing the whole shelter experience to be one of love and kindness—sitting with them, reading to them, misting them with lavender. This means making the animals happier so when people come to look for a dog, they see a happier dog, one that perhaps knows how to sit, one with love and hope in its eyes; not sadness. At the end of the day it’s all about the animals—let’s make it a good day.”
For more information on art or volunteering contact [email protected].
San Diego artist helps special needs and senior pets find a home
By Geneen Montgomery
Meet local artist and animal special needs rescue advocate, Carla Naden, of Synergy Animal Rescue Carla is a San Diego animal rescue advocate who is dedicated to saving and finding homes for special needs and senior shelter animals. She is also an incredibly talented local artist with a passion for animal artwork. She combines her artistic skills with her love of animals to create custom pieces of art for people nationwide (and a portion of the proceeds helps to support Synergy’s lifesaving rescue animal work).
Carla’s artwork is tangible and easy to gaze at for long periods of time. Each time you look, you’ll see a new element or detail you missed the last 100 times. She uses paint, fabric, ink, letraset, collage, etc. to create these amazing pieces. What’s the best part? They so beautifully and so accurately capture each animal’s soul.
The Art of Saving Animals
“I like art because I get to be messy, dirty, and creative. There are no rules,” says Carla. She also applies that same logic to her animal rescue work, thinking outside the box and doing whatever it takes to help an animal in need.
It all started with a dog named Nugget. “I was taking a tour of a shelter with another rescue organization, and there was this little, old, skinny dog—he looked like an opossum—barely moving in the back kennel. The shelter said he had one more day and that was it. I decided then and there that I would take him to spend the remainder of his old life with my animal family and me.”
Nugget was given two weeks to live, but with the help of local veterinarian, Dra Rebeca Serrano, he lived for another seven months.
In 2013, she started Animal Synergy to work with shelters to save the geriatric, the broken, and those with missing limbs or eyes. “This is the sector of the animals in shelters that everyone tends to ignore, as they are not considered ‘adoptable.’ Initially, the shelters told me it was too hard, or would cost too much. I knew I had to open people’s eyes and hearts and homes to these beautiful animals that have so much to teach us.
“We overcame the odds and accomplished exactly what everyone had told me was impossible! Thirty animals have been saved to date!
“Elvis was one of them. He was rescued from animal control. Elvis could not use his back legs or control his bowels, but there was a flicker of light in his eyes and we knew he wanted to live. We provided him with love, medical care, and support. With the help of Tsavo’s Canine Rehabilitation & Fitness Center, Inc. (who graciously donated rehabilitation services to Synergy), along with many hours of hugs and snuggles, Elvis is not only walking, but he even goes on hikes with his new family!
“Tinkerbell was rescued from animal control a few months ago, scared and broken. Tink was loved, rehabilitated, and recently road tripped to her new forever home in Oregon!”
If you want to help: “We now have an opportunity in San Diego to go into the shelter system as volunteers and practice the art of kennel enrichment. This means not just walking the dogs, but enriching their lives, changing the whole shelter experience to be one of love and kindness—sitting with them, reading to them, misting them with lavender. This means making the animals happier so when people come to look for a dog, they see a happier dog, one that perhaps knows how to sit, one with love and hope in its eyes; not sadness. At the end of the day it’s all about the animals—let’s make it a good day.”
For more information on art or volunteering contact [email protected].
Implementing a farm-to-table model hardly deserves acknowledgement these days. It’s not a stretch. It’s not innovative. “It’s the bare f**king minimum,” says Herb & Sea‘s executive chef Aidan Owens.
When I arrive at the Encinitas restaurant, I’m ready to talk sustainability, farm-to-table stuff, with Owens. “Did you see the chin on that?” he says of the extra big jiggly chin on the sheephead that just arrived with the day’s fresh catch. I did. It was Jay Leno adjacent.
I learn quickly that he somehow oozes both charm and stone-cold honesty. Maybe he could construct a new dish with chin goo, like he did when he had a bunch of tuna scraps and voila’d it into a smooth and crowd-pleasing ‘nduja. “I want to know what’s in there,” he says.
Courtesy of Herb & Sea
The instinct to look closer, to dig into what others might discard, says a lot about the chef’s approach. I guide him back to our topic, but he has something else on his mind. “We’re overcomplicating food—what happened to just cooking good food and having fun with it?”
Owens grew up on a farm in Byron Bay, Australia, where sustainability wasn’t a concept you chat about so much as a way of life. Think dirt roads, backyard chickens, pulling vegetables straight from the ground, and a mother who believed that if you couldn’t pronounce the ingredients on a package, you shouldn’t eat what was inside.
Food wasn’t precious or performative. Making it was what you did because you were hungry and that’s still what inspires Owens today. “I like to cook good food because I like to eat good food,” he says.
His approach to sustainability at Herb & Sea began so naturally that it felt just like instinct. “I was just like, ‘Let’s order food from the people who live and work here,’” he says.
Courtesy of Herb & Sea
And why wouldn’t he when lives in San Diego? Cities all over the world vie for our goods. Our tuna is sent overseas. Our spiny lobsters hit dinner plates in China and Japan. Not to mention California’s producing a third of the country’s vegetables and three-quarters of its fruits and nuts.
“Why would we outsource when it’s all here?” Owens asks.
Sustainability, in this context, is about cooking what exists in abundance, nearby, right now. “I love the local fish here. It’s f**king delicious and San Diego citrus, I mean, it is so f**ing good,” he says.
Instead of importing ingredients, Owens also looks for nearby alternatives. “You can find really cool things in the local waters,” he says, pointing out that stingray cheeks taste similar to scallops.
Courtesy of Herb & Sea
Whatever he finds in that sheephead chin might just be the next substitute for marrow. But to make this work, it means getting diners amped up about the slightly unfamiliar.
Tasting menus, where diners are completely in his hands, become an opportunity to gently push boundaries. “I’ll serve mackerel, because people think they hate it,” Owens says, noting that the abundant local fish can have some fishiness. “But when it’s fresh, it’s arguably one of the best fish in the ocean.”
He also tweaks the language on the menu so people might feel more compelled to give dishes a try without preconceived notions. He might use “lengua” instead of “tongue.” “Whelk” instead of “snail.” When he puts “stingray throat” on the menu, he disarmingly calls it “skate.”
To reduce waste, scraps aren’t always discarded but rather turned into something new. Sometimes they’re smoked, cured or fermented. Apples going bad turn into apple ponzu. Lemons turn to marmalade, which stretches their usefulness far beyond peak season. “And it’s super tasty on our pizza,” he says.
What makes the food even richer, is the relationships he’s built with farmers. Though it didn’t always feel natural, Owens sought personal connection first. He recalls approaching a fisherman at the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market. “I was awkward,” he says. “I went up to him and said, ‘I like your fish.’”
Owen’s is now so close to his suppliers—like fishermen Ryan Sebo and Joe Daly—that he gets texted pictures of fresh catches right as they flop on the boat. The messages always ask if he wants first dibs. “I say yes to a lot of fish,” Owens says, noting that Herb & Sea can go through 2,000 pounds of seafood a week.
Courtesy of Herb & Sea
The next evolution of sustainability, in his view, will be chefs working directly with producers such as his alliance with Sebo, cutting out middlemen and purveyors where possible. “It will put more money in the pockets of the people doing the work,” he says.
It will mean that chefs can’t just know their local farmers and producers, but they’ll choose to work with the ones who have the best practices. Dining and sustainability will become much less about the final plate. “It will be more about the impact that plate has on the Earth,” he says.
Ultimately, he believes sustainability doesn’t need to be loud. It doesn’t need hashtags. It just needs to be honest.
“We aren’t saving lives. We’re feeding people good food,” he says.
And yet, in feeding people well—simply, thoughtfully, responsibly—something meaningful happens. Guests leave satisfied. Ingredients are respected. Local ecosystems are supported and food returns to what it has always been at its core: nourishment, pleasure, and a quiet reflection of the place it comes from.
Baja California chalks up more ties to China than meets the unassuming eye. Not only is Mexico’s northernmost state home to its largest per capita community of Chinese immigrants, their Mexodus has resulted in Mexicali-style Chinese cuisine, now famous from Cabo to Cancun. The two also share a maritime border (albeit the widest in the world)—the Pacific Ocean, over which Aeromexico jets folks from Tijuana direct to Shanghai twice weekly. And now, Tijuana boasts a new art house dedicated to the flow of cultural industry between Beijing, Baja, and beyond: TJINCHINA Project Space. The project is the brainchild of Tijuana artists and husband-and-wife team Daniel Ruanova and Mely Barragan, who launched it in 2011 during a two-year stint in Beijing’s trendy Caochangdi art district. The pair later returned home to open TJINCHINA’s second chapter in February on Avenida Revolución.
Housed in what was once the typical tchotchke outfitters between Sixth and Seventh streets, the two-story gallery now plays host to what Barragan and Ruanova call “cultural producers of an ever-shrinking local art network.” It’s focused on an exchange across new borders, hoisting border-manufactured art onto the Beijing scene, and vice versa. “We believe that what is happening in Tijuana today is something new, true, and authentic,” Ruanova says. “If we continue doing things with honesty, openness, and desire, it could be that this time the border boom leaves something for tijuanenses.”
Baja California chalks up more ties to China than meets the unassuming eye. Not only is Mexico’s northernmost state home to its largest per capita community of Chinese immigrants, their Mexodus has resulted in Mexicali-style Chinese cuisine, now famous from Cabo to Cancun. The two also share a maritime border (albeit the widest in the world)—the Pacific Ocean, over which Aeromexico jets folks from Tijuana direct to Shanghai twice weekly. And now, Tijuana boasts a new art house dedicated to the flow of cultural industry between Beijing, Baja, and beyond: TJINCHINA Project Space. The project is the brainchild of Tijuana artists and husband-and-wife team Daniel Ruanova and Mely Barragan, who launched it in 2011 during a two-year stint in Beijing’s trendy Caochangdi art district. The pair later returned home to open TJINCHINA’s second chapter in February on Avenida Revolución.
Housed in what was once the typical tchotchke outfitters between Sixth and Seventh streets, the two-story gallery now plays host to what Barragan and Ruanova call “cultural producers of an ever-shrinking local art network.” It’s focused on an exchange across new borders, hoisting border-manufactured art onto the Beijing scene, and vice versa. “We believe that what is happening in Tijuana today is something new, true, and authentic,” Ruanova says. “If we continue doing things with honesty, openness, and desire, it could be that this time the border boom leaves something for tijuanenses.”
Torch Heroes: Why San Diego’s Most Trusted Businesses Win by Doing the Right Thing
In a world overflowing with shortcuts, marketing fluff, and “good enough,” there are still companies that choose a different answer. And in San Diego, there are plenty of them.
2025-Torch-SD-09131839 (2)
In a world overflowing with shortcuts, marketing fluff, and “good enough,” there are still companies that choose a different answer.
Integrity guides how they show up every day. They make hard decisions, hold themselves accountable, and build trust the old-fashioned way, one action at a time. At the Better Business Bureau, we call these businesses Torch Heroes: leaders who demonstrate that ethical leadership strengthens businesses and drives long-term success.
And in San Diego, there are plenty of them.
Take House Collective Marketing Solutions, a Carlsbad-based digital agency that won the 2025 Torch Award for Ethics for its people-first approach to marketing. Instead of pushing flashy campaigns, the team often takes a step back to make sure clients’ foundations are strong before going big. Their philosophy? Truth over transaction builds partnerships that last.
Or look at Young Black & N’ Business, where integrity shows up through community action. When a local school lost art funding, founder Roosevelt Williams III and his team stepped in with workshops, mentorship, and hands-on support to help restore creative opportunity. That kind of engagement reflects ethical leadership rooted in real impact.
And in Vista, Lotus Sustainables carried its commitment to ethics all the way to the product line. After discovering defects in a shipment of eco-friendly products, the company issued full refunds and redesigned its offerings at its own expense, a choice that shaped its identity and reinforced to customers that ethics guide every decision.
In North County, Greenway Landscape Design & Build brings integrity into everyday service. When a client’s glass was damaged, likely not by their crew, owner Scott Lawn chose responsibility over blame and covered the repair personally. For Greenway, doing the right thing serves as a north star, guiding every interaction through transparent pricing, accountable partnerships, proactive communication, and follow-through long after the job is done.
Other honorees include At Your Home Familycare, whose leadership turned down a lucrative state contract during the pandemic to protect vulnerable clients and staff, and Bill Howe Family of Companies, where hiring practices, training, and service centers around shared values, every day, on every call.
What connects these diverse businesses, from marketing to nonprofit support to home services, isn’t size, industry, or revenue. It’s something deeper: a commitment to trust as a business strategy.
In San Diego’s competitive marketplace, that trust gives companies an edge. Clients invest in relationships. They refer friends. They stay loyal when others fade.
As one Torch Award winner puts it, integrity isn’t a section in the employee handbook. It’s the operating system of the company, the invisible code that determines every choice, every day.
And that’s exactly the point of the BBB Torch Awards for Ethics: to spotlight companies that dispel the myth that ethics and success are at odds. These businesses show that when leaders choose honesty, fairness, and accountability, especially when it’s hard, they build brands that matter.
At BBB, we see nominations come in from clients, employees, and business partners who have witnessed ethical leadership up close. These submissions aren’t polished promotions. They’re stories of moments when a company chose people over profit, clarity over confusion, and trust over convenience.
The nomination window for the 2026 Torch Awards for Ethics is open through March 31, 2026, and there are more Torch Heroes waiting to be recognized.
Who comes to mind in San Diego’s business community?
A vendor who always delivers — and always explains why.
A competitor who chooses the high road even when shortcuts tempt.
A team within your own company whose day-in, day-out choices reflect deep character.
And yes, businesses can nominate themselves. We encourage it. If you’ve built your business on principles rather than buzzwords, we want to hear your story.
Because in a world full of noise, integrity still deserves the spotlight, and San Diego is full of stories worth telling. Nominate your hero now.
