Kara Richardson, MGBS

Kara has worked in the animal field since 1992, starting as a volunteer at the local zoo and then progressing to vet offices, including an exotics vet office, until 2004. In May 2004, she decided to become a professional groomer and apprenticed at a shop in Chantilly, VA. She started her business, The Purrfect Paws, on October 31, 2016. It began as a house call business and expanded to include a stationary location in 2018. In 2023, she decided to limit house calls to cats and select toy-breed dogs while keeping most breed dogs in the salon setting.

After completing her Fear Free Certification, Kara started her canine behavior path in 2020. In August 2022, Kara graduated from the WPGA as a Master Groomer Behavior Specialist. This set her on the path of learning beyond and helped her gain knowledge in other niches of the grooming industry, such as holistic grooming. Additionally, she aims to continue her education in feline behavior; she believes it is an often overlooked field, and pet owners may not have complete knowledge of their feline friends' needs.

As an apprentice groomer, learning hands-on in a busy salon environment without the benefit of a structured classroom education, Kara feels that missing out on a more formal education held her back, and she is making up for that with a drive to continue learning and advancing her skills to offset that imbalance. Nowadays, there are limitless topics to learn about in the grooming industry that hadn't even been thought of twenty years ago! Her hope and dream is to inspire other stylists to keep learning and understand that education is a never-ending journey. At WPGA, Kara's passion for education inspires her students daily.