About The Author

Rickey Onadja

Rickey Onadja’s journey as a storyteller is rooted in a life rich with curiosity, compassion, and cross-cultural experiences. She grew up in Vallejo, California, where Sunday evenings spent watching National Geographic and Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom ignited her fascination with Africa and its wildlife. As a child, she dreamed of one day creating a sanctuary where giraffes and elephants roam freely.

Her early years were also shaped by her family’s hands-on creativity. With a father in the construction business, weekends often meant building custom homes from the ground up — digging foundations, installing wiring, and painting walls. This spirit of hard work, resourcefulness, and problem-solving would follow her throughout life.

Rickey pursued her love for languages and cultures with determination, earning a Bachelor’s degree in French Linguistics and Literature from UC Santa Barbara in 1986, and a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Monterey Institute of International Studies in 1988. As the first in her family to attend college, she overcame both financial and cultural challenges, holding fast to her belief that education is the great equalizer.

In 1988, she joined the U.S. Peace Corps, serving as a lecturer in the English Department at the Université de Niamey in Niger, West Africa. There, she developed a resource center for students, edited Peace Corps newsletters, and co-founded a self-defense program for incoming volunteers. Her two years in Niger — and later, her participation in the Fulbright Teaching Exchange Program in Benin — deepened her commitment to cross-cultural understanding, human equality, and literacy.

Upon returning to the United States, Rickey devoted more than 32 years to the Los Angeles Unified School District as an English, ESL, History, and French teacher, and later as a literacy coach, ESL coordinator, and high school administrator. She founded clubs that raised funds for education projects in Mali and Peru, organized trips to Washington, D.C., and used the world itself as her classroom.

Beyond her professional life, Rickey’s home was always filled with animals — many of them rescues. Together with her daughters, Sophia and Sasha, she fostered and adopted pets of all kinds, instilling in her children the same compassion and sense of responsibility she shares with her readers today.

In retirement, Rickey has combined her lifelong passions for storytelling, animal advocacy, and cultural inclusivity into her Pet Rescue Series — heartwarming, true-to-life stories, inspired by the real animals she has rescued. Her debut title, Juneau’s Journey: A Tale of Love and Rescue, tells the story of a skittish husky pup who found her forever home. Future books will continue to celebrate love, second chances, and the lessons animals teach us about humanity.

For Rickey, storytelling is not just a creative pursuit — it is a call to compassion, a celebration of diversity, and an enduring belief that even the smallest acts of kindness can change the course of a life, one paw at a time.