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  • MMPC Learniverse - Breathing Space: Controlling Canine Respiratory Disease Amid Shelter Crowding (On Demand)
    Contains 6 Component(s), Includes Credits

    Facing increasing intake numbers and the constant threat of infectious disease? If it seems like dogs keep getting sick no matter what you do, join KSMP Outreach Veterinarian Dr. Chumkee Aziz and learn steps you can take today to prevent and manage Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease (CIRD) in your shelter.

    Webinar Overview

    Facing increasing intake numbers and the constant threat of infectious disease? If it seems like dogs keep getting sick no matter what you do, join KSMP Outreach Veterinarian Dr. Chumkee Aziz and learn steps you can take today to prevent and manage Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease (CIRD) in your shelter. 

    With proven isolation and quarantine protocols, your team can create crucial room to breathe, ensuring more dogs stay healthy and ready for adoption.

    By the end of this webinar, you’ll be ready to:
    • Pinpoint key risk factors that fuel CIRD spread and severity in shelters, and know when and how to use isolation, quarantine, and foster care strategies to effectively manage CIRD.
    • Evaluate and apply the latest vaccination recommendations for CIRD prevention, while recognizing their effectiveness and limitations in shelter settings.
    • Create treatment plans for CIRD cases, focusing on choosing the right antibiotics and using them responsibly, and knowing when to run tests.
    • Understand how managing your shelter's capacity, using good housing, and reducing stress can help prevent CIRD.

    From RVTs and DVMs and beyond, everyone in the shelter has the power to have a big impact on animal health. CIRD doesn’t have to be status quo!

    Continuing Education Credits 

    This webinar has been approved for 1 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator (CAWA) continuing education credit by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement (AAWA) and by National Animal Care and Control Association (NACA). 

    This course has been approved for 1 hour of RACE continuing education credit until 5/21/27  in jurisdictions that recognize RACE approval. Upon completing the course and passing the quiz, upload your certificate to https://CEBroker.com. This is the broker used by the AAVSB to track your continuing education credits.

    Keywords

    MMPC, Shelter, Learniverse, CIRD prevention, isolation protocols, vaccination, treatment plans, shelter management

    Contact

    Email us at help@shelterlearniverse.com if you have any questions or concerns about this webinar.

    Maddie’s® Pet Forum Discussion Thread

    You can also join the discussion about these concepts over on Maddie's Pet Forum in the discussion thread. CLICK HERE

    Maddie’s® Million Pet Challenge

    With the Maddie’s® Million Pet Challenge, the Five Key Initiatives of the Million Cat Challenge have expanded to include other species at risk in shelters and evolved into the Four Rights.  

    Within the Four Rights, every element works in concert to support one another: animals and people are treated as individuals, empowering shelter staff to make the best decisions for everyone; community safety net services are in place and flourishing; and humane care within the shelter is provided, with appropriate outcomes for the animals that do come in, allowing shelters to deliver the Right Care, in the Right Place, at the Right Time, and to the Right Outcome

    Learn more about  Maddie's® Million Pet Challenge Learniverse.  #ThankstoMaddie

    Mehnaz (Chumkee) Aziz, DVM

    Outreach Veterinarian

    Koret Shelter Medicine Program, UC Davis

    Chumkee obtained her DVM degree at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in 2012. She then completed an internship at the ASPCA’s Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital in NYC in 2013, which included experience in anti-cruelty work and shelter medicine. Chumkee was a resident at the KSMP from 2013-2016. She headed the Northern Tier Shelter Initiative and served as Senior Director of Shelter Medicine Services at the ASPCA before returning to the KSMP in January, 2022 as an outreach veterinarian.Her current interests include the role of community collaboration in mitigating pet homelessness, proactive shelter population management, and infectious disease prevention in shelters. 

  • Accomplishing the Goal of Successful Outcomes
    Contains 3 Component(s), Includes Credits

    Learn about safely and successfully placing animals (with a focus on big dogs) in homes and supporting fosters and adopters.

    This course is part of Maddie's Monthly Behavior Connection, monthly webcasts about pet behavior - supporting pets in our community and animal shelters.

    In this talk, Dr. Carley Faughn will focus on behavioral outcomes for cats and dogs, with an emphasis on large dogs but relevant to all animals. How do you communicate behavior challenges to potential fosters and/or adopters? How does your team discuss these challenges among themselves? How does your team work to de-escalate conversations with potential fosters/adopters as well as the community? What happens once an animal leaves your shelter that has behavior challenges? Dr. Faughn will share tips for all of these questions, with real life examples from 20+ years of experience in animal welfare. Meaningful goals are to keep pets and families safe, together, and happy. In this talk, you will learn ways to accomplish increased lifesaving within your shelter and next foregoing into community homes. Attendees will learn about:

    ·      Tips for safely getting dogs with behavior challenges into foster and ready for adoption with efficient timelines.

    ·      What you can do in and out of the shelter to capture and highlight animals’ fundamental qualities

    ·      Proven strategies for supporting animals with behavior concerns after adoption with a focus on follow-ups, who should be involved in the follow-ups, and ways to keep track of significant behavior information after dogs leave the shelter.

    ·      De-escalation techniques when communicating with distraught fosters, adopters, and the community, as well as working with their own team members. 

    ·      How to create a “Tip Sheet Template” to be individually designed for animals moving into foster care and/or adoptive homes

    Speaker: Carley Faughn, PhD, CAAB, Outcomes & Behavior Manager at the Humane Society of Vero Beach & Indian River County

    This webinar has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association.

    Visit Maddie's Pet Forum to comment, access the resources, follow a discussion or ask questions: https://maddies.fund/BehaviorC...

    keywords Maddie's Monthly Behavior Connection, animal euthanasia decisions, Dr. Carley Faughn, Humane Society of Vero Beach & Indian River County

    Carley Faughn, PhD, CAAB

    Outcomes & Behavior Manager

    Humane Society of Vero Beach & Indian River County

    Dr. Carley Faughn (PhD, CAAB) has worked with canines, felines and nonhuman primates since 2007, merging her passion for comparative cognition, animal welfare, animal rescue while supporting the communities in which she has lived and beyond. Dr. Faughn is a certified applied animal behaviorist (CAAB) and currently serves as the Outcomes & Behavior Manager at the Humane Society of Vero Beach & Indian River County. She has provided numerous presentations (in-person and virtually) at conferences nationally and internationally throughout her career. Her purpose is helping animals in shelters as well as keeping pets and families together within all communities. She has worked extensively with dogs (and cats) with advanced behavior challenges and implemented behavior modification plans to better provide these animals learned skills from repeated practice resulting with success. Dr. Faughn is respectful & enthusiastic with providing virtual behavior and shelter consultations along with in-person consultations across the country.  In order to develop creative wellness and enrichment plans to facilitate teachings about animal behavior and cognition via Dr. Faughn’s behavior & shelter consulting company, ZenPet has proven to be significant & empowering.  Before joining the Humane Society of Vero Beach, Dr. Faughn held various roles within Best Friends Animal Society. This includes but not limited to Dogtown manager to senior manager of animal care to her past position focusing on applied research within the lifesaving scope. She served as executive director of Acadiana Animal Aid in Lafayette, Louisiana, and completed her PhD in cognitive science at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2014

    In her free time, Dr. Faughn enjoys serving on the Board of Directors for Free Dog Training, hiking with her dog Charlie, spending time with her cat Cochi, as well as kayaking, swimming, yoga, meditation, being outdoors and doing all of these things with her life partner.

  • New!

    Helping Dogs Build Resilience Against Shelter Stress
    Contains 3 Component(s), Includes Credits

    Recognize shelter stress and develop enrichment, games and activities to help dogs decompress and relax

    This course explores the effects of stress on shelter dogs and various interventions to alleviate it. Interventions include enrichment, activities, and pattern games that promote decompression.

    After successfully completing this course you will be able to:

    • Identify signs of fear, anxiety and stress (FAS) in dogs
    • Explain how stress affects behavior and health
    • Develop enrichment to help dogs decompress
    • Use simple training games and activities to help dogs relax

    Course author: Ferdie Yau (MA, CPDT-KA)

  • Behind the Bark: What Foster Feedback Can Teach Any Program
    Contains 3 Component(s), Includes Credits

    Daisy Navin, Foster Programs Manager at LifeLine Animal Project, discusses how she solicited and used feedback from fosters to make improvements to one of the largest foster programs in the country.

    This course is part of Maddie's Monthly Foster Connection, monthly webcasts about foster care - supporting pets in our community and animal shelters. 

    When fosters speak up, we sometimes default to extremes: either it's just "one unhappy person," or it's a sign the whole program is broken beyond repair. But the truth about how fosters experience your program lives in the gaps between assumptions and reality. In this talk, we'll explore how LifeLine Animal Project developed, launched, and analyzed a foster experience survey to uncover hidden trends, validate unspoken concerns, and turn raw feedback into rapid, strategic improvements. Whether you lead a large shelter or a volunteer-based rescue program, the lessons behind the data can help you strengthen your foundation, one honest answer at a time.

    Presenter:: Daisy Navin, Foster Programs Manager, LifeLine Animal Project

    This webinar has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association.

    Visit Maddie's Pet Forum to comment, follow a discussion or ask questions: https://maddies.fund/FosterCon...

    Keywords Maddie's Monthly Foster Connection, Daisy Navin, pet foster care, LifeLine Animal Project, pet foster care data, foster feedback, feedback survey, foster retention, foster satisfaction

    Dasiy Nevin

    Foster Programs Manager

    LifeLine Animal Project

    Daisy Navin is the Foster Programs Manager at LifeLine Animal Project, where she oversees foster program development strategy across three Atlanta shelters, including two high-intake municipal facilities. She helped grow LifeLine’s foster program into one of the largest in the country, which placed over 13,000 animals into foster homes 2024. Daisy is passionate about low-barrier fostering, matchmaking, foster relations, and turning everyday insights into meaningful change. She’s presented with Maddie’s Fund on foster onboarding and loves collaborating with other shelters to troubleshoot, innovate, and share life-saving ideas. Her work focuses around one question: what do fosters need to keep saying yes?

  • Leadership through the Lifesaving and Euthanasia Process
    Contains 3 Component(s), Includes Credits

    How Cincinatti Animal Care (CAC) has worked to develop a strong culture to support lifesaving, even when decisions are difficult.

    This course is part of Maddie's Monthly Behavior Connection, monthly webcasts about pet behavior - supporting pets in our community and animal shelters.

    Learn how Cincinatti Animal Care (CAC) has worked to develop a strong culture to support lifesaving, even when decisions are difficult. You'll learn about CAC's process for behavioral euthanasia decisions. 

    Speaker: Meaghan Colville, Director of Shelter Operations, Cincinnati Animal Care

    This webinar has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association.

    Visit Maddie's Pet Forum to comment, access the resources, follow a discussion or ask questions: https://maddies.fund/BehaviorConnectionJune2025   

    keywords Maddie's Monthly Behavior Connection, animal euthanasia decisions, Cincinatti Animal Care, Meaghan Colville

    Meaghan Colville

    Founder and Director of Shelter Operations

    Cincinnati Animal CARE Humane Society

    With 10 years experience in the animal services field, Meaghan began her career at spcaLA in Los Angeles. As a Humane Educator, she was part of a team that ran violence-prevention programs pairing youth from at-risk communities with adoptable shelter dogs in positive reinforcement dog training classes. The Humane Education department also included a court-ordered juvenile offender program, 8-week long summer camp, and a foster program for the pets of victims of domestic violence. Meaghan moved on to become Volunteer Manager at spcaLA, overseeing almost 300 volunteers and helped implement a new volunteer levels-based dog enrichment program.

  • New!

    Fundamentals of Canine Communication and Safe Dog Handling
    Contains 4 Component(s), Includes Credits

    Learn the basics of reading dog body language and communicating effectively with dogs to keep you and the dog safe

    Reading dog body language and communicating effectively with our own behavior are practiced skills that we need to mindfully develop over time. In this course you'll analyze videos of dogs and handlers having conversations. The handler needs to understand what the dog is telling them and also communicate their intentions to the dog. The goal is always for the human and the dog to be in agreement that "I'm into you!" Through this course, you'll recognize behaviors that suggest the dog is unsure, and consider how to de-escalate the conversation to "I'm into you!"

    Course author: Devan Amundsen, CPDT-KA, is a certified dog trainer with over 15 years of experience working with not just dog owners, but dogs in shelters, assistance dogs and other working dogs

    This course is the first in a two-part series. The second course is in development.

  • Socializing Puppies
    Contains 3 Component(s), Includes Credits

    Delve into recommendations for socializing puppies including roles, environment, age groups and challenges.

    This course is part of Maddie's Monthly Behavior Connection, monthly webcasts about pet behavior - supporting pets in our community and animal shelters.

    What do we mean when we recommend that puppies are 'socialized'?  Is there a role for mom in this?  What about the home or environment into which the dog is born?  Are the recommendations the same for puppies adopted young and older pups?  When should puppies be adopted?  What about pups that have some early trauma or neglect? What can we fix and what can we prevent?  This webcast will review each of these issues, identify factors to which we should pay more attention, and discuss when interventions may help and what those could be.

    Speaker: Dr. Karen Overall, BA, MA, VMD, PhD, DACVB, Professor of Behavioural Medicine at Atlantic Veterinary College, University of Prince Edward Island

    This webinar has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association.

    Visit Maddie's Pet Forum to comment, access the resources, follow a discussion or ask questions: https://maddies.fund/BehaviorC...

    keywords Maddie's Monthly Behavior Connection, socializing puppies, canine behavior, Dr. Karen Overall, socialization

    Dr. Karen Overall, BA, MA, VMD, PhD, DACVB

    Professor of Behavioral Medicine

    Atlantic Veterinary College, University of Prince Edward Island

    Dr. Karen L. Overall received her BA, MA and VMD degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She did her residency training in veterinary behavioural medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Behaviourists (DACVB). Dr. Overall is a Professor of Behavioural Medicine at Atlantic Veterinary College, UPEI where she created the clinical, didactic and research program which trains veterinary students, residents, and graduate students.

     Dr. Overall lectures at meetings and veterinary schools world-wide and consults internationally with governments, NGOs and working dog and welfare organizations. She is the author of hundreds of scholarly publications, textbook chapters, commentaries, et cetera and the texts Clinical Behavioural Medicine for Small Animals (1997; Elsevier) and Manual of Clinical Behavioural Medicine for Dogs and Cats (2013; Elsevier) and of the DVD, Humane Behavioural Care for Dogs: Problem Prevention and Treatment (2013; Elsevier). She is the editor-in-chief for Journal of Veterinary Behaviour: Clinical Applications and Research (Elsevier). 

    Dr. Overall has been named the North American Veterinary Conference (NAVC) Small Animal Speaker of the Year and was named one of the The Bark’s 100 Best and Brightest - Bark Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the dog world over the past 25 years.

    Her research interests include psychopharmacological treatments of anxiety and new drug development, behavioural genetics of anxiety disorders, and effects of early trauma on the behavioural development and later behavioural pathology of kittens and puppies.

  • Adult Dog Foster Programs
    Contains 3 Component(s), Includes Credits

    Start an adult dog foster program or expand the capacity of your existing program

    Having a robust foster program is essential to finding live outcomes for adult dogs. In this course, you will learn how to start an adult dog foster program or increase the capacity of your existing program through effective communications and marketing, improved logistics including automated processes, and use of volunteers. This course replaces the former Growing Your Adult Dog Foster Program course and covers similar material, but with new videos and resources. The course should give new programs everything they need to implement adult dog foster and give existing programs essential tips for expanding capacity. 

  • MMPC Learniverse - Redefining the Gold Standard: A New Framework for More Accessible Care (On-Demand Webinar)
    Contains 7 Component(s), Includes Credits

    At best, one-size-fits-all thinking in veterinary care limits our ability to help—and feels disempowering on both sides of the exam table. At worst, care without context results in barriers that prevent us from even meeting the pets who need us most.

    Webinar Overview

    What if the “gold standard” wasn’t the only standard? This recorded webinar challenges the idea that there’s just one right way to deliver veterinary care. Building on concepts like spectrum of care and incremental care, it introduces contextualized care—a practical, values-driven framework that helps meet the needs of animals, people, and communities, even when resources are limited.

    Watch to explore:

    • What contextualized care really means in shelters, community medicine, and private practice
    • How to identify and address common barriers to veterinary care
    • Strategies for aligning care decisions with available resources, legal/ethical responsibilities, and community priorities

    Whether you’re in a shelter, clinic, or outreach setting, this session will help you expand access without compromising compassion.

    Continuing Education Credits 

    This webinar has been approved for 1 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator (CAWA) continuing education credit by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement (AAWA) and by National Animal Care and Control Association (NACA). 

    This course has been approved for 1.5 hours of RACE continuing education credit until 6/9/2025  in jurisdictions that recognize RACE approval. Upon completing the course and passing the quiz, upload your certificate to https://CEBroker.com. This is the broker used by the AAVSB to track your continuing education credits.

    Keywords

     MMPC, Learniverse, accessible care, veterinary care, spectrum of care, community needs

    Contact

    Email us at help@shelterlearniverse.com if you have any questions or concerns about this webinar.

    Maddie’s®️ Pet Forum Discussion Thread

    You can also join the discussion about these concepts over on Maddie's Pet Forum in the discussion thread.

    Discussion Group on Maddie's Pet Forum

    Click to visit the Discussion Group (will open in a new window/tab).

    Maddie’s® Million Pet Challenge

    With the Maddie’s® Million Pet Challenge, the Five Key Initiatives of the Million Cat Challenge have expanded to include other species at risk in shelters and evolved into the Four Rights.  

    Within the Four Rights, every element works in concert to support one another: animals and people are treated as individuals, empowering shelter staff to make the best decisions for everyone; community safety net services are in place and flourishing; and humane care within the shelter is provided, with appropriate outcomes for the animals that do come in, allowing shelters to deliver the Right Care, in the Right Place, at the Right Time, and to the Right Outcome

    Learn more about  Maddie's® Million Pet Challenge Learniverse.  #ThankstoMaddie

    Dr. Jennifer Bennett

    Director of Shelter Medicine and Access to Care

    UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program

    Jennifer Bennett joined the Koret Shelter Medicine Program as the new Director of Shelter Medicine Access to Care in late 2024. She is a 2008 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine and soon after she began practicing in her hometown regions of rural Northern California. She spent 5 years in small animal, emergency and farm animal medicine before joining Lake County Animal Care & Control as its first Medical Director in 2013. After realizing the life-saving impact that a shelter veterinarian can have on a community, she has remained dedicated to the field of shelter medicine. She has worked with a wide variety of municipal and private organizations, developing shelter medicine and surgery programs, consulting with humane organizations, participating in community outreach clinics, and working with large-scale humane law enforcement seizures and legal cases. Dr. Bennett most recently served as the Medical Director for the City of Seattle from 2017-2022 and the Chief Veterinary Officer for the Humane Society of Tacoma & Pierce County from 2022-2024. She served on the California HOD, the Washington State VMA, and was WSVMA President from 2021-2022, and has been serving on the AVMA Animal Welfare Committee since 2023. Dr. Bennett is passionate about supporting and mentoring shelter veterinarians and students, creating low barrier access to care programs, and identifying and removing bottlenecks in shelter programs to improve capacity for care.

    Kelly Bremken

    Veterinary Social Worker Oregon Humane Society

    Oregon Humane Society

    Kelly Bremken is the Veterinary Social Worker with Oregon Humane Society. Originally a Midwest native, with a BA in Organizational Communication, Kelly’s experiences have crisscrossed the entire country. She has worked in animal welfare for more than 20 years at Arizona Humane Society, Humane Society of the Treasure Coast, Seattle Animal Shelter, and Oregon Humane Society. Kelly graduated in Spring 2021 with a Master of Science in Social Work (MSSW) from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with a certification in Veterinary Social Work (VSW). The University of Tennessee Veterinary Social Work Certificate Program trains MSSW students in the four areas of Veterinary Social Work. Those areas are Compassion Fatigue & Conflict Management, the Link Between Human & Animal Violence, Animal Assisted Interventions, and Animal-Related Grief & Bereavement. At Oregon Humane Society and in the Community Veterinary Hospital, Kelly is on the forefront of utilizing social work practice to attend to the human needs that arise at the intersection of veterinary medicine & animal welfare, and social work practice. She serves as Oregon Humane Society’s first veterinary social worker and is paving the way in the field for greater workplace wellbeing and community
    partnership.

    Dr. Sarah Mantovani

    Veterinarian, RAVS

    Humane World for Animals

    Dr. Mantovani completed her DVM degree at UC Davis and her Master's in Shelter Medicine through the University of Florida. She is currently a Field Veterinarian with the RAVS team, part of the HSUS. In this role, she works with underserved communities expanding access to veterinary care and mentoring students who are interested in this type of work. Previously she was a Medical Supervisor at the ASPCA in NYC and a shelter veterinarian at the Seattle Animal Shelter where she helped to develop their novel shelter medicine program supporting their vision, “To bring exceptional in-house care to shelter animals and animals from the public through low-cost Spay and Neuter services for community members in need.” Dr. Mantovani lives in Arkansas, a recent move, with her husband, 2 German Shepherds, named Leonidas and Valentina, and a cat, named “It”.

  • Doors Wide Open: Successful Program Profiles: Neighborhood Pets and their Community-Centered Well-Being for People and Pets - On Demand
    Contains 3 Component(s), Includes Credits

    Learn how Neighborhood Pets offers adaptable strategies for innovative community building in support of human and pet well-being.

    Doors Wide Open is a series of short discussions about practical solutions that organizations are using to address barriers to accessing pet care and resources in their communities. 

    In this session we exploare the community-centered approach of Neighborhood Pets Outreach & Resource Center, a membership-based, Cleveland nonprofit created by proximate leaders—those deeply connected to the communities they serve. They have built strong human service and community development partnerships to help families also access vital healthcare, legal and emergency resources. 

    This webcast highlights how Neighborhood Pets offers adaptable strategies for innovative community building in support of human and pet well-being!

    Guest Speakers: 
    Geraldine D’Silva, National Director of Programs & Partnerships at Open Door Veterinary Collective
    Janet Hoy-Gerlach, PhD, LCSW, LISW-S, Director of Veterinary Social Work at Open Door Veterinary Collective
     Becca Britton, Executive Director at Neighborhood Pets

    Earn continuing education credit from The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement towards 1.0 CAWA CEs. This webinar has also been pre-approved for 1.0 continuing education credits by the National Animal Care & Control Association (NACA). 

    Visit Maddie's Pet Forum to comment, follow a discussion or ask questions: 

    keywords Doors Wide Open, Open Door Veterinary Collective, access to veterinary care, Aimee St.Arnaud, Geraldine D'Silva, Janet Hoy-Gerlach, Becca Britton


    Aimee St.Arnaud

    Owner, Open Door One Health Partnerships

    Aimee St.Arnaud's focus is on increasing access to spay/neuter and veterinary care across the nation. Previously she was the Director of National Veterinary Outreach Programs for Best Friends Animal Society and Director of Programs at ASPCA Spay/Neuter Alliance where she oversaw spay/neuter training programs of 1,000 professionals a year. She is the founder of Humane Ohio, a spay/neuter clinic performing roughly 18,000 spay/neuters a year and Partner in two full-service access to care veterinary clinics in OH and NC.

    Janet Hoy-Gerlach, PhD, LISW-S

    Associate Professor, University of Toledo School of Social Justice

    Dr. Janet Hoy-Gerlach has extensive experience as a social work practitioner in the public mental health service system and is an avid advocate for the inclusion of human-animal interaction considerations within social work practice. Her current research is focused on: benefits of the human-animal bond; facilitators of mental health recovery among individuals living with mental illness; and the use of qualitative research to inform intervention research. She is on the board of the Toledo Area Humane Society (TAHS), where she developed and supervises MSW internship placements that facilitate benefits of human-animal interaction. She helped develop the TAHS Hope and Recovery Pet Program (HARP), which places shelter animals as Emotional Support Animals (ESAs); this is one of the only such programs in the United States. Dr. Hoy provides expert witness testimony for the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Department on benefits of human-animal interaction.

    Geraldine D'Silva

    National Director of Programs & Partnerships

    Open Door Veterinary Collective

    With work experience in three continents and over 10 years of operational leadership, Geraldine has a passion for building innovative community programs and strategic partnerships to bridge the gap between human and animal well-being, to increase access to care. She led a small non-profit through a merger & acquisition with one of the largest animal welfare organizations in the US, and over 8 years strategically helped integrate the services throughout the 140-year-old animal shelter, enabling it to pivot to the new community-centered model that is now unfolding. Brought up in India, she did her B.A. in Sociology which took her to remote villages to study the caste system and women’s empowerment. She has an M.B.A. from the Edinburgh Business School in Scotland and a background in research consultancy, advertising and branding.

    Becca Britton

    Executive Director

    Neighborhood Pets

    Becca Britton, native to Cleveland Ohio, has been working in animal welfare since 2003. Outside of animal welfare, her work experience includes over ten years in the non-profit sector with a focus on community development, art-culture community programming, public art & program management. In 2003 Britton founded (2003) and ran Friends of the Cleveland Kennel, a non-profit organization that served as a support agency for Cleveland Animal Control. Through her non-profit, she funded supportive care and programming for animals in need. She also led the efforts to host large scale pet vaccine clinic events throughout the city of Cleveland.

    In 2016, Becca founded Neighborhood Pets Outreach and Resource Center, a community based non-profit focused on supporting low income pet owners. Britton used her community outreach experience & training, certification from HSUS Pets for Life program, and experience in nonprofit management to create a dynamic & intuitive model based on relationship & trust building within the community, while providing accessible and affordable resources to low income pet owners. Ms. Britton is a graduate of the Leadership Development Program Initiative and has attended Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management. She was recently awarded HSUS Humane Leader of the Year award and has been highlighted in various Northeast Ohio media outlets showcasing her work in the community. Becca’s focus as a “big picture thinker” is to create sustainable change in the animal welfare sector by being an advocate for animals and the people who love them.