Rachel spent 4 years at Pima Animal Care Center (PACC) as a foster coordinator and behavioral-needs dogs case manager; embedded in high volume, open admission, progressive sheltering.

During her time at PACC, Rachel helped build one of the nation's largest big dog foster programs, hosted numerous dog foster apprenticeships, wrote articles and presented on dog foster and volunteer programs for Maddie’s Fund®, American Pets Alive! and the Missouri Coalition of Animal Care Organizations. In 2021, she worked with Arizona State University's Canine Science Collaboratory to coordinate a 40-dog study on the effects of foster care on shelter dogs.

In 2022, she authored, filmed and edited the official Maddie's University shelter handling course. She left PACC that Summer to assist outside animal welfare organizations with their own dog foster and volunteer programs. Since then she's worked with other shelters to implement dog handling and enrichment programs, train staff and volunteers on dog handling best practices, host adoption counseling trainings, analyze foster programs and compile reports on recommended changes/additions to said foster programs. Some of her clients include Santa Barbara County Animal Services, Seattle Animal Shelter and The SPCA Serving Erie County. She continues to work with Maddie's Fund as an instructor for their ILC dog foster course and has developed training materials for additional self-paced courses on Maddie's University.

Her favorite things in life are naughty dogs and bullet points in emails. She also makes silly YouTube videos sometimes.

Lindsay Layendecker began her career in animal welfare as a volunteer. She was a middle school teacher who began spending all her spare time and summer vacations at the shelter until finally one day, they offered her a job! That was back in 2015. Fast-forward to today, and Lindsay is the Director of Community Programs, overseeing JHS’s communications, public relations, grant program, humane education, and assisting with Florida Leaders in Lifesaving. Lindsay has been a speaker at the local, state and national level, and few things bring her more joy than helping shelters find solutions to save lives. Outside of work, Lindsay drinks too much Diet Coke, watches too many true crime documentaries, and fosters too many kittens. She shares her home with her dog Dudley, who is the living embodiment of the laughing/crying emoji, and her four cats, who tolerate his behavior.

After a decade of working with dogs in various fields (including municipal shelters, professional dog hiking, and fostering), Jackie Perro joined Hearts & Bones Rescue as the Adoption Program Manager in 2021. She was promoted to the Vice President of NY Rescue Programs in 2023. She currently oversees NY operations and is always looking for ways to build community and further the rescue's impact on its lifesaving mission. She lives in Queens with her husband, where she fosters dogs after the recent passing of her rescue dog, Phoebe. As a way of paying homage to her "spicy meatball", she's particularly fond of fostering dogs who might need a training boost in order to find their new home.

Regan Goins is the Outcomes Manager at Cincinnati Animal Care (CAC). Formerly she has occupied positions such as: Maddie's® Dog Foster Program advisor for American Pets Alive!, Dog Foster Manager at Austin Pets Alive!, and Operations Manager for the Humane Society of Delaware County. Right before Hurricane Harvey, Regan joined APA!'s staff, where she managed the dog foster team through a peak of 1,000 dogs in foster at one time. As a necessity created by Hurricane Harvey, Regan has also pioneered APA!'s initial behavioral foster program and specializes in building programs to achieve live outcomes for behavior dogs. Her matchmaking training and approach has resulted in countless success stories for those last-chance dogs.

Amanda began her journey with Gateway Pet Guardians in 2020, and has since become the Adoption and Foster Manager. She manages over 200 fosters and coordinates an average of 1050 adoptions annually. She helps market and match dogs with fosters and adopters and runs the Unicorn Foster Program where she provides extra perks and incentives to fosters who will take ‘harder to place’ dogs like a private Facebook group to provide specialized support, offer private in-home lessons with an approved trainer, training plans and so much more.

Sam has loved dogs for as long as she can remember, even though she wasn’t allowed to have one growing up. As an adult, Sam got her first dog, and after discovering that her new companion was extremely reactive to other dogs, she immersed herself into the world of animal behavior…and never wanted to leave. Sam said goodbye to her career path in fashion merchandising, and began her work at the Animal Welfare League of Arlington in 2019 helping animals find new homes. Sam was so inspired by the passion and knowledge of those working with and around her, that she jumped at the chance to join the behavior team at the shelter in 2020. After working with a variety of dogs, and a variety of behaviors, Sam received her CPDT-KA in 2021 and she is constantly looking to expand her knowledge, while supporting and enriching the human-animal relationship