FACULTY
Barbara Smuts, PhD.
Smuts received a Bachelors Degree in Anthropology from Harvard University and a Ph.D in neurological and biological behavioral science from Stanford Medical School and has studied baboons, dolphins, and chimpanzees. Read more.
Ann Southcombe Ann Southcombe is an Animal Relation Specialist and licensed wildlife rehabilitator who, for over 35 years, has dedicated her life to the care of gorillas, squirrels, lynx, bears, and many other species in captivity. Read more.
Ed Tick, PhD Edward Tick, Ph.D. is a holistic psychotherapist and transformational healer. He is a writer, educator, journey guide, activist and veterans’ advocate. He specializes in using psycho-spiritual, cross-cultural, nature-based and international reconciliation practices to bring healing to veterans, survivors, communities and nations recovering from the traumas of war and violence. Read more.
Thidi Tshiguvho, PhD Thidi Tshiguvho’s main research focus is on human-environment relationships, particularly the relationships between indigenous communities and wildlife. With a Ph.D. in Geography from Clark University and a background in conservation biology (M.Sc), Thidi’s work explores indigenous peoples’ perception of nature. Read more.
Kathy White Kathy White produced, wrote and directed the popular PBS series the Dinosaurs. She produced The KGB, the Computer and Me, about computer espionage, which aired on the PBS series NOVA. Read more.
Y. Gavriel Ansara, MSc
Y. Gavriel Ansara (席嘉力/ آتش جاوید / גבריאל יוסף)
has an MSc with Distinction in Social Psychology from the University of Surrey, UK, where he receives a departmental bursary for his PhD research in psychology and serves as an Academic Tutor. His research examines cisgenderism, the ideology that people with self-designated genders (i.e., genders that differ from those people are externally assigned in social, medical and/or legal contexts) are pathological, invalid, effects to be explained or can be unproblematically classified as a distinct class of person. This research shares many conceptual links with trans-species psychology, including the belief that biological and cultural diversity should be embraced and protected; a critical view of essentialist taxonomies that valuate sentient beings based on their conformity to social norms; and an awareness of the harmful consequences of treating sentient beings as distinct classes of life. He recently served on the international policy team, Professionals Concerned with Gender Diagnoses in the DSM, as a co-author of alternative recommendations to those proposed by the DSM-5 Task Force. During a sojourn in the US, his pioneering work as founder and coordinator of the Tiferet Outreach Project earned him the Keshet 2002 Leadership of the Year Award. From 2006-2008, he founded and directed Lifelines Rhode Island/Cuerdas de Salvamento, a state-wide advocacy, education, and support organization serving individuals of trans, non-binary gender, and intersex experience, and was subsequently awarded the 2008 Lifelines Pillar of the Community Award by board members and volunteers. He has diverse clinical training and as served on numerous boards and task forces related to social justice, public health policy, and civil rights for marginalised populations. Some of his past positions include youth counsellor, multilingual psychiatric rehabilitation caseworker, and editorial staff at Developmental Psychology, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Psychological Association.
Gavi has designed educational curricula and conducted professional training on numerous topics for psychologists, law enforcement, clergy, social workers, youth educators, and physicians, including a Grand Round at Rhode Island Hospital's Hasbro Developmental-Behavioural Paediatrics Division with internationally recognised paediatric transgender medical expert Dr Norm Spack and HIV expert Dr. Jody Rich. Gavi is the author of "Beyond Cisgenderism: Counselling People with Affirmed Gender Identities" in Ed. Lyndsey Moon's Counselling Ideologies: Queer Challenges to Heteronormativity (Ashgate, 2010). He is UK Speaker on Multicultural Issues for Organisation Intersex Internationale and was the first elected Trans Representative Officer of Surrey's LGBT Society in 2008. As a polycultural, traditionally observant Empath and Healer with ties to multiple continents, he is committed to Tikkun Olam (repairing the world and establishing sanctity within it), moving toward full dietary and lifestyle veganism and challenging human supremacist assumptions. His many trans-species friendships have taught him to appreciate the range of emotional, intellectual, cultural, and spiritual capacities possessed by our fellow beings.
Marc Bekoff, PhD
Marc Bekoff Ph.D. is
a former Professor of Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder,
and co-founder with Jane Goodall of Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals and teaches through Roots and Shoots at school and prisons.
He has won many awards for his scientific research including a Guggenheim
Fellowship, and is a prolific writer with more than 200 articles as
well three encyclopedias to his credit. His is author of numerous
books, including the Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare, The Ten Trusts:
What We Must Do to Care for the Animals We Love (with Jane Goodall), the Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior, and the Encyclopedia
of Human-Animal Relationships,
his most recent books include The
Smile of a Dolphin, Minding Animals, Animal Passions and Beastly Virtues:
Reflections on Redecorating Nature, The
Emotional Lives of Animals,
and Why
Animals Matter.
Marc was presented with The Bank One Faculty Community Service Award
for the work he has done with children, senior citizens, and prisoners.
Robin Bjork, PhD
Científica Principal
Programa de Ciencias para la Conservación, SalvaNATURA
Colonia Flor Blanca, 33 Ave. Sur # 640
San Salvador, El Salvador
Robin Bjork is a Senior Scientist for SalvaNATURA, a non-profit non-governmental environmental organization in El Salvador. She holds a doctorate in wildlife science and a master’s degree in coastal ecology. Her past research has focused on documenting spatial patterns of regional migrant tropical birds with a goal of providing guidance to regional conservation planning. Robin began working with wild psittacines in 1994 when she directed development of the first radio tracking device to withstand the force of macaw bills and used the device to track the movements of Great Green Macaws in Costa Rica. Her dissertation research identified the migration of Mealy Parrots across Guatemalan lowlands, the first detailed documentation of such a pattern in psittacines. She continues conservation research with wild parrots and macaws and is currently directing a program to reintroduce Scarlet Macaws to El Salvador and protect endangered Yellow-naped Parrots. Email Robin or visit her website.
Jeff Borchers, MS, PhD, NCC
Jeff is a psychotherapist with a background in research, teaching, training, policy analysis, and organizational development. Over the past 25 years, he has worked in academia, government, and the private sector on issues of social, ecological, and psychological significance. His interests include the use of ecotherapy to improve psychological well being and to foster a mindfulness approach to caring for animals and the land.
Martin Brüne graduated
in Medicine from Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster,
Germany, in 1988. He received specialist training in neurology, psychiatry,
and psychotherapy. Since 1998 he has worked as Consultant Psychiatrist
in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Bochum, Germany. In
2001 he completed his habilitation thesis and was promoted to Professor
of Psychiatry in 2007. His main research interests are social cognition
in psychiatric disorders, and psychopathology in evolutionary perspective
including cross-species comparison. He has conducted research into
the theory of mind and nonverbal behaviour in various psychopathological
conditions. He co-edited a book, The
Social Brain -Evolution and Pathology,
with Hedda Ribbert and Wulf Schiefenhövel (Wiley, 2003). Most
recently, he published a book entitled Textbook
of Evolutionary Psychiatry-The Origins of Psychopathology (Oxford University Press, 2008).
Carol Buckley
Carol Buckley is an international leader in trauma recovery of Asian and Africa elephants. She has over thirty years experience with elephants in captivity and is co-founder of the first natural-habitat refuge for sick, old and needy endangered elephants, the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. Previously, she operated her own elephant management company, Tarra Productions, named after two-year old female elephants, Tarra, who inspired Carol to create the Sanctuary where Tarra now lives. Carol coordinated the rescue of the first elephant ever confiscated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and was responsible for bringing 24 elephants to sanctuary. She attended the Exotic Animal Training and Management Program at Moorpark College in California. Through her intimate experience and knowledge of elephant values, physiology, and culture, Carol developed the philosophy and method of passive control as part of a non-dominating, holistic healthcare program for elephants in recovery. In an unprecedented event, Carol coordinated and designed treatment for a group of eight female elephants who had lived nearly four decades as circus elephants and were released to sanctuary after being confiscated from the Hawthorn Corporation by the USDA. This seminal work that articulates the interface between individual and cultural recovery constitutes a vital contribution bridging elephant welfare and conservation. In addition to her clinical work with individual elephants, Carol is an active spokesperson, expert witness, and educator for elephant care and protection, nationally and internationally. She works with governmental agencies and private organizations to strengthen regulations pertaining to the welfare of elephants in captivity. Featured on diverse television, books, films documentaries, and news media, Carol has also received the Genesis Award in 2001 and was awarded TIME Magazine’s prestigious Hero for the Planet Award in recognition for her innovative work.
Ginger Casto
Ten years ago, after a challenging two
years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the South Pacific, Ginger and
her husband discovered llamas as they were transitioning from the
culture shock of returning to the U.S.A. Since then, Ginger has been
active in llama rescue activities and education for llama care. She
has lived in the Rogue Valley, Oregon, for over 20 years in the social
service and non-profit consulting profession where she was the Director
of Residential Services for The Youthworks, Inc. (now Community Works),
in Medford, Oregon, and supervised staff, foster parents and volunteers
to provide non-traditional residential services in foster home settings
for runaway and homeless youth as well as criminal offender youth.
In the mid 1980’s Ginger left direct services to become the
Executive Director of the Pacific Non Profit Network, a Foundation
Center Grantsmanship Library and in 1996 became an organizational
development consultant working with non-profit organizations in all
aspects of non-profit work.
Donna Coughlin
As Editor in Chief of Metropolitan Home from 1992 until its close in November 2009, Donna Coughlin created a magazine that was a revered chronicle of contemporary American style. When purchased from Meredith in 1992, the challenge was to complement yet differ from Elle Décor, also owned by Hachette. Under her guidance, Met Home’s focus shifted to modern design, and it led in reporting on the newest furnishings, architecture, garden, lifestyle and food trends, showcasing the work of the world’s finest designers in a fresh, reader-friendly way.
The magazine became a leader in the shelter category with a frequency change from 6 to 10 times a year and top tier advertisers. In 2004 she was awarded the Circle of Excellence Award for outstanding editorial and media achievement from the New York Chapter of the International Furnishing and Design Association (IFDA); in 2007 she received Project Angel Food’s Humanitarian Award. The magazine also won numerous design and industry awards during her 17 year tenure. She oversaw the creation of a sibling trade magazine, Fulcrum, in 2008 and 4 major coffee table design books; the latest, Glamour, Making it Modern, was on Amazon’s home design best seller list for months. Previously she co-wrote “The New American Cuisine.” A frequent design industry keynote speaker and panelist, Coughlin appeared on HGTV’s Top Ten series for several seasons (’08 and ’09) and did segments for LXTV (NBC), among other TV appearances. As VP, Brand Content, she worked on the magazine’s website and chose and directed a designer to produce a licensed Met Home furniture line. She created the magazine’s annual Design 100 event/awards at the Four Seasons—the design event of the year.
Coughlin felt strongly about developing the magazine’s social conscience. Design Cares was conceived with the New York Design Center to raise money in response to 9/11—$300,000, an unprecedented amount for the design industry. Design Cares then became an annual fundraiser for The Partnership for the Homeless. Other charitable events included show houses in New York and Los Angeles, a Street of Shops to benefit DIFFA and PAWS for Design, for the New York Humane Society. Coughlin is a longtime American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) member and senior judge for their prestigious National Magazine Awards.
She began her career at Better Homes and Gardens and worked on the first issues of Apartment Ideas/Apartment Life, which became Metropolitan Home in 1981. As Food Editor, she created the first coverage of “star chefs” (with recipes for home cooks) and as Editorial Design Director, she worked on all aspects of the magazine.
She graduated with honors from Mount Holyoke College, majoring in French. She is an avid equestrian and lives in Connecticut with her husband, 3 horses and 2 dogs. Besides media, her passions include visiting her daughters on both coasts and animal rescue.
Karen Davis, PhD
Karen Davis, PhD is the founder and president of United Poultry Concerns, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl. Founded in 1990, United Poultry Concerns addresses the treatment of domestic fowl in food production, science, education, entertainment, and human companionship situations. Karen has a PhD in English from the University of Maryland-College Park where she taught for twelve years in the English Department. She has been featured internationally in diverse journals. films, and television in recognition of her ground breaking work, including an in-depth profile in the Washington Post. Karen is also the author of numerous artilces and books including Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs: An Inside Look at the Modern Poultry Industry; More Than a Meal: The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual, and Reality; and The Holocaust and the Henmaid’s Tale: A Case for Comparing Atrocities.
Margo DeMello, PhD
Margo DeMello is President and Executive Director of House Rabbit Society, an international rabbit rescue and education organization. She holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology and currently lectures at Central New Mexico Community College, teaching sociology, cultural studies, and anthropology. She is one of the foremost experts on rabbit social behavior and lives with a group of 50 domestic rabbits at her home. Her books include Bodies of Inscription: A Cultural History of the Modern Tattoo Community (2000), Stories Rabbits Tell: A Natural and Cultural History of a Misunderstood Creature (2003), Low-Carb Vegetarian (2004), Why Animals Matter: The Case for Animal Protection (2007), and The Encyclopedia of Body Adornment (2007). The Encyclopedia of Body Adornment was included in the 2008 list of Outstanding Reference Sources for small and medium-sized libraries by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association.
She has recently had articles published in the Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships (Marc Bekoff, ed.), Encyclopedia of Animal Rights (Marc Bekoff, ed.), and A Cultural History of Animals: The Modern Age (Randy Malamud, ed.). Her newest books, to be released in 2009 and 2010, will be A Cultural Encyclopedia of Feet and Footwear and the edited collection, Teaching the Animal: Human Animal Studies Across the Disciplines, and she is under contract to write Animals and Society, a textbook for Brill.
Lorrain Donlon, MS
Lorraine Donlon is an elementary school teacher in East Rockaway, NY. She holds a Master's Degree in Reading from Dowling College and has taught special education students at Centre Avevue Elelmentary School for 28 years. Lorraine resides in Syosset with her husband Jon. Her community service includes volunteering at a local food pantry, and founding a civic association devoted to creating garderns in public spaces. Lorraine has also written a workbook to support the brothers and sisters of children who are seriously ill, injured or disabled entitled, The Other Kid - A Draw it Out Guidebook for Kids Dealing With a Special Needs Sibling. Lorraine creates the Kerulos children education programmes to lead us and the animals into a beautiful future.
pattrice jones
pattrice jones is the
author of Aftershock:
Confronting Trauma in a Violent World, a Guide for Activists and Their
Allies and
the cofounder of the Eastern Shore Sanctuary and Education Center.
She received her graduate training in clinical psychology at the University
of Michigan, having previously completed the Clinical Concentration
program jointly administered by Towson University and the Sheppard
and Enoch Pratt Hospital in Baltimore. She has facilitated support
groups for survivors of childhood sexual abuse, growth groups for
at-risk youth, and workshops for stressed social change activists,
including animal advocates. At the Eastern Shore Sanctuary, she developed
a method of rehabilitation for roosters traumatized by cockfighting
and has closely observed the process by which chickens who have not
been traumatized by captivity or genetic manipulation readily "re-wild"
themselves. Her theoretical work focuses on the role of trauma in
the origins and maintenance of the race-sex-species nexus of oppression
and in the escalating water and climate emergencies.
Richard Katz
Richard has been an executive producer, writer and senior editor for countless network and PBS programs. His commercial television credits include Zora Neal Huston (ABC/Disney), Hurricane Ike: The Hidden Victims (NBC), and A Band With No Instruments (NBC).
Richard's PBS credits include Peter Paul & Mary and Out of Work, both of which received national Emmys. Additional PBS credits include the documentary series Earthkeeping and The Aids Quarterly. Currently, Katz’s work is regularly seen on the NBC Nightly News.
Assimina Kouloukouri, DEA, DESS
Assimina Kouloukouri is the founder and director of Psychanimal (Psychologists and Other Scientists for Animal Protection). Psychanimal is a non-profit founded in 2010 in Greece to promote animal protection and responsible guardianship, and to encourage active participation by psychologists, teachers, and scientists in these issues. It has also created a team of volunteer lawyers, Animalaw Lawyers for Animal Protection, to help inform people about animal abuse and to pass legislation that promotes greater animal protection.
Assimina is also the founder and director of the Thessaloniki Cat Group and Athens Cat Group, non-profits whose aim is to spread love and the right behavior towards stray or owned cats through education, strict adoption procedures and cat guardian education. Their work includes education on cat spay and neutering, animal welfare issues, and handicapped animals adoption. Assimina has a broad experience in scientific psychoanalytical and psychiatric research and development research tools, organizing and guiding workshops, staff-training, and other activities conducted during her practice in France. Assimina’s current work and writing focus on human and animal abuse (with specific emphasis on the prevention of the animal and human maltreatment and animal hoarding), vegan lifestyles, psychosomatic medicine, technical psychotherapeutic problems and scientific research methodology in humanistic studies.
Assimina received her Diplôme d'Etudes Approfondie (DEA) in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis from Denis Diderot University, Paris VII, France and her maîtrise DESS (Diplôme d'Etudes Superieures Spécialisée in clinical psychology and psychopathology from University of Paul Valery, MTP III, France). Her doctoral work focused on the relation between the psychic stress and psychosomatic diseases (eczema-psoriasis) and the impact of art therapy and ergo therapy on schizophrenic patients. She is a member of the Northern Greek Psychoanalytic Society.
Randy Malamud, PhD
Randy Malamud is Professor of English at Georgia State University in Atlanta. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1989, and specializes in modern literature, ecocriticism, and anthrozoology. Many of his books and articles deal with how people think about other animals, and what happens to those animals when they become implicated in human culture. He is the author of Reading Zoos: Representations of Animals and Captivity (NYU Press, 1998) and Poetic Animals and Animal Souls (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), and the editor of A Cultural History of Animals in the Modern Age (Berg, 2007). He writes frequently for the Chronicle of Higher Education. He is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, and an international associate of the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies. He is also a patron of the Captive Animals' Protection Society in England.
Lori Marino, PhD
Lori is a Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology at Emory University, Atlanta and a Faculty Affiliate of the Emory Center for Ethics. She is also co-founder and Executive Director of The Aurelia Center for Animals and Cultural Change, a non-profit organization focused on applying scholarship and science to animal advocacy. Her research expertise and interests include the evolution of intelligence and self-awareness in other species, noninvasive studies of brain and behavior, cognitive ethology, human-nonhuman relationships, and animal welfare, ethics, and conservation. She has published over 80 papers in these areas and is an internationally known speaker on animal intelligence and related topics. She has worked extensively with dolphins and chimpanzees and, in 2001, co-authored the first definitive evidence of mirror self-recognition in a non-primate species, the bottlenose dolphin. She is also involved in NASA Astrobiology Program initiatives on the evolution of intelligence and is a founding signatory of the Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans.
Eileen McCarthy
Eileen McCarthy is founder, president, and CEO of the Midwest Avian Adoption and Rescue Services (MAARS), a unique organization located in St. Paul, MN that has provided sanctuary, advocacy and rehabilitation for wild birds living in captivity since 1999. Ms. McCarthy is also co-founder of the Avian Welfare Coalition (AWC), and served as President of The Association of Sanctuaries, an animal sanctuary accrediting organization, from 2004 through 2008. She conducts local and national presentations regarding the welfare and protection issues inherent in the keeping of wild birds in captivity, and has worked to promote animal protection legislation and regulation at the state and federal levels. She consults with and assists law enforcement, regulatory and animal control agencies, animal protection and advocacy organizations, and legislators regarding the welfare of avian species in captivity. Ms McCarthy also leads workshops, research, and courses, and is actively involved in ongoing local, national and international avian advocacy and protection projects and initiatives campaigns.
More recently, the therapeutic environment and treatment program utilized by MAARS for the many birds in their care suffering from capture or captivity-related trauma has led to a partnership with The Kerulos Center and the development of the Avian Care and Recovery Center (ACRC). The foundation of ACRC is to create a model for scientific, animal directed trans-species psychology and psychiatry. The ACRC focuses on the treatment of common conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder, attachment disorders, affect dysregulation, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and other psychological and psychiatric conditions. Such condtions, and effective treatment interventions, are well-documented in the literature and research involving both human and non-human behavior, psychology, psychiatry and neurology. The mission, accomplishments and residents of ACRC will be the strongest evidence available in advocating for the protection and legal rights of non-human animals.
Joseph Daniel Mitchell, MS
Joseph is a fullblood citizen of the Creek Nation and a member of the Muskogee Indian Community. For the past 26 years, he has worked in environmental sciences and conservation on tribal and federal lands with the tribes, the USDA Forest Service, Washington, DC, and Bureau of Indian Affairs. He was Senior Executive Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and has worked with more than 200 tribes across the nation. Joe consults with tribal governments and communities on Indian law and treaties and advocacy for tribes to exercise treaty rights on federal lands, and implement traditional practices. He has also been involved in the evolution of several of the 26 tribal colleges throughout the country and has assisted many with establishing traditional ecological knowledge programs.
Michael Mountain
Michael is the co-founder and President of Zoe, which is building a global community of people who care about the animals, nature and the environment.
Until 2008, Michael was also President (and one of the founders) of Best Friends Animal Society, which runs the largest animal sanctuary in the U.S. for companion and domestic animals.
Michael adds that he’s delighted to be part of the Kerulos faculty: “Speaking as an Oxford dropout from the 1960s, I’d say that the Kerulos Institute is providing the kind of education that all universities should be offering!” As part of Kerulos, Michael is especially concerned with helping people understand that almost all the ills of the world today stem from our sense of disconnection from the natural world – and therefore from our own nature. “The Earth is our home,” he says, “and the other animals are our family and our neighbors. We’re destroying our home and killing our neighbors. No good can come of this. It’s time to build a whole new relationship to our fellow animals. And Kerulos will be laying the foundations and providing much of the key groundwork for this.”
Vera Muller-Paisner, LCSW
Vera is a psychoanalyst with a master’s degree in social work who has spent the last two decades years studying the chronicity and transmission of trauma. She also received a degree in Organizational Consultation and works with organizations to understand their defenses against anxiety and regression. She served as a research consultant for the International Study Group for Trauma at Yale University, and in 1996 received an appointment in the Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine. Vera has conducted extensive research and clinical experience working with Holocaust survivors and is the author of Broken Chain: Catholics Uncover the Holocaust's Hidden Legacy and Discover Their Jewish Roots. Much of her clinical work focuses on helping those who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). One of the tools that she has found to be effective in managing memories of trauma is a protocol called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). She has adapted the protocol to Bilateral Equine Tapping (BET) for use with horses who display traumatic memory. Riding is a partnership, and trauma can be transmitted between partners.
Fabio Napolitano, PhD
Fabio Napolitano received a PhD in Animal Science and is associate professor at the University of Basilicata, Italy. His research is focused mainly on the study of farm animal behaviour and welfare, and consumer perception of animal welfare issues. Since 2002 he has taught "Ethology and Welfare of Farm Animals." He served as Italian expert at the COST (European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research) action 846, Measuring and monitoring farm animal welfare and was nominated member of the scientific committee of external reviewers within the area of “Animal Health and Welfare” by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
Bruce Nock, PhD
Bruce is a tenured neurobiologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri with faculty appointments in the departments of psychiatry and anatomy and neurobiology. He has been a laboratory scientist since 1973 and has published nearly 70 scientific papers on subjects ranging from the physiology and consequences of stress to learning theory to molecular drug design.
More importantly, Bruce has a natural affinity for animals. Learning about their behavior and physiology has been a lifelong labor of love. He received a Master of Science degree in psychobiology from Bucknell University and a Ph.D. from the world renowned Institute of Animal Behavior, Rutgers University. Bruce is the author of the acclaimed book Ten Golden Rules of Horse Training: Universal Laws for all Levels and Riding Styles, the newly released book Ride For Tomorrow: Dressage Today, and The Biology of Natural Horsemanship, a series of articles about stress—its nature, the damage it can do to a horse and how to minimize it.
Bruce is the founder of Liberated Horsemanship , a group of selected experts dedicated to helping people and horses worldwide by providing multidisciplinary, science-based information about the care and use of horses. The mission of Liberated Horsemanship is to help horse owners and equine professionals maximize the health and welfare of horses without sacrificing the fun and enjoyment of horse guardianship and use. To date, people from 15 countries and 45 US states have attended Liberated Horsemanship clinics and events in Warrenton, Missouri.
Susie O'Keeffe, MS
Susie received her Master's
with distinction from Oxford University in England. Her research explored
the human / wolf relationship, with an emphasis on how wolves can
guide us toward sustainable agricultural systems. For the past twenty
years she has also worked with a variety of environmental and local
agriculture organizations in the United States and Europe. Currently
she is developing an education project entitled, The Art of Reciprocity.
This effort explores the sensuous exchange, or "natural return" that
people experience with nature, and other species, when their capacities
for creative perception, (i.e. intuition, dreams, imagination, symbolic
and metaphorical perception and emotion), are joined with a commitment
to consciousness, and a practice of contemplation. Her work explores
how these forms of perception and understanding help humans cultivate
reciprocal relationships with the natural world and other animals,
and the ways in which these exchanges bring forth an inspiration to
coexist with all life. Susie is especially intrigued by the unique
role that artistic and creative expression play in helping people
deepen and relay this inspiration, and the insights it imparts. She
is currently writing about her recent trip to Alaska where she explored
the roles that integrating creative perception, consciousness and
contemplation play in deepening our ability to coexist with brown
bears, wolves, and the complex communities of other self-willed animals,
elements and landscapes, of the Katmai region.
The educational element of Susie's work includes an undergraduate course that examines contemporary and historic case studies of naturalists who have used creative perception, and prolonged contemplation, as forms of inquiry and understanding. Traditional conservation approaches are compared and contrasted with emerging ideas about our capacity for mutual exchanges with other beings, and the emerging understanding of animal cultures, intelligence and emotion. Students are introduced to the idea of creative perception, moral consciousness and forms of contemplative practice as valid tools of inquiry. They explore role that these practices and ways of understanding play in addressing our ongoing destruction of life and landscape. Students express what they have discovered, felt, dreamed and imagined through art forms of their choice.
lauren Ornelas
lauren Ornelas has worked for over two decades on issues of human and animal social justice. Currently, she is director of The Food Empowerment Project. Over the years, she has worked in many roles including as National Coordinator for Defense for Animals and as the head of Viva! USA, a national nonprofit vegan advocacy organization. Her work focuses on the relationships between food, labor and immigration issues, animal and human social justice, and the environment. Ornelas knew that being more responsible about what we eat was key to fighting injustice, and her idea for the Food Empowerment Project was born. She continues to be active in diverse campaigns to raise awareness of trans-species wellbeing and rights.
Dave Perry, PhD
Dave is a Professor (emeritus) in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at Oregon State University, and lead author of the acclaimed textbook, Forest Ecosystems. He is a member of the National Commission on the Science of Sustainable Forestry, and on the Board of Directors of two nonprofits, the National Center for Conservation Science and Policy, and Na Huapala ‘O Hawai’i, which is dedicated to restoration and perpetuation of traditional Hawaiian values.
Dave’s research interests have focused on various aspects of ecosystem function, including especially how cooperation among species contributes to ecosystem health. He has taught ecology, silviculture, ecosystem management, and currently an online course in the ecology of sustainable resource management. He has conducted short courses on ecosystem management in Canada, Chile, and Brazil.
Annie Potts, PhD
Annie Potts is the Co-Director of the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies, which is based in the School of Humanities at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand. She has a PhD in Critical Psychology and a more recent background in Gender Studies and Cultural Studies. She is the author of The Science/Fiction of Sex: Feminist Deconstruction and the Vocabularies of Heterosex (published in Routledge’s Women & Psychology Series, 2002) and co-editor of Sex and the Body (Dunmore Press, 2004). Her latest book, Chicken, is an illustrated natural and cultural history of Gallus domesticus (Reaktion, 2011), and she is also the co-author (with Philip Armstrong and Deidre Brown) of Kararehe: Animals in New Zealand Art, Literature and Everyday Life (Auckland University Press, 2011). Annie is also working on projects related to the link between social violence and animal abuse; the sexual exploitation of nonhuman animals in science and psychological research; and the changing representations of nonhuman animals in 120 years of cinema. She currently teaches courses on the depiction of ‘animality’ and human-animal relations in mythology, folklore, film, graphic novels, and new media. Annie lives in a multispecies household in the port town of Lyttelton, and has a passion for re-homing unwanted and abused chickens. She also writes a regular column on art and animal advocacy for the Australian magazine Vegan Voice.
Jill Robinson
Born in the UK, Jill Robinson arrived in Hong Kong in 1985 and spent the next 12 years working as a consultant for the International Fund for Animal Welfare ( IFAW). Repeatedly faced with scenes of widespread animal cruelty, Jill decided to introduce the concept of “animal welfare through people welfare” and founded “Dr. Dog” in Hong Kong in 1991 – the first animal-therapy programme of its kind in Asia. Today, over 350 dogs and their dedicated volunteers make regular visits to hospitals, disabled centres, schools and elderly homes in 10 cities across Asia, spreading warmth and love to people in need, while promoting companion animals as our friends and helpers.
In 1993, a chance visit to a bear farm in southern China changed Jill's life. Exposing the plight of endangered Asiatic black bears (also known as moon bears) cruelly farmed and milked for their bile, and learning how easily herbs and synthetics could replace bear bile, Jill embarked on a journey to end the practice of bear farming once and for all. In 1998, she founded Animals Asia. Less than two years later, Animals Asia signed a breakthrough agreement with the Chinese authorities to rescue 500 farmed bears and work towards promoting herbal alternatives to bile and the elimination of bear farming. Today, the Moon Bear Rescue has seen the rescue of 276 bears in China and the opening of a new rescue centre for 200 farmed bears in Vietnam. Jill is a former member of the Hong Kong Government’s Animal Welfare Advisory Group and Honorary Adviser to the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation, Hong Kong. Among diverse accolades, Jill has been awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth in recognition of her services to animal welfare in Asia, presented with the USA Genesis, the Marchig Animal Welfare Award, was appointed World Animal Day Ambassador for Asia, and is a frequent guest on international television and documentaries.
Elke Riesterer, CMT
Elke is a Certified Massage Therapist and registered Jin Shin Do Practitioner with the broad experience of having worked with people and animals for over 25 years. She has been volunteering in the capacity of an all species Body Therapist at the Oakland Zoo since 1997 and uses a combination of body-centered therapies including her most favored modality, the Tellington Touch (TTouch™). The focus of her work centers in general around the complex well being issues of Elephants worldwide. Besides her work with Elephants at the zoo, Elke also tends to animals such as the giant Aldabra Tortoises, Monitor Lizards, Snakes and Giraffes. She has lectured extensively and has brought her work to the Elephant and Rhino Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya, and toThailand and India at many locales. In addition to many exotic species, Elke works with Horses, Dogs and other home animals. Her upcoming book describes her love and healing journey with Elephants in different countries. Numerous articles have featured her mission.
Ray Ryan
Most of my life has been spent with other species. But it was in 1976 when I began to work with non-native wildlife. I worked at PAWS sanctuary, founded by Pat Derby, where there were Chinese Leopards, wolves, Grizzly bears, a black bear, a very large tiger, and one beautiful Asian elephant. I had no fear, just a lot of respect and compassion. There is an exhilarating feeling about being with the animals, but also sadness knowing how all of those beautiful animals had suffered in captivity.
In 1981, I went San Diego State to get a degree in Psychology. There, I worked in the psychology department caring for two Barbaray apes. The male, Mac, was almost three feet tall when he stood up. After years of being caged up, he was a little crazy—always grabbing at his head and biting his arm. The female, Sarah, was smaller and only wanted to be groomed and was the sweetest thing around. I was able to take care of them for about two-and-a-half years, and did my best to change their living conditions. Their outside play was in a chain link enclosure, which was in clear view of all of the students as they left campus to go to the parking lots. Eventually we constructed dark framed screens around the enclosure so that thay could see the students as they walked past as some sort of diversion. The saddest day was when Sarah passed away. The autposy indicated that she had died from years of neglect, where food was used as a motivator to work, and not as a life source. She evently just passed away after living off her fat reserves between the muscle layers. That really brought to light the plight of research animals, especially primates and apes and the slow pain and death that some, if not most go through.
After graduating, I went to work with African elephants at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, an affiliate of the Zoo. It was a huge learning experience, but not always positive. I had never been around so much tension and anger in people—all of which was taken out on the animals. Everybody in the elephant department beat the elephants. I found out quickly that in order to keep my job, I would have to do the same. It's hard to describe the power you have, when you are able and told to hit and punish an animal when she is on chains and can't get away. It's a sick and cruel way of working with and around any animal. Starving animals to get them to respond is horrible enough, but to brutally beat them to get a quicker response is beyond cruelty. At the time I was there, 99% of the keepers were male: the elephants were a matriarchal culture being beaten by an aggressive group of men—and if you look at circuses today, it's still the same. But I learned that the elephants were kind and if you just let them do thing on their own, they would do what needed to be done. It became so much more peaceful. However, no matter how close I felt to the elephants, and the bonds that we shared, I just could not work there any longer, particularly after several violent incidents had occurred. Leaving the elephant brought deep sadness. Working with the eles was by far the most intense and spiritual experience I could have ever asked for. Now, I hope to return that gift to them.
Charlie Russell
Charlie Russell is the
founding director of the Pacific Rim Grizzly Bear Co-Existence Study.
Renowned worldwide for his ground-breaking work with grizzly bears
in Canada and Russia, Charlie has spent the better part of 48 years
closely observing the nature of these animals in their natural habitat
— more time than anyone else in direct, peaceful relationship
with wild grizzly bears. A former rancher and guide, Charlie is also
an author, photographer, and self-taught pilot.
Charlie's visionary and courageous work has overthrown countless widely held convictions concerning the nature of grizzly bears. He is the only person to ever successfully demonstrate that, when treated as intelligent beings, worthy and deserving of respect, grizzly bears will co-exist peacefully with humans.
His experience includes an 18 year exploration of how grizzlies used and shared his ranch situated on the boundary of Waterton / Glacier International Park near the border between Alberta and Montana. During this time he developed systems that allowed his cattle and the bears to co-exist. In 1992-93, Charlie lived on Princess Royal Island to create a film about the Spirit Bear with award winning wildlife filmmakers Jeff and Sue Turner. His first book, Sprit Bear—Encounters with the White Bear of the Western Rainforest, chronicles the two years spent living with and filming these little understood animals.
From 1996 to 2006 Charlie explored how human fear, anger and aggression have shaped the human-bear conflict. Determined to examine whether or not trust, kindness, openness and respect could transform our relationships with grizzlies, Charlie lived at the heart of a very dense population of bears in Kamchatka, Russia. In this rugged and remote area, he pioneered raising ten orphaned cubs rescued from a Russian zoo. To gain maximum understanding about bears that do not fear humans, Charlie and his project partner, Maureen Enns, established deep and lasting bonds with the cubs, as well as several of the wild bears in the region. Wild and free after six years, the cubs grew into peaceful, trustworthy adult bears. They demonstrated no signs of violence or aggression toward humans.
Charlie's latest best selling book, Grizzly Heart – Living Without Fear Among the Brown Bears Of Kamchatka, chronicling this extraordinary story and visionary work, is published in five languages. He also co-authored with Maureen Enns a companion photo album, Grizzly Seasons – Life with the Brown Bears of Kamchatka. Several films have brought this remarkable story to the world, including the 1997 documentary for PBS Nature: Walking with Giants: The Grizzlies of Siberia. In 2005 the BBC film Bear Man of Kamchatka was made. Jeff and Sue Turner created a 90 minute theatre production entitled The Edge of Eden from which much of the footage for the BBC film was taken. To date this moving film has won 12 awards in both European and North American film festivals.
At 67, Charlie is working to bring co-existence home through the Pacific Rim Grizzly Bear Co-Existence Study. When he is not out sharing his experience and knowledge with audiences throughout the World, he is enjoying his granddaughter and his other great passion – flying the airplane he built himself.
Allen M. Schoen, DVM, MS, PhD (hon.)
Dr. Schoen received
his DVM from Cornell University, College of Veterinary Medicine,
in 1978. He also holds a Master's Degree in neurophysiology and
behavior from the University of Illinois. Dr. Schoen received an
honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Becker College in 1998
for his contributions to Veterinary Medicine. He established the Department of Acupuncture, the first
in the world outside of China, at the Animal Medical Center in New
York City in 1982
Dr. Schoen has held faculty positions at Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Tufts University College of Veterinary Medicine in addition to being a faculty member of the Chi Institute for Traditional Chinese Medicine. He is certified in both veterinary acupuncture (1982) and veterinary chiropractic (1990). He is a former President of the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society (IVAS).
Dr. Schoen is a pioneer who has dedicated his professional career to the advancement of complementary and alternative veterinary medicine. He is the founder and director of the Center for Integrative Animal Health, a division of Global Communications for Conservation, Inc. (GCC). He is the co-editor of Complementary and Alternative Veterinary Medicine, Principles and Practice, and the editor of both Veterinary Acupuncture: Ancient Art to Modern Medicine and Problems in Veterinary Medicine: Veterinary Acupuncture. Dr. Schoen is the author of Kindred Spirits, How the Remarkable Relationship between Humans and Animals Can Transform our Lives (Broadway, Random House, 2001) and author of Love, Miracles & Animal Healing (Simon & Schuster, 1995). He has published numerous research articles on complementary and alternative veterinary medicine (CAVM). He has lectured on CAVM throughout the world including Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Africa, the U.S. and Canada.His research grants include one from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation for developing CAVM curriculums for veterinary schools, and one from the Gauntlett Foundation for developing new approaches to chronic disease. He has received research grants through GCC, Inc., from the Janet Stone-Jones Foundation, and from the McIntosh Foundation. Dr. Schoen is a charter fellow of the American College of Acupuncture, an organization of physicians dedicated to scientific acupuncture. Dr. Schoen was appointed to the American Veterinary Medical Association's (AVMA) six member committee on alternative and complementary veterinary medicine for whom he developed approved guidelines for CAVM in 1996. He has been on numerous editorial boards of journals and advisory committees of various veterinary nutritional companies. He authored a column with Time-Warner's Pathfinder web site titled The Healing Arts. He was a consultant for a new Public Broadcasting System television series on health care as well as having his own radio show.
In addition, Dr. Schoen maintains a referral practice in large and small animal integrative veterinary medicine. Through this practice he has developed new approaches to such degenerative conditions as cancer, arthritis, liver disease and others. Dr. Schoen continues to create innovative natural nontoxic approaches to animal health, environmental health and human health care and integrate them into a new interdisciplinary program with a commitment to compassionate care for all beings.
Dr. Dame Daphne Marjorie Sheldrick, DBE, MBS
Daphne
Sheldrick’s involvement with wildlife has spanned a lifetime.
Born in Kenya on the 4th June 1934, she grew up amongst animals, both
wild and domestic. She was educated at Nakuru Primary School and the
Kenya High School where she matriculated in 1950 with Honours and
the possibility of a bursary for University Entrance in the Cambridge
School Leaving Certificate, achieving the position of 8th in the Colony.
Instead Daphne opted for marriage. Living as she did within a National
Park, she had the opportunity to observe and study most species at
both the field level and in a captive situation. Rearing their orphaned
young has brought to her a unique and unparalleled understanding of
the "inside story" of wild creatures. - knowledge of their
minds and emotions, the role of instinct where it impacts on behaviour,
the importance of scent and chemistry in their daily lives, telepathic
capabilities, individuality, vocalizations, and the ability to interpret
the subtleties of a complex body language.. For over 25 years, from 1955 until
1976, Daphne Sheldrick lived and worked alongside her late husband,
David, the famous founder Warden of Kenya's giant Tsavo National
Park. During that time she raised and rehabilitated back into the
wild community orphans of misfortune from many different wild species,
including Elephants aged two and upwards; Black Rhinos, Buffaloes,
Zebra, Eland, Kudu, Impala, Duikers, Reedbuck, Dikdiks, Warthogs
and many smaller animals such as civets, mongooses and birds. She
is a recognized International authority on the rearing of wild creatures
and is the first person to have perfected the milk formula and necessary
husbandry for both infant milk dependent Elephants and Rhinos. The
key to her success has been her life-long experience of wild creatures,
an in-depth knowledge of animal psychology, the behavioral characteristics
of the different species, and, of course, that most essential component,
a sincere and deep empathy. For her work in this field Daphne Sheldrick
was decorated by the Queen in 1989 with an M.B.E., elevated to U.N.E.P.’s
elite Global 500 Roll of Honour in 1992, among the first 500 people
worldwide to have been accorded this particular honour, and awarded
an Honorary Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine and Surgery by Glasgow
University in June 2000. In December 2001 her work was honoured
by the Kenya Government through a prestigious decoration - a Moran
of the Burning Spear (M.B.S.), and in 2002 by the B.B.C. when she
received their Lifetime Achievement Award. In the November 2005
issue of the Smithsonian Magazine Daphne Sheldrick was named as
one of 35 people worldwide who have made a difference in terms of
animal husbandry and wildlife conservation. In the 2006 New Year’s
Honours List, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Dr. Daphne Sheldrick
to Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire,
the first Knighthood to be awarded in Kenya since the country received
Independence in 1963.
Barbara Smuts, PhD
Smuts received a Bachelors Degree in Anthropology from Harvard University and a Ph.D in neurological and biological behavioral science from Stanford Medical School and has studied baboons, dolphins, and chimpanzees. In the 1970s she began research with Jane Goodall on chimpanzees in Gombe National Park. She uses perspectives derived from evolutionary theory, studies of complex systems, and developmental research to examine the dynamics and functions of long-term social relationships. Her work focuses on social behavior in primates, wolves, and domestic dogs in the areas of play, social reciprocity, cooperation, greetings, conflict resolution, emotions, and mood. Questions that inspire her wok include: How do other animals develop trusting relationships in the absence of spoken language? What do animals understand about the beliefs and intentions of their social partners? And how can understanding of nonhuman social relationships help us to better understand human behavior?
Ann Southcombe
Ann Southcombe is an Animal Relation Specialist and licensed wildlife rehabilitator who, for over 35 years, has dedicated her life to the care of gorillas, squirrels, lynx, bears, and many other species in captivity. It has been her goal to learn and perfect how to facilitate their process of “meaning making” as they renew their lives after trauma and hardship. Ann has learned there is a delicate balance in being with them as a human yet relating on their terms. Ann is the author of several books and conducts wortkshops and lectures throughout North America including series called “Kinship With Animals” that shares her experiences with diverse species to raise public awareness concerning the deep emotional feelings and intellectual capabilities of other animals on the planet. Ann brings profound knowledge of animal experiences and values to intergate into human science and culture. Ann has no formal academic degree: her teachers have been the animal individuals who she has cared for. She therefore exemplifies the new kinds of learning and knowledge that can teach other humans and include other animals' participation in knowledge-making.
Ed Tick, PhD
Edward Tick, Ph.D. is
a holistic psychotherapist and transformational healer. He is a writer,
educator, journey guide, activist and veterans’ advocate. He
specializes in using psycho-spiritual, cross-cultural, nature-based
and international reconciliation practices to bring healing to veterans,
survivors, communities and nations recovering from the traumas of
war and violence.
Ed is Co-founder, Director and Senior Clinician of Soldier’s Heart: Veterans’ Safe Return Initiatives. He has been a psychotherapist for 35 years, specializing in working with veterans and others suffering with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) since the late 1970s. He has served as distinguished visiting faculty at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, West Point, Ft. Hood, and numerous universities, colleges and cultural centers around the world. He is internationally recognized as an expert on veterans, PTSD, and the psychology of military-related issues.
Ed leads semi-annual international educational, healing and reconciliation journeys to Greece and Viet Nam. He has published four books: Sacred Mountain, Encounters with the Vietnam Beast (1989), The Practice of Dream Healing (Quest, 2001), The Golden Tortoise: Viet Nam Journeys (Red Hen, 2005), and the award-winning War and the Soul (Quest, 2005), credited with transforming the trauma field to include spiritual and cultural dimensions of wounding and healing. His work has been translated and published in Greece, Japan, Viet Nam and Bulgaria. He is also a poet and author of over 100 articles in psychology, holistic health, mythology and spirituality, literature, philosophy, culture and travel.
Spirituality, soul, the Earth, and their well-being are at the center of all Ed’s work.
Thidi Tshiguvho, PhD
Thidi Tshiguvho’s
main research focus is on human-environment relationships, particularly
the relationships between indigenous communities and wildlife. With
a Ph.D. in Geography from Clark University and a background in conservation
biology (M.Sc), Thidi’s work explores indigenous peoples’
perception of nature, how that shapes their interaction with plants
and animals, and the biological conservation outcomes of these relationships.
Her research in South Africa, her country of origin, explored how
traditional beliefs about plants and animals species, which were based
on traditional people’s knowledge of the behavior, morphology,
and physiology of these plants and animals, determined how they treated
these species and why they incorporated them into the local culture
and the sacred forests conservation system.
Thidi’s work highlighted how snakes were believed able to communicate with humans about the biological and social condition of sacred forests they inhabit. Her research also compares the basis for (1) respectful vs. abusive treatment of plants and animals within indigenous and western societies, and (2) “othering” other beings in general. Thidi’s recent interest is on the behavioral similarities between humans and other species, particularly in terms of how they respond to environmental stress.
For the past 10 years, Thidi has taught ecology, conservation biology, geography, and other environmental science courses at several universities in South Africa and the USA. She is currently at Clark University, the Department of International Development, Community and Environment, working on Aids 2031 and other projects. Previously, she was part of National Science Foundation task force to establish a Long-term Ecological Research site in South Africa.
Kathy White
Kathy White produced, wrote and directed the popular PBS series the Dinosaurs. She produced The KGB, the Computer and Me, about computer espionage, which aired on the PBS series NOVA. For the NOVA Death of a Star about astrophysics, White received the Red Ribbon from the American Film Festival. She was scriptwriter for First Light: The Search for the Edge of the Universe, which garnered awards from the National Science Foundation and the Sloan Foundation. White designed and directed the dramatic re-enactments for Ulysses S. Grant, a three-hour film for the American Experience history series on PBS. In addition, she was writer, producer and director for New Shepherds of the Farm, the story of bold animal experts who are working to improve the lot of factory-farmed animals.
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Y. Gavriel Ansara, MSc Y. Gavriel Ansara (席嘉力/ آتش جاوید / גבריאל יוסף)
has an MSc with Distinction in Social Psychology from the University of Surrey, UK, where he receives a departmental bursary for his PhD research in psychology and serves as an Academic Tutor. Read
more.
Marc
Bekoff, PhD Marc Bekoff
is a former Professor of Biology at the University of Colorado,
Boulder, and co-founder with Jane Goodall of Ethologists for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals and teaches through Roots and Shoots
at school and prisons. Read
more.
Robin
Bjork, PhD Robin Bjork
is a Senior Scientist for SalvaNATURA, a non-profit non-governmental
environmental organization in El Salvador. She holds a doctorate
in wildlife science and a master’s degree in coastal ecology. Read
more.
Jeff Borchers, MS, PhD, NCC Jeff is a psychotherapist with a background in research, teaching, training, policy analysis, and organizational development. Read more.
Martin
Brüne, Dr. med Martin Brüne
graduated in Medicine from Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität
Münster, Germany, in 1988. He received specialist training
in neurology, psychiatry, and psychotherapy. Read
more.
Carol Buckley Carol Buckley is an international leader in trauma recovery of Asian and Africa elephants. She has over thirty years experience with elephants in captivity and is co-founder of the first natural-habitat refuge for sick, old and needy endangered elephants, the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. Read more.
Ginger
Casto Ginger has been active
in llama rescue activities and education for llama care. She has
lived in the Rogue Valley, Oregon, for over 20 years in the social
service and non-profit consulting profession.Read more.
Karen Davis, PhD Karen Davis, PhD is the founder and president of United Poultry Concerns, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl. Read more.
Margo
DeMello, PhD Margo DeMello
is President and Executive Director of House Rabbit Society, an
international rabbit rescue and education organization. She holds
a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology and currently lectures at Central
New Mexico Community College, teaching sociology, cultural studies,
and anthropology. Read
more.
Lorraine Donlon, MS Lorraine Donlon is an elementary school teacher in East Rockaway, NY. She holds a Master's Degree in Reading from Dowling College and has taught special education students at Centre Avevue Elelmentary School for 28 years. Read
more.
pattrice
jones pattrice jones
is the author of Aftershock:
Confronting Trauma in a Violent World, a Guide for Activists and
Their Allies and the cofounder of the Eastern Shore Sanctuary and Education Center.
She received her graduate training in clinical psychology at the
University of Michigan. Read
more.
Richard Katz Richard Katz has been an executive producer, writer and senior editor for countless network and PBS programs. Read more.
Assimina Kouloukouri, DEA, DESS Assimina Kouloukouri is the founder and director of Psychanimal (Psychologists and Other Scientists for Animal Protection). Psychanimal is a non-profit founded in 2010 in Greece to promote animal protection and responsible guardianship, and to encourage active participation by psychologists, teachers, and scientists in these issues. Read more.
Randy Malamud, PhD Randy Malamud is Professor of English at Georgia State University in Atlanta. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1989, and specializes in modern literature, ecocriticism, and anthrozoology. Read more.
Lori
Marino, PhD Lori is a Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology at Emory University, Atlanta and a Faculty Affiliate of the Emory Center for Ethics. She is also co-founder and Executive Director of The Aurelia Center for Animals and Cultural Change. Read
more.
Eileen McCarthy Eileen McCarthy is Founder, President & CEO of the Midwest Avian Adoption and Rescue Services (MAARS), a unique organization located in St. Paul, MN that has provided sanctuary, advocacy and rehabilitation for wild birds living in captivity since 1999. Read
more.
Joseph
Daniel Mitchell, MS Joseph is a
fullblood citizen of the Creek Nation and a member of the Muskogee
Indian Community. For the past 26 years, he has worked in environmental
sciences and conservation on tribal and federal lands. Read more.
Michael Mountain Michael is the co-founder and President of Zoe, which is building a global community of people who care about the animals, nature and the environment. Read more.
Vera
Muller-Paisner, LCSW Vera is a psychoanalyst and daughter of Holocaust survivors. She has spent the last dozen years studying the chronicity and transmission of trauma. Read more.
Fabio Napolitano, PhD Fabio Napolitano received a PhD in Animal Science and is associate professor at the University of Basilicata, Italy. His research is focused mainly on the study of farm animal behaviour and welfare, and consumer perception of animal welfare issues. Read more.
Bruce Nock, PhD Bruce is a tenured neurobiologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri with faculty appointments in the departments of psychiatry and anatomy and neurobiology. Read more.
Susie
O'Keeffe, MS Susie received
her Master's with distinction from Oxford University in England.
Her research explored the human / wolf relationship, with an emphasis
on how wolves can guide us toward sustainable agricultural systems.
For the past twenty years she has also worked with a variety of
environmental and local agriculture organizations in the United
States and Europe. Read more.
lauren Ornelas lauren Ornelas has worked for over two decades on issues of human and animal social justice. Currently, she is director of The Food Empowerment Project. Read
more.
Dave
Perry, PhD Dave is a Professor
(emeritus) in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at
Oregon State University, and lead author of the acclaimed textbook, Forest Ecosystems. Read
more.
Annie Potts, PhD Annie Potts is the Co-Director of the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies, which is based in the School of Humanities at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand. Read more.
Elke
Riesterer, CMT Elke is a Certified
Massage Therapist and registered Jin Shin Do Practitioner with the
broad experience of having worked with people and animals for over
25 years. Read
more.
Jill Robinson Born in the UK, Jill Robinson arrived in Hong Kong in 1985 and spent the next 12 years working in Asia as a consultant for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Read more.
Ray Ryan Most of my life has been spent with other species. But it was in 1976, when I began to work with non-native wildlife. I worked at PAWS sanctuary, founded by Pat Derby, where there were Chinese Leopards, wolves, Grizzly bears, a black bear, a very large tiger, and one beautiful Asian elephant. Read more.
Charlie
Russell Charlie Russell
is the founding director of the Pacific Rim Grizzly Bear Co-Existence
Study. Renowned worldwide for his ground-breaking work with grizzly
bears in Canada and Russia, Charlie has spent the better part of
48 years closely observing the nature of these animals in their
natural habitat. Read
more.
Allen
M. Schoen, DVM, MS, PhD (hon.) Dr. Schoen
received his DVM from Cornell University, College of Veterinary
Medicine, in 1978. He also holds a Master's Degree in neurophysiology
and behavior from the University of Illinois. Dr. Schoen is a pioneer
who has dedicated his professional career to the advancement of
complementary and alternative veterinary medicine. Read
more.
Barbara Smuts, PhD.
Smuts received a Bachelors Degree in Anthropology from Harvard University and a Ph.D in neurological and biological behavioral science from Stanford Medical School and has studied baboons, dolphins, and chimpanzees. Read more.
Ann Southcombe Ann Southcombe is an Animal Relation Specialist and licensed wildlife rehabilitator who, for over 35 years, has dedicated her life to the care of gorillas, squirrels, lynx, bears, and many other species in captivity. Read more.
Ed Tick, PhD Edward Tick, Ph.D. is a holistic psychotherapist and transformational healer. He is a writer, educator, journey guide, activist and veterans’ advocate. He specializes in using psycho-spiritual, cross-cultural, nature-based and international reconciliation practices to bring healing to veterans, survivors, communities and nations recovering from the traumas of war and violence. Read more.
Thidi Tshiguvho, PhD Thidi Tshiguvho’s main research focus is on human-environment relationships, particularly the relationships between indigenous communities and wildlife. With a Ph.D. in Geography from Clark University and a background in conservation biology (M.Sc), Thidi’s work explores indigenous peoples’ perception of nature. Read more.
Kathy White Kathy White produced, wrote and directed the popular PBS series the Dinosaurs. She produced The KGB, the Computer and Me, about computer espionage, which aired on the PBS series NOVA. Read more.
Y. Gavriel Ansara, MSc
Gavi has designed educational curricula and conducted professional training on numerous topics for psychologists, law enforcement, clergy, social workers, youth educators, and physicians, including a Grand Round at Rhode Island Hospital's Hasbro Developmental-Behavioural Paediatrics Division with internationally recognised paediatric transgender medical expert Dr Norm Spack and HIV expert Dr. Jody Rich. Gavi is the author of "Beyond Cisgenderism: Counselling People with Affirmed Gender Identities" in Ed. Lyndsey Moon's Counselling Ideologies: Queer Challenges to Heteronormativity (Ashgate, 2010). He is UK Speaker on Multicultural Issues for Organisation Intersex Internationale and was the first elected Trans Representative Officer of Surrey's LGBT Society in 2008. As a polycultural, traditionally observant Empath and Healer with ties to multiple continents, he is committed to Tikkun Olam (repairing the world and establishing sanctity within it), moving toward full dietary and lifestyle veganism and challenging human supremacist assumptions. His many trans-species friendships have taught him to appreciate the range of emotional, intellectual, cultural, and spiritual capacities possessed by our fellow beings.
Marc Bekoff, PhD
Robin Bjork, PhD
Programa de Ciencias para la Conservación, SalvaNATURA
Colonia Flor Blanca, 33 Ave. Sur # 640
San Salvador, El Salvador
Robin Bjork is a Senior Scientist for SalvaNATURA, a non-profit non-governmental environmental organization in El Salvador. She holds a doctorate in wildlife science and a master’s degree in coastal ecology. Her past research has focused on documenting spatial patterns of regional migrant tropical birds with a goal of providing guidance to regional conservation planning. Robin began working with wild psittacines in 1994 when she directed development of the first radio tracking device to withstand the force of macaw bills and used the device to track the movements of Great Green Macaws in Costa Rica. Her dissertation research identified the migration of Mealy Parrots across Guatemalan lowlands, the first detailed documentation of such a pattern in psittacines. She continues conservation research with wild parrots and macaws and is currently directing a program to reintroduce Scarlet Macaws to El Salvador and protect endangered Yellow-naped Parrots. Email Robin or visit her website.
Jeff Borchers, MS, PhD, NCC
Jeff is a psychotherapist with a background in research, teaching, training, policy analysis, and organizational development. Over the past 25 years, he has worked in academia, government, and the private sector on issues of social, ecological, and psychological significance. His interests include the use of ecotherapy to improve psychological well being and to foster a mindfulness approach to caring for animals and the land.
As an employee assistance professional, Jeff provides consultations, group trainings, and coaching, and is certified in mediation and conflict management. In all his work, Jeff draws from his background in research, teaching, training, policy analysis, and organizational development to facilitate lasting change.
Jeff’s education includes a PhD in ecology from Oregon State University, a master’s degree in counseling from Capella University, and a master’s degree from Yale University. He also has taught traditional martial arts for over 30 years, holding the rank of nidan in Shotokan karate-dō. Jeff has a private practice, Commensa Counseling for Wellness, where he works with individuals, couples, families, and groups, and provides training and interventions for organizations.
Martin Brüne, Dr. med.Carol Buckley
Ginger Casto
Donna Coughlin
The magazine became a leader in the shelter category with a frequency change from 6 to 10 times a year and top tier advertisers. In 2004 she was awarded the Circle of Excellence Award for outstanding editorial and media achievement from the New York Chapter of the International Furnishing and Design Association (IFDA); in 2007 she received Project Angel Food’s Humanitarian Award. The magazine also won numerous design and industry awards during her 17 year tenure. She oversaw the creation of a sibling trade magazine, Fulcrum, in 2008 and 4 major coffee table design books; the latest, Glamour, Making it Modern, was on Amazon’s home design best seller list for months. Previously she co-wrote “The New American Cuisine.” A frequent design industry keynote speaker and panelist, Coughlin appeared on HGTV’s Top Ten series for several seasons (’08 and ’09) and did segments for LXTV (NBC), among other TV appearances. As VP, Brand Content, she worked on the magazine’s website and chose and directed a designer to produce a licensed Met Home furniture line. She created the magazine’s annual Design 100 event/awards at the Four Seasons—the design event of the year.
Coughlin felt strongly about developing the magazine’s social conscience. Design Cares was conceived with the New York Design Center to raise money in response to 9/11—$300,000, an unprecedented amount for the design industry. Design Cares then became an annual fundraiser for The Partnership for the Homeless. Other charitable events included show houses in New York and Los Angeles, a Street of Shops to benefit DIFFA and PAWS for Design, for the New York Humane Society. Coughlin is a longtime American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) member and senior judge for their prestigious National Magazine Awards.
She began her career at Better Homes and Gardens and worked on the first issues of Apartment Ideas/Apartment Life, which became Metropolitan Home in 1981. As Food Editor, she created the first coverage of “star chefs” (with recipes for home cooks) and as Editorial Design Director, she worked on all aspects of the magazine.
She graduated with honors from Mount Holyoke College, majoring in French. She is an avid equestrian and lives in Connecticut with her husband, 3 horses and 2 dogs. Besides media, her passions include visiting her daughters on both coasts and animal rescue.
Karen Davis, PhD
Karen Davis, PhD is the founder and president of United Poultry Concerns, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl. Founded in 1990, United Poultry Concerns addresses the treatment of domestic fowl in food production, science, education, entertainment, and human companionship situations. Karen has a PhD in English from the University of Maryland-College Park where she taught for twelve years in the English Department. She has been featured internationally in diverse journals. films, and television in recognition of her ground breaking work, including an in-depth profile in the Washington Post. Karen is also the author of numerous artilces and books including Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs: An Inside Look at the Modern Poultry Industry; More Than a Meal: The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual, and Reality; and The Holocaust and the Henmaid’s Tale: A Case for Comparing Atrocities.
Margo DeMello, PhD
Margo DeMello is President and Executive Director of House Rabbit Society, an international rabbit rescue and education organization. She holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology and currently lectures at Central New Mexico Community College, teaching sociology, cultural studies, and anthropology. She is one of the foremost experts on rabbit social behavior and lives with a group of 50 domestic rabbits at her home. Her books include Bodies of Inscription: A Cultural History of the Modern Tattoo Community (2000), Stories Rabbits Tell: A Natural and Cultural History of a Misunderstood Creature (2003), Low-Carb Vegetarian (2004), Why Animals Matter: The Case for Animal Protection (2007), and The Encyclopedia of Body Adornment (2007). The Encyclopedia of Body Adornment was included in the 2008 list of Outstanding Reference Sources for small and medium-sized libraries by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association.
She has recently had articles published in the Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships (Marc Bekoff, ed.), Encyclopedia of Animal Rights (Marc Bekoff, ed.), and A Cultural History of Animals: The Modern Age (Randy Malamud, ed.). Her newest books, to be released in 2009 and 2010, will be A Cultural Encyclopedia of Feet and Footwear and the edited collection, Teaching the Animal: Human Animal Studies Across the Disciplines, and she is under contract to write Animals and Society, a textbook for Brill.
Lorrain Donlon, MS
pattrice jones
Richard Katz
Richard has been an executive producer, writer and senior editor for countless network and PBS programs. His commercial television credits include Zora Neal Huston (ABC/Disney), Hurricane Ike: The Hidden Victims (NBC), and A Band With No Instruments (NBC).
Richard's PBS credits include Peter Paul & Mary and Out of Work, both of which received national Emmys. Additional PBS credits include the documentary series Earthkeeping and The Aids Quarterly. Currently, Katz’s work is regularly seen on the NBC Nightly News.
Assimina Kouloukouri, DEA, DESS
Assimina Kouloukouri is the founder and director of Psychanimal (Psychologists and Other Scientists for Animal Protection). Psychanimal is a non-profit founded in 2010 in Greece to promote animal protection and responsible guardianship, and to encourage active participation by psychologists, teachers, and scientists in these issues. It has also created a team of volunteer lawyers, Animalaw Lawyers for Animal Protection, to help inform people about animal abuse and to pass legislation that promotes greater animal protection.
Assimina is also the founder and director of the Thessaloniki Cat Group and Athens Cat Group, non-profits whose aim is to spread love and the right behavior towards stray or owned cats through education, strict adoption procedures and cat guardian education. Their work includes education on cat spay and neutering, animal welfare issues, and handicapped animals adoption. Assimina has a broad experience in scientific psychoanalytical and psychiatric research and development research tools, organizing and guiding workshops, staff-training, and other activities conducted during her practice in France. Assimina’s current work and writing focus on human and animal abuse (with specific emphasis on the prevention of the animal and human maltreatment and animal hoarding), vegan lifestyles, psychosomatic medicine, technical psychotherapeutic problems and scientific research methodology in humanistic studies.
Assimina received her Diplôme d'Etudes Approfondie (DEA) in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis from Denis Diderot University, Paris VII, France and her maîtrise DESS (Diplôme d'Etudes Superieures Spécialisée in clinical psychology and psychopathology from University of Paul Valery, MTP III, France). Her doctoral work focused on the relation between the psychic stress and psychosomatic diseases (eczema-psoriasis) and the impact of art therapy and ergo therapy on schizophrenic patients. She is a member of the Northern Greek Psychoanalytic Society.
Randy Malamud, PhD
Randy Malamud is Professor of English at Georgia State University in Atlanta. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1989, and specializes in modern literature, ecocriticism, and anthrozoology. Many of his books and articles deal with how people think about other animals, and what happens to those animals when they become implicated in human culture. He is the author of Reading Zoos: Representations of Animals and Captivity (NYU Press, 1998) and Poetic Animals and Animal Souls (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), and the editor of A Cultural History of Animals in the Modern Age (Berg, 2007). He writes frequently for the Chronicle of Higher Education. He is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, and an international associate of the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies. He is also a patron of the Captive Animals' Protection Society in England.
Lori Marino, PhD
Lori is a Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology at Emory University, Atlanta and a Faculty Affiliate of the Emory Center for Ethics. She is also co-founder and Executive Director of The Aurelia Center for Animals and Cultural Change, a non-profit organization focused on applying scholarship and science to animal advocacy. Her research expertise and interests include the evolution of intelligence and self-awareness in other species, noninvasive studies of brain and behavior, cognitive ethology, human-nonhuman relationships, and animal welfare, ethics, and conservation. She has published over 80 papers in these areas and is an internationally known speaker on animal intelligence and related topics. She has worked extensively with dolphins and chimpanzees and, in 2001, co-authored the first definitive evidence of mirror self-recognition in a non-primate species, the bottlenose dolphin. She is also involved in NASA Astrobiology Program initiatives on the evolution of intelligence and is a founding signatory of the Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans.
Eileen McCarthy
More recently, the therapeutic environment and treatment program utilized by MAARS for the many birds in their care suffering from capture or captivity-related trauma has led to a partnership with The Kerulos Center and the development of the Avian Care and Recovery Center (ACRC). The foundation of ACRC is to create a model for scientific, animal directed trans-species psychology and psychiatry. The ACRC focuses on the treatment of common conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder, attachment disorders, affect dysregulation, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and other psychological and psychiatric conditions. Such condtions, and effective treatment interventions, are well-documented in the literature and research involving both human and non-human behavior, psychology, psychiatry and neurology. The mission, accomplishments and residents of ACRC will be the strongest evidence available in advocating for the protection and legal rights of non-human animals.
Joseph Daniel Mitchell, MS
Joseph is a fullblood citizen of the Creek Nation and a member of the Muskogee Indian Community. For the past 26 years, he has worked in environmental sciences and conservation on tribal and federal lands with the tribes, the USDA Forest Service, Washington, DC, and Bureau of Indian Affairs. He was Senior Executive Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and has worked with more than 200 tribes across the nation. Joe consults with tribal governments and communities on Indian law and treaties and advocacy for tribes to exercise treaty rights on federal lands, and implement traditional practices. He has also been involved in the evolution of several of the 26 tribal colleges throughout the country and has assisted many with establishing traditional ecological knowledge programs.
Michael Mountain
Through the 1990s, as editor of Best Friends magazine, he brought together grassroots groups and people all across the country to help build the no-kill movement that helped bring the number of homeless pets being killed in shelters down from 17 million a year to fewer than 5 million.
“Today,” he says, “it’s not just dogs and cats who are losing their homes. Our fellow animals are being made homeless all over the world: from elephants and tigers, who are being hunted and encroached upon to extinction ... to life in the oceans, where 90 percent of predatory fish are now gone due to overfishing, and where the coral reefs, where most fish are birthed, are now dying due to warmer, polluted waters ... to animals large and small who are being forced to leave their homes in search of new habitat due to climate change ... to dolphins who are torn from their homes to entertain people by doing party tricks in tanks.
“Zoe will do online what we did with Best Friends magazine in the 1990s, becoming the go-to place for news, both serious and light, philosophical and quirky, and bringing us all together to help transform the way people relate to the animals, nature and, by extension, each other.”Michael adds that he’s delighted to be part of the Kerulos faculty: “Speaking as an Oxford dropout from the 1960s, I’d say that the Kerulos Institute is providing the kind of education that all universities should be offering!” As part of Kerulos, Michael is especially concerned with helping people understand that almost all the ills of the world today stem from our sense of disconnection from the natural world – and therefore from our own nature. “The Earth is our home,” he says, “and the other animals are our family and our neighbors. We’re destroying our home and killing our neighbors. No good can come of this. It’s time to build a whole new relationship to our fellow animals. And Kerulos will be laying the foundations and providing much of the key groundwork for this.”
Vera Muller-Paisner, LCSW
Fabio Napolitano, PhD
Bruce Nock, PhD
More importantly, Bruce has a natural affinity for animals. Learning about their behavior and physiology has been a lifelong labor of love. He received a Master of Science degree in psychobiology from Bucknell University and a Ph.D. from the world renowned Institute of Animal Behavior, Rutgers University. Bruce is the author of the acclaimed book Ten Golden Rules of Horse Training: Universal Laws for all Levels and Riding Styles, the newly released book Ride For Tomorrow: Dressage Today, and The Biology of Natural Horsemanship, a series of articles about stress—its nature, the damage it can do to a horse and how to minimize it.
Bruce is the founder of Liberated Horsemanship , a group of selected experts dedicated to helping people and horses worldwide by providing multidisciplinary, science-based information about the care and use of horses. The mission of Liberated Horsemanship is to help horse owners and equine professionals maximize the health and welfare of horses without sacrificing the fun and enjoyment of horse guardianship and use. To date, people from 15 countries and 45 US states have attended Liberated Horsemanship clinics and events in Warrenton, Missouri.
Susie O'Keeffe, MS
The educational element of Susie's work includes an undergraduate course that examines contemporary and historic case studies of naturalists who have used creative perception, and prolonged contemplation, as forms of inquiry and understanding. Traditional conservation approaches are compared and contrasted with emerging ideas about our capacity for mutual exchanges with other beings, and the emerging understanding of animal cultures, intelligence and emotion. Students are introduced to the idea of creative perception, moral consciousness and forms of contemplative practice as valid tools of inquiry. They explore role that these practices and ways of understanding play in addressing our ongoing destruction of life and landscape. Students express what they have discovered, felt, dreamed and imagined through art forms of their choice.
lauren Ornelas
Dave Perry, PhD
Dave is a Professor (emeritus) in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at Oregon State University, and lead author of the acclaimed textbook, Forest Ecosystems. He is a member of the National Commission on the Science of Sustainable Forestry, and on the Board of Directors of two nonprofits, the National Center for Conservation Science and Policy, and Na Huapala ‘O Hawai’i, which is dedicated to restoration and perpetuation of traditional Hawaiian values.
Dave’s research interests have focused on various aspects of ecosystem function, including especially how cooperation among species contributes to ecosystem health. He has taught ecology, silviculture, ecosystem management, and currently an online course in the ecology of sustainable resource management. He has conducted short courses on ecosystem management in Canada, Chile, and Brazil.
Annie Potts, PhD
Annie Potts is the Co-Director of the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies, which is based in the School of Humanities at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand. She has a PhD in Critical Psychology and a more recent background in Gender Studies and Cultural Studies. She is the author of The Science/Fiction of Sex: Feminist Deconstruction and the Vocabularies of Heterosex (published in Routledge’s Women & Psychology Series, 2002) and co-editor of Sex and the Body (Dunmore Press, 2004). Her latest book, Chicken, is an illustrated natural and cultural history of Gallus domesticus (Reaktion, 2011), and she is also the co-author (with Philip Armstrong and Deidre Brown) of Kararehe: Animals in New Zealand Art, Literature and Everyday Life (Auckland University Press, 2011). Annie is also working on projects related to the link between social violence and animal abuse; the sexual exploitation of nonhuman animals in science and psychological research; and the changing representations of nonhuman animals in 120 years of cinema. She currently teaches courses on the depiction of ‘animality’ and human-animal relations in mythology, folklore, film, graphic novels, and new media. Annie lives in a multispecies household in the port town of Lyttelton, and has a passion for re-homing unwanted and abused chickens. She also writes a regular column on art and animal advocacy for the Australian magazine Vegan Voice.
Jill Robinson
Born in the UK, Jill Robinson arrived in Hong Kong in 1985 and spent the next 12 years working as a consultant for the International Fund for Animal Welfare ( IFAW). Repeatedly faced with scenes of widespread animal cruelty, Jill decided to introduce the concept of “animal welfare through people welfare” and founded “Dr. Dog” in Hong Kong in 1991 – the first animal-therapy programme of its kind in Asia. Today, over 350 dogs and their dedicated volunteers make regular visits to hospitals, disabled centres, schools and elderly homes in 10 cities across Asia, spreading warmth and love to people in need, while promoting companion animals as our friends and helpers.
In 1993, a chance visit to a bear farm in southern China changed Jill's life. Exposing the plight of endangered Asiatic black bears (also known as moon bears) cruelly farmed and milked for their bile, and learning how easily herbs and synthetics could replace bear bile, Jill embarked on a journey to end the practice of bear farming once and for all. In 1998, she founded Animals Asia. Less than two years later, Animals Asia signed a breakthrough agreement with the Chinese authorities to rescue 500 farmed bears and work towards promoting herbal alternatives to bile and the elimination of bear farming. Today, the Moon Bear Rescue has seen the rescue of 276 bears in China and the opening of a new rescue centre for 200 farmed bears in Vietnam. Jill is a former member of the Hong Kong Government’s Animal Welfare Advisory Group and Honorary Adviser to the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation, Hong Kong. Among diverse accolades, Jill has been awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth in recognition of her services to animal welfare in Asia, presented with the USA Genesis, the Marchig Animal Welfare Award, was appointed World Animal Day Ambassador for Asia, and is a frequent guest on international television and documentaries.
Elke Riesterer, CMT
Elke is a Certified Massage Therapist and registered Jin Shin Do Practitioner with the broad experience of having worked with people and animals for over 25 years. She has been volunteering in the capacity of an all species Body Therapist at the Oakland Zoo since 1997 and uses a combination of body-centered therapies including her most favored modality, the Tellington Touch (TTouch™). The focus of her work centers in general around the complex well being issues of Elephants worldwide. Besides her work with Elephants at the zoo, Elke also tends to animals such as the giant Aldabra Tortoises, Monitor Lizards, Snakes and Giraffes. She has lectured extensively and has brought her work to the Elephant and Rhino Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya, and toThailand and India at many locales. In addition to many exotic species, Elke works with Horses, Dogs and other home animals. Her upcoming book describes her love and healing journey with Elephants in different countries. Numerous articles have featured her mission.
Ray Ryan
In 1981, I went San Diego State to get a degree in Psychology. There, I worked in the psychology department caring for two Barbaray apes. The male, Mac, was almost three feet tall when he stood up. After years of being caged up, he was a little crazy—always grabbing at his head and biting his arm. The female, Sarah, was smaller and only wanted to be groomed and was the sweetest thing around. I was able to take care of them for about two-and-a-half years, and did my best to change their living conditions. Their outside play was in a chain link enclosure, which was in clear view of all of the students as they left campus to go to the parking lots. Eventually we constructed dark framed screens around the enclosure so that thay could see the students as they walked past as some sort of diversion. The saddest day was when Sarah passed away. The autposy indicated that she had died from years of neglect, where food was used as a motivator to work, and not as a life source. She evently just passed away after living off her fat reserves between the muscle layers. That really brought to light the plight of research animals, especially primates and apes and the slow pain and death that some, if not most go through.
After graduating, I went to work with African elephants at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, an affiliate of the Zoo. It was a huge learning experience, but not always positive. I had never been around so much tension and anger in people—all of which was taken out on the animals. Everybody in the elephant department beat the elephants. I found out quickly that in order to keep my job, I would have to do the same. It's hard to describe the power you have, when you are able and told to hit and punish an animal when she is on chains and can't get away. It's a sick and cruel way of working with and around any animal. Starving animals to get them to respond is horrible enough, but to brutally beat them to get a quicker response is beyond cruelty. At the time I was there, 99% of the keepers were male: the elephants were a matriarchal culture being beaten by an aggressive group of men—and if you look at circuses today, it's still the same. But I learned that the elephants were kind and if you just let them do thing on their own, they would do what needed to be done. It became so much more peaceful. However, no matter how close I felt to the elephants, and the bonds that we shared, I just could not work there any longer, particularly after several violent incidents had occurred. Leaving the elephant brought deep sadness. Working with the eles was by far the most intense and spiritual experience I could have ever asked for. Now, I hope to return that gift to them.
Charlie Russell
Charlie's visionary and courageous work has overthrown countless widely held convictions concerning the nature of grizzly bears. He is the only person to ever successfully demonstrate that, when treated as intelligent beings, worthy and deserving of respect, grizzly bears will co-exist peacefully with humans.
His experience includes an 18 year exploration of how grizzlies used and shared his ranch situated on the boundary of Waterton / Glacier International Park near the border between Alberta and Montana. During this time he developed systems that allowed his cattle and the bears to co-exist. In 1992-93, Charlie lived on Princess Royal Island to create a film about the Spirit Bear with award winning wildlife filmmakers Jeff and Sue Turner. His first book, Sprit Bear—Encounters with the White Bear of the Western Rainforest, chronicles the two years spent living with and filming these little understood animals.
From 1996 to 2006 Charlie explored how human fear, anger and aggression have shaped the human-bear conflict. Determined to examine whether or not trust, kindness, openness and respect could transform our relationships with grizzlies, Charlie lived at the heart of a very dense population of bears in Kamchatka, Russia. In this rugged and remote area, he pioneered raising ten orphaned cubs rescued from a Russian zoo. To gain maximum understanding about bears that do not fear humans, Charlie and his project partner, Maureen Enns, established deep and lasting bonds with the cubs, as well as several of the wild bears in the region. Wild and free after six years, the cubs grew into peaceful, trustworthy adult bears. They demonstrated no signs of violence or aggression toward humans.
Charlie's latest best selling book, Grizzly Heart – Living Without Fear Among the Brown Bears Of Kamchatka, chronicling this extraordinary story and visionary work, is published in five languages. He also co-authored with Maureen Enns a companion photo album, Grizzly Seasons – Life with the Brown Bears of Kamchatka. Several films have brought this remarkable story to the world, including the 1997 documentary for PBS Nature: Walking with Giants: The Grizzlies of Siberia. In 2005 the BBC film Bear Man of Kamchatka was made. Jeff and Sue Turner created a 90 minute theatre production entitled The Edge of Eden from which much of the footage for the BBC film was taken. To date this moving film has won 12 awards in both European and North American film festivals.
At 67, Charlie is working to bring co-existence home through the Pacific Rim Grizzly Bear Co-Existence Study. When he is not out sharing his experience and knowledge with audiences throughout the World, he is enjoying his granddaughter and his other great passion – flying the airplane he built himself.
Allen M. Schoen, DVM, MS, PhD (hon.)
Dr. Schoen has held faculty positions at Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Tufts University College of Veterinary Medicine in addition to being a faculty member of the Chi Institute for Traditional Chinese Medicine. He is certified in both veterinary acupuncture (1982) and veterinary chiropractic (1990). He is a former President of the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society (IVAS).
Dr. Schoen is a pioneer who has dedicated his professional career to the advancement of complementary and alternative veterinary medicine. He is the founder and director of the Center for Integrative Animal Health, a division of Global Communications for Conservation, Inc. (GCC). He is the co-editor of Complementary and Alternative Veterinary Medicine, Principles and Practice, and the editor of both Veterinary Acupuncture: Ancient Art to Modern Medicine and Problems in Veterinary Medicine: Veterinary Acupuncture. Dr. Schoen is the author of Kindred Spirits, How the Remarkable Relationship between Humans and Animals Can Transform our Lives (Broadway, Random House, 2001) and author of Love, Miracles & Animal Healing (Simon & Schuster, 1995). He has published numerous research articles on complementary and alternative veterinary medicine (CAVM). He has lectured on CAVM throughout the world including Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Africa, the U.S. and Canada.His research grants include one from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation for developing CAVM curriculums for veterinary schools, and one from the Gauntlett Foundation for developing new approaches to chronic disease. He has received research grants through GCC, Inc., from the Janet Stone-Jones Foundation, and from the McIntosh Foundation. Dr. Schoen is a charter fellow of the American College of Acupuncture, an organization of physicians dedicated to scientific acupuncture. Dr. Schoen was appointed to the American Veterinary Medical Association's (AVMA) six member committee on alternative and complementary veterinary medicine for whom he developed approved guidelines for CAVM in 1996. He has been on numerous editorial boards of journals and advisory committees of various veterinary nutritional companies. He authored a column with Time-Warner's Pathfinder web site titled The Healing Arts. He was a consultant for a new Public Broadcasting System television series on health care as well as having his own radio show.
In addition, Dr. Schoen maintains a referral practice in large and small animal integrative veterinary medicine. Through this practice he has developed new approaches to such degenerative conditions as cancer, arthritis, liver disease and others. Dr. Schoen continues to create innovative natural nontoxic approaches to animal health, environmental health and human health care and integrate them into a new interdisciplinary program with a commitment to compassionate care for all beings.
Dr. Dame Daphne Marjorie Sheldrick, DBE, MBS
Barbara Smuts, PhD
Smuts received a Bachelors Degree in Anthropology from Harvard University and a Ph.D in neurological and biological behavioral science from Stanford Medical School and has studied baboons, dolphins, and chimpanzees. In the 1970s she began research with Jane Goodall on chimpanzees in Gombe National Park. She uses perspectives derived from evolutionary theory, studies of complex systems, and developmental research to examine the dynamics and functions of long-term social relationships. Her work focuses on social behavior in primates, wolves, and domestic dogs in the areas of play, social reciprocity, cooperation, greetings, conflict resolution, emotions, and mood. Questions that inspire her wok include: How do other animals develop trusting relationships in the absence of spoken language? What do animals understand about the beliefs and intentions of their social partners? And how can understanding of nonhuman social relationships help us to better understand human behavior?
Ann Southcombe
Ann Southcombe is an Animal Relation Specialist and licensed wildlife rehabilitator who, for over 35 years, has dedicated her life to the care of gorillas, squirrels, lynx, bears, and many other species in captivity. It has been her goal to learn and perfect how to facilitate their process of “meaning making” as they renew their lives after trauma and hardship. Ann has learned there is a delicate balance in being with them as a human yet relating on their terms. Ann is the author of several books and conducts wortkshops and lectures throughout North America including series called “Kinship With Animals” that shares her experiences with diverse species to raise public awareness concerning the deep emotional feelings and intellectual capabilities of other animals on the planet. Ann brings profound knowledge of animal experiences and values to intergate into human science and culture. Ann has no formal academic degree: her teachers have been the animal individuals who she has cared for. She therefore exemplifies the new kinds of learning and knowledge that can teach other humans and include other animals' participation in knowledge-making.
Ed Tick, PhD
Ed is Co-founder, Director and Senior Clinician of Soldier’s Heart: Veterans’ Safe Return Initiatives. He has been a psychotherapist for 35 years, specializing in working with veterans and others suffering with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) since the late 1970s. He has served as distinguished visiting faculty at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, West Point, Ft. Hood, and numerous universities, colleges and cultural centers around the world. He is internationally recognized as an expert on veterans, PTSD, and the psychology of military-related issues.
Ed leads semi-annual international educational, healing and reconciliation journeys to Greece and Viet Nam. He has published four books: Sacred Mountain, Encounters with the Vietnam Beast (1989), The Practice of Dream Healing (Quest, 2001), The Golden Tortoise: Viet Nam Journeys (Red Hen, 2005), and the award-winning War and the Soul (Quest, 2005), credited with transforming the trauma field to include spiritual and cultural dimensions of wounding and healing. His work has been translated and published in Greece, Japan, Viet Nam and Bulgaria. He is also a poet and author of over 100 articles in psychology, holistic health, mythology and spirituality, literature, philosophy, culture and travel.
Spirituality, soul, the Earth, and their well-being are at the center of all Ed’s work.
Thidi Tshiguvho, PhD
Thidi’s work highlighted how snakes were believed able to communicate with humans about the biological and social condition of sacred forests they inhabit. Her research also compares the basis for (1) respectful vs. abusive treatment of plants and animals within indigenous and western societies, and (2) “othering” other beings in general. Thidi’s recent interest is on the behavioral similarities between humans and other species, particularly in terms of how they respond to environmental stress.
For the past 10 years, Thidi has taught ecology, conservation biology, geography, and other environmental science courses at several universities in South Africa and the USA. She is currently at Clark University, the Department of International Development, Community and Environment, working on Aids 2031 and other projects. Previously, she was part of National Science Foundation task force to establish a Long-term Ecological Research site in South Africa.
Kathy White
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"Science in service to animals"
