Our Speakers
Please note, speakers are being added and more will be announced soon! Many more tracks and speakers are pending! Please note speakers listed are subject to change.
Dot Baisly
Dot Baisly holds a Master’s degree in behavioral biology from Tufts University and is currently the Director of Behavior at the Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem, MA. Her previous positions include the Shelter Enrichment and Behavior Manager at the Animal Rescue League of Boston and the Behavior and Enrichment Coordinator at the SPCA of Westchester (NY). Dot has been working in animal welfare and behavior for over 17 years, both in animal welfare and rescue organizations in New York and New England, and with private clients as a consultant for dogs and cats. When not working with shelter animals she also works with service dogs as a field representative for Paws With A Cause. Dot is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA), a Certified C.L.A.S.S. evaluator and a Certified Canine Good Citizen (C.G.C) evaluator. She is also the Division Co-Chair for the IAABC’s Shelter Division and has been instrumental in the development of the upcoming fully certified level of member for Shelter Behavior.
Michael Baugh
Michael has been helping families with their dogs since 1999. He founded North Coast Dogs in Cleveland, OH and now owns and operates Michael’s Dogs in Houston, TX where he works primarily with dogs who have behavior related to fear, including aggressive behavior. Michael is a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC) and a Certified Professional Dog Trainer with Knowledge and Skills Assessed (CPDT-KSA). He is a graduate of the SFSPCA Academy for Dog Trainers and Karen Prior Academy for Animal Training and Behavior. Michael is also a reader, a writer, and a mediator – but rarely all at the same time. He and his husband, Tim, are world travelers and foodies. They live with two nearly perfect dogs, Stella and Stewie.
James Crosby
James W. Crosby M.S. CBCC-KA is a Certified Behavior Consultant, a recognized expert in canine behavior, dog bites and attacks, and shelter management and operations. He is a retired Police Lieutenant from Jacksonville, Florida, and former Animal Control Division Manager in Bay County, Florida. He has combined his police experience and his animal specific experience to train Animal Control and Police agencies on animal issues, including dangerous dog cases and criminal cruelty investigations Mr. Crosby is the Working Group Chair for Police Dog Encounter Training for the National Coalition on Violence Against Animals and is the subject matter expert on Police Dog Encounters and dog behavior for the National Sheriffs’ Association. He is Director, Canine Encounter Training, for the National Law Enforcement Center on Animal Abuse and is on the Board of Directors of the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT). Mr. Crosby earned a M.S. in Veterinary Medical Science, specializing in Veterinary Forensics, from the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Florida. He is currently a fully accepted active candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Florida, Graduate School, College of Veterinary Medicine, in Veterinary Medical Science.
Sheila D’Arpino
Dr. Sheila Segurson D’Arpino completed veterinary school and then a specialty training program in animal behavior with a focus on sheltered pets at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine in 1996 and 2005, respectively. Dr. D’Arpino has worked as an emergency veterinarian, private practice veterinarian, shelter veterinarian, dog trainer, veterinary behaviorist, and foster-based adoption program director. Currently, Dr. D’Arpino uses the knowledge she gained and skills that she learned in her role as Director of Research for Maddie’s Fund. In her current role, Dr. D’Arpino’s goal is to develop and support research that increases pet adoptions from rescue groups and shelters and improves pet well-being. She relies upon her background working in and with animal shelters, pet foster care programs, and veterinary medicine to lead Maddie’s Fund research efforts. Dr. D’Arpino is also a courtesy lecturer for the Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program at the University of Florida and is the lead instructor for the Shelter Animal Behavior and Welfare online course.
Erica Feuerbacher
Erica Feuerbacher, Ph.D., BCBA-D, CPDT-KA is an Assistant Professor of Companion Animal Behavior and Welfare at Virginia Tech. There she runs the Companion Animal Behavior & Welfare Lab that focuses on understanding dog social behavior and learning from a behavior analytic perspective, using applied behavior analysis to solve behavioral issues, and identifying interventions that improve shelter dog welfare. She is also a co-founder of the Shelter Institute which offers workshops in evidence-based practices for enhancing shelter dog behavior and welfare. Prior to joining Virginia Tech, she was an Assistant Professor Carroll College in Helena, MT, where she led the canine program in which students train foster dogs during the academic year. She is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and a Certified Professional Dog Trainer. She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Florida under the advisorship of Dr. Clive Wynne in the UF Canine Cognition and Behavior Lab and her Masters in Behavior Analysis in the Organization for Reinforcement Contingencies under the advisorship of Dr. Jesus Rosales-Ruiz.
Renee Hall
Renée worked 15 years as a Business Manager and CFO for RLB, inc, real estate income property company. During her tenure, Renée created and developed systems management, operations evaluations, and staff development projects which increased overall revenues by 20%, reduced employee turnover by 70%, developed new investment projects increasing the gross asset base of the company from $800,000 to $2.5 million.
In 2008, Renée opened Let’s Speak Dog, a dog training company with a mission to bring positive, force free training to dog owners & dog sports enthusiasts. She added Behavior Consulting in 2010 and currently has a staff of 9 trainers and consultants. Let’s Speak Dog is active in the community offering aid to a number of local rescue groups and supporting local shelters.
Let’s Speak Dog, Ltd has sustained 20% net revenue increases for 10 years and in 2018, expanded to 2 facilities. We are currently building a new 10,000 sq ft facility for boarding, daycare and training. This is phase 1 expansion with Phase 2 coming in 2020.
MaryKay Hasseman
Mary Kay Hasseman has been helping people and animals understand each other for over 40 years. As a horse and dog professional with a unique array of other experiences (from studying with a zen priest to upper level dressage to clicker training), she often finds solutions that don’t readily occur to many professionals. The diversity of these experiences gives her deep insight into how to apply animal training that is joyful, meaningful, and effective for both animal and handler. She instills this knowledge in all her students in her classes and courses teaching dressage, horsemanship, and pet therapy for dogs and miniature horses. MaryKay is a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner, graduating with distinction in 2010. MaryKay brings mindfulness to animal training for better understanding among people and animals throughout our world. Her recent creation of her online course, Loving Presence with Animals, is deemed “a treasure” by one of the first students to enroll in it.
Lore Haug, DVM, MS, DACVB, CABC
Dr. Haug graduated summa cum laude from Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine in 1993. She completed a one year internship in small animal medicine and surgery at Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine. In 2002, she completed a Master’s Degree and residency program in animal behavior at Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine. She ran the Animal Behavior Service at Texas A&M from 2002-2007 and then move to Sugar Land, TX to begin a private referral practice. Dr. Haug speaks frequently across the country at veterinary and animal behavior venues, with an emphasis on canine, feline, and equine behavior. Dr. Haug also has a special interest in neurobiology, behavior modification, and pharmacology. She has published articles in several veterinary journals and is a chapter author in several books. She is currently the Immediate Past President of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists and is a long standing member, and past Chair, of the ACVB Examination Committee. Dr. Haug is also a certified consultant through the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants and a member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers.
Terrie Hayward
Terrie Hayward KPA-CTP, CPDT-KA, ACDBC is a certified, professional animal trainer and the owner of PAW-Positive Animal Wellness, LLC in Rincon, Puerto Rico. Terrie specializes in working with deaf dogs and in canine separation anxiety cases. She works with families and their animal companions, presents workshops, travels, and consults focusing on positive reinforcement interactions and modifying behavior through applications in behavior analysis. Terrie holds a master’s degree in Education, is a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner and Faculty Member. She is also Certified by the Council for Professional Dog Trainers and is an Associate Certified Member of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants, as well as being a Professional Member of The Pet Professional Guild.
Daryl Hoffman
Daryl has dedicated the last 30 years to learning and applying his knowledge to advance the level of care and welfare for animals. He has trained and managed hundreds of different species across multiple taxa throughout his career, from primates and great to hoofed stock and carnivores. In 1993, he was introduced to the world of elephants and has never looked back. While he still manages and trains many different species, elephants have become his passion. In June of 2006, he became Curator of Large Mammals at the Houston Zoo, where he oversees a diverse collection of hoofed stock, birds, sea lions, and a multigenerational herd of Asian elephant. Daryl currently serves as the Executive Director of the Elephant Managers Association (EMA) and has been serving their Board of Directors since 2000. He is also an instructor at the AZA Principles of Elephant Management (PEM) School, is on the AZA elephant Taxon Advisory Group Steering Committee, and on the International Elephant Foundation Board of Directors. Daryl has consulted at over 25 different AZA accredited facilities on a range of topics from animal behavior modification, care and welfare, staff training, facility design, transport, and problem solving. He prides himself on challenging the status quo and continuing to evolve and grow as an animal caregiver, trainer, and mentor.
Jill Hourihan
Jill Hourihan is the owner of several animal-related, service-based businesses in the Greater Boston area, including dog walking, training, and behavior services. Since 2006 and as a sole proprietor, Jill has been able to grow her operations into a portfolio of financially successful businesses with a staff of 40. These include The Pet Republic training facility, Metro Pets boutique and self wash facility, organizing, arranging and overseeing training and behavior private lessons and consults, and Running the Pack Dog Walking and Pet Sitting Service. Known for her business acumen, Jill frequently mentors other animal-related, service-based businesses. Topics of specialty include: the buying and selling companies, negotiations, diversification, leveraging technologies and the creation of custom marketing strategies. More than anything, Jill enjoys learning what her business clients of any size do and don’t enjoy, and how they can build upon each individual’s strengths to create the business they want.
Dr. Elinor Karlsson
Elinor Karlsson is an assistant professor in Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the director of the Vertebrate Genomics Group at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. She is excited by the potential for using our own evolutionary history to understand how the human genome works, and in how that knowledge can lead to advances in healthcare. By investigating evolutionary history using high throughput genomic tools, Elinor aims to identify genes, pathways, and functional variants underlying polygenic traits, including susceptibility to infectious diseases, like cholera and viral hemorrhagic fevers, as well as psychiatric disorders (using dogs as a model organism). Elinor received her B.A. in biochemistry/cell biology from Rice University, and earned her Ph.D. in bioinformatics from Boston University. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University before starting the Karlsson Lab at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2014.
Teo Mariscal
Teo Mariscal is the Executive Director of Fundaction Bocalán an organization based in Madrid, Spain that is dedicated to the training of animal training professionals worldwide and to the development of programs for working and service dog training. For over 25 years he has been the Training Director of Fomacion Canina Bocalan SL and has been in the Board of Assistance Dogs International, Europe for the past ten years.
In addition to his administrative duties, Teo is an active training instructor offering courses around the world, instructs several K9 police units and is a teacher in the Animal Behavior Master’s degree at the University Autonoma de Madrid.
He teaches classes on topics ranging from assistance dogs to dog psychology and behavioral therapies as well as obedience. Teo is a breeder of Labradors and other breeds.
In his spare time, he authored the book, “From Instinct to Reason.”
Cecilia Marré Marré
Cecilia Marré Marré, DVM, UW – AAB received her degree in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Chile in 1998 and went on to receive a certificate in Applied Animal Behavior from the University of Washington. She graduated as an assistance dog instructor in Spain in 2003, and then continued to become expert in Animal Assisted Interventions. She is the Founder and President of Corporación Nacional de Fomento a la Integración Animal en la Rehabilitación Bocalán Confiar in Chile, the only Latin American institution accredited by Assistance Dogs International. She serves as a Director in several assistance dog programs, including Bocalan Confiar’s assistance dog program for people with physical disabilities, autism, diabetes, the Courthouse Dog Program and Bocalan Confiar’s dog assisted therapy programs in several other locations. During her career Cecilia has worked with more than 25 species and since 2014 has had a private practice specializing in behavioral problems in dogs and sport horses. She is an accomplished dressage horse rider, winning national championships in different categories in the past years.
Trish McMillan
Trish McMillan M.S., CPDT-KA, CDBC, ACCBC holds a Master of Science degree in animal behavior, and is a certified professional dog trainer, certified dog behavior consultant and associate certified cat behavior consultant. She worked for the ASPCA for nearly eight years, first as director of animal behavior at their NYC shelter, then helping assess and rehabilitate dogs from cruelty cases, dogfighting and hoarding situations, and researching, writing and presenting on animal behavior topics. Trish owns Loehr Animal Behavior in North Carolina, where she lives in a tiny house on her farm, Pibble Hill. She shares her life with two horses, two goats, three dogs and two cats. Her professional work includes training and behavior modification work with dogs, cats, and horses. She speaks and consults nationally and internationally on animal sheltering issues, dog, cat, and horse behavior, dog aggression, and defensive handling. Trish currently co-chairs the Shelter Behavior division of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants and runs their popular online shelter dog behavior mentorship.
Jacqueline Munera
Jacqueline Munera CCBC encourages people to push the boundaries of what they think cats are capable of. Jacqueline is a Certified Cat Behavior Consultant and is co-instructor of the Companion Animal Sciences Institute’s Diploma of Feline Behavior program. She has a B.A. in Honors Biological Psychology from New College of Florida, where she pursued studies on animal cognition and behavior, and thesis work on coat color as an indicator of cat personality. Jacqueline presents nationally and internationally on a variety of cat training and behavior topics and has published multiple award-winning cat and dog behavior articles. She is especially interested in helping cats in shelter organizations and has helped multiple shelters design and implement cat behavior and training programs.
Dr. Christopher Pachel, DVM, DACVB
Dr. Christopher Pachel, DVM, DACVB received his veterinary degree from the University of MN in 2002 and worked as a general practitioner for two years in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area prior to the start of his residency program. He operated a house-call behavior practice in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area until 2010 and became board certified by the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists in 2010. He is currently the owner of the Animal Behavior Clinic in Portland, OR, lectures regularly throughout the US and Canada, and has taught courses in veterinary behavior at the University of MN and at the Virginia Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. He has published research on feline water consumption preferences, wrote a book chapter on Intercat Aggression for the May 2014 issue of Veterinary Clinics of North America: Small Animal Practice, and is co-author of an forthcoming book chapter on Pet Selection for Animal Assisted Therapy.
Karen Plescia
Karen Plescia has had feline companions most of her life. However, it wasn’t until she rescued a neonatal feral kitten in 2005 that she became fascinated with feline development and behavior. Hand-raising and observing that days-old kitten ignited a passion in Karen that she didn’t know existed. Since then, she has been involved in animal care and welfare as a volunteer, foster caregiver, shelter assistant manager, veterinary clinic office manager, student of animal behavior, and feline behavior consultant. For the past several years, she has been expanding her behavior and training practice to encompass dogs after a stray, anxious dog found her and wormed its way into her life. Karen is a Certified Cat Behavior Consultant and Associate Certified Dog Behavior Consultant through the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC). She is also a Certified Professional Dog Trainer, Knowledge Assessed (CCPDT) and is Fear-Free Certified trainer. She is currently a professional behavior responder for the ASPCA Anti-Cruelty Behavior Team.
Alexandra Protopopova
Dr. Alexandra (Sasha) Protopopova, MS, PhD, CPDT-KA is an assistant professor in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences at Texas Tech University. The Human-Animal Interaction Lab, directed by Dr. Protopopova, systematically explores questions of companion animal well-being, behavior, and human-animal interactions. Her research aims are 1) to improve the well-being of dogs housed in animal shelters, 2) assess and develop therapy dog programs to benefit human health and educational outcomes, and 3) improve our general understanding of animal behavior. Dr. Protopopova earned an MS and a PhD in Behavior Analysis from University of Florida and is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer. She has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and is a frequent presenter in scientific and professional conferences. Dr. Protopopova spends her days conducting behavioral research, teaching university classes in Animal Shelter Management, and cuddling dogs.
Ken Ramirez
Ken Ramirez is the Executive Vice-President and Chief Training Officer for Karen Pryor Clicker Training where he helps oversee the vision, development and implementation of training education programs for the organization. Ken previously served as the Executive Vice-President of animal care and animal training at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, where he developed and supervised animal care and animal health programs, staff training and development as well as public presentation programs for the entire animal collection of more than 32,000 animals. He worked at Shedd for nearly 26 years. In October 2014 Ken began a new role as a training advisor at Shedd as part of his responsibilities with Karen Pryor Clicker Training. A 35+ year veteran of animal care and training, Ramirez is a biologist and animal behaviorist who served nine years at Marineworld of Texas. He also was a trainer and coordinator at Ocean Safari in South Padre Island, Texas, as well as acting as a consultant to many zoo and aquarium programs throughout the world. He began his training career working with guide dogs for the visually impaired and has maintained a close affiliation to pet training throughout his career. He hosted two successful seasons of the pet training television series Talk to the Animals that compared pet training to the important work done with training and caring for animals in zoological facilities. He has also recently worked closely with several search and rescue dog organizations, service dog groups, as well as with bomb and narcotic dogs.
Jesus Rosales-Ruiz
Jesús Rosales-Ruiz is an associate professor in the Department of Behavior Analysis at the University of North Texas. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in 1995, under the mentorship of two pioneers in the field of behavior analysis, Donald M. Baer and Ogden R. Lindsley. Jesús is one of the few scientists in the world studying animal training from both the theoretical and applied perspectives. He, along with his students, has greatly contributed to the understanding of the science and practice of animal training. Jesús also studies the antecedent control of behavior, generalization, behavioral cusps, fluency-based teaching, treatment of autism, teaching of academic behavior, rule-governed behavior and contingency-shaped behavior. He has served on several editorial boards, including the Journal of Precision Teaching, the European Journal of Behavior Analysis, and the International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy. He has also served as a reviewer for the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, the Journal of Neuroscience Methods, Behavioral Processes, and PLOS ONE. Jesús is a fellow of the Eastern Psychological Association, a trustee of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies and a member of the Association for Behavior Analysis International.
Valarie Tynes
Dr. Valarie Tynes is a native Texan and received her DVM from Texas A&M University. She worked in private practice for 14 years before returning to academia to pursue a residency in clinical animal behavior at the University of California at Davis in 2000. She has been a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists since 2003 and is currently Immediate Past President of the College. She is also Board Certified in Animal Welfare. Her special interests are the behavior and welfare of pet pigs, exotic pets and zoo animals. She is a frequent speaker at veterinary meetings around the country and author of numerous articles and textbook chapters. She joined Ceva in October of 2014 as a veterinary services specialist but continues to provide consulting services to zoos.