Speakers

Rich Avanzino

Widely viewed as the father of the no-kill movement, Rich Avanzino has had a major influence on companion animal welfare over his 34 years in the industry. As President of Maddie's Fund®, he focuses the family foundation's $300 million endowment in three major areas: building community collaborations where animal welfare organizations come together to develop successful models of lifesaving; in veterinary colleges to help shelter medicine become part of the veterinary curriculum to train veterinarians to save the lives of sick and injured dogs and cats in animal shelters; and in the implementation of a national strategy to promote accountability and transparency in animal shelter operations. Maddie’s Fund has awarded 96.1 million in grants since 1998. It’s the largest pet foundation in the U.S. dedicated to saving dog and cat lives.

Prior to joining Maddie’s Fund, Rich was President of the San Francisco SPCA (1976 -1999). During his tenure, he led San Francisco to become the first City and County in the nation to offer an adoption guarantee for every healthy shelter cat and dog (1994). This unprecedented guarantee prompted statewide legislation (California's Hayden Law) and sparked other cities, counties and states to follow his example. The vast majority of the City's sick and injured shelter animals were saved as well.

In 1998, Rich revolutionized animal sheltering with the opening of Maddie's® Pet Adoption Center, the first facility in the country in which cats and dogs awaiting adoption were housed in cozy home-like settings rather than cages. The radical design set a new national standard for sheltering practices and has been widely emulated.

He brought euthanasia rates down to the lowest of any urban center in the nation and created adoption, animal behavior, feral cat, and spay/neuter programs that have become models for the nation. Rich’s demonstrated leadership prompted Maddie's Fund founders Dave and Cheryl Duffield to hire him in 1999 as Maddie's Fund's first president to pursue the goal of creating a no-kill nation. As one of the no-kill movement's most articulate spokespeople, Rich has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and many other national news outlets.

Rich received a doctor of pharmacy degree from the University of California Medical Center and earned a law degree at the University of California at Davis Law School.

Jeannine Berger

Dr. Berger first obtained her veterinary degree in 1991 in Zurich, Switzerland. After graduation she worked at the University of Zurich and in private practice before moving to Davis, California in 1998. She completed her residency in veterinary behavior and attained board certification with the American College for Veterinary Behaviorists from UC Davis in 2007. Dr. Berger is the only veterinarian in the country who has completed a veterinary specialty training program in animal behavior with an emphasis on small animal and horse behavior. She is an internationally renowned speaker, a well-published writer, and a seasoned educator on behavior sciences. Her professional interests include anxiety and aggression problems in dogs and cats, as well as addressing both repetitive behaviors and unruly behavior problems such as jumping, barking, chewing, digging, and many others. She currently practices behavior medicine for private clients at The San Francisco SPCA Veterinary Hospital and oversees all other aspects of the Society’s behavior modification services as its Director of Behavior Resources. Dr. Berger lives in Vacaville, CA with her partner Jeff and their three horses, three dogs, and four cats.

Elena Bicker

Elena Bicker is the executive director of Tony La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF), where she oversees the $4.3 million dollar day-to-day operations of ARF’s 37,700-square-foot facility in Walnut Creek. Elena came to ARF in 1993 as a volunteer and joined ARF’s staff in 1998. In her first year, she generated more than $1 million in funding. Elena’s marketing and strategic planning skills quickly led to her promotion as the organization’s marketing director where she was responsible for public relations, corporate events, sponsorships, and exhibitions and advertising. Elena was promoted to the executive director position in August, 2006. Prior to following her dream into animal welfare, Elena spent eleven years with GE Capital. She earned her BA in Business Administration from St. Mary’s College in Moraga. Elena resides in Danville with her husband and rescue dogs Mia and Sadie.

Liz Callahan

Liz Callahan, MA, ACC, was the founding executive director of The CBO Center before joining CompassPoint in 2010. Liz has consulted with nonprofit organizations for seventeen years and spent more than 30 years working in nonprofit organizations, academia, and government. She was the executive director of a countywide coalition of nonprofit executive directors, and VP for Public Affairs and Marketing at Recording for the Blind. Prior to that, Liz was the assistant dean for External Relations and Development for the Rutgers Graduate School of Management, the chief of staff to the chair of the New York Mercantile Exchange, and appointments secretary to the Governor of NJ. Liz’s consulting work is in organizational and individual transformation. Her deep knowledge of nonprofits and the environment in which they do their work, along with her own experience as an executive director and her extensive and ongoing training in a variety of methodologies, give Liz an uncommon perspective on how to create change. She holds a Masters degree in Psychology from New School University in New York City.

Kate Hurley

Dr. Hurley has been working in shelters, in almost every capacity, since 1989. After graduation from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine in 1999, Dr. Hurley worked as a shelter veterinarian in California and Wisconsin. In 2001 she returned to Davis for further training as the world's first resident in Shelter Medicine. During her residency, Dr. Hurley completed her Masters of Preventative Veterinary Medicine (MPVM) with an emphasis in Epidemiology. Dr. Hurley has become a recognized leader in the field of shelter medicine. She assisted in developing guidelines for shelter animal vaccination in conjunction with the American Association of Feline Practitioners and the American Animal Hospital Association, co-edited the textbook "Infectious Disease Management in Animal Shelters" and served as a co-author for the Association of Shelter Veterinarians "Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters". She was awarded "Shelter Veterinarian of the Year" in 2006 by the American Humane Association.

Allyn Lee

Allyn Lee has always been passionate about sharing her love for animals of all kinds! Previously a volunteer with Oakland Zoo (14 years), Lindsay Wildlife Museum, East Bay SPCA, and ARF, she is now with Contra Costa Animal Services. Allyn’s second book (of three) raised money to support Hopalong Animal Rescue's care for Hurricane Katrina dogs. In January 2010, as a volunteer in a second-grade class at Rancho Romero Elementary School in Alamo (16 years), Allyn taught a lesson about service dogs shortly after the earthquake struck in Haiti. It was then that Allyn learned about Search Dog Foundation’s work and just KNEW Pearl's story could teach people about an unwanted shelter dog that became a rescuer! ALL of the Lee family dogs are rescues.

Roz Leizer

Roz Leiser, R.N., is an Integrative Health and Bereavement Counselor in private practice in San Francisco, CA. During more than 20 years as a Registered Nurse, she worked in specialty areas including psychiatry, HIV/AIDS and hospice. She was a member of Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' staff. Currently she leads bereavement groups, consults with and teaches health care professionals about end of life issues and mind/body healing skills. Since 2002 she has been working with Support Services for Animal Care Professionals, offering workshops on Compassion Fatigue and other topics to animal welfare agencies throughout the country.

Sophia Yin

Ever since she was a child, Dr. Yin wanted to be a veterinarian. In 1993, her dream came true. Once in private practice, she quickly realized that more pets were euthanized due to behavior problems than medical ones. She went back to school to study animal behavior, and earned her Master's in Animal Science in 2001 from UC Davis. She was also the award-winning pet columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Upon receiving her degree focused on animal behavior, she lectured in the UC Davis Animal Science Department for 5 years.

Dr. Yin currently sees behavior house calls, works at San Francisco Veterinary Specialists, writes, lectures and teaches workshops on animal behavior and low stress handling. She has served as an expert for shows on Animal Planet and is on the executive board for the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior, the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) Handling Guidelines Committee, and the American Humane Association (AHA) Animal Behavior and Training Advisory Committee.

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