Midwest Animal Sheltering Conference
2022 Speakers.
The Midwest Animal Sheltering Conference is proud to host nationally renowned speakers from across the US. Follow us on Facebook for updates!
Richard Angelo, Jr.
Richard Angelo, Jr. is a Legislative Attorney for Best Friends Animal Society. His focus is on Best Friends’ work promoting legislation that will humanely and directly reduce the killing of cats and dogs in shelters across the country. He was previously a sole practitioner with an office in Davison, Michigan, focusing on companion animal-related matters and litigation, including defending dangerous dog matters, consulting on alternatives to breed-specific legislation, ownership disputes of companion animals, zoning and ordinance violations regarding companion animals. Richard has spoken extensively on community cat-related legal issues, dangerous dog laws, and animal control related matters at numerous national, regional, and local events across the country. He has been a member of the Animal Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan since 2001, and served as a council member of that Section from 2009-2019. He is also a member of the National Animal Care and Control Association. Richard resides in Goodrich, Michigan with his wife, three dogs, and three cats.
Sarah Aguilar
Sarah Aguilar recently joined Austin Pets Alive! as the Senior Director of Operations. Her animal welfare history includes roles with Greater Good Charities where the #StayHomeAndFoster movement generated nearly 100,000 foster applicants across the nation; with Pima Animal Care in Tucson, AZ where she developed processes and systems that catapulted the open admission municipal shelter to a 92% live release rate; and in Ventura, CA, where she managed their first formal foster program, placing nearly 3000 animals into foster homes annually, and tripling the number of cats adopted through partner pet stores and offsite events. Her experience as the Training General Manager for a national restaurant chain, combined with degrees in business management and accounting, has enabled Sarah to bring a unique customer service and systemic, data-driven approach, to lifesaving.
Dr. Chumkee Aziz
Dr. Chumkee Aziz obtained her DVM degree at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in 2012, completed an internship with the ASPCA in NYC in 2013, and a shelter medicine residency at the University of California, Davis in 2016. She currently works for UC-Davis with the Koret Shelter Medicine Program as an outreach veterinarian. She is board certified in Shelter Medicine Practice through the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners (ABVP). She joined the Association of Shelter Veterinarians’ (ASV) Board in 2017 and currently serves as its Immediate Past President. Dr. Aziz also serves on the Texas VMA’s shelter medicine committee, ABVP’s shelter medicine specialty college, and the authorship task forces for the updating of AAHA’s Canine Vaccine Guidelines and ASV’s Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelter. Her interests include increasing access to veterinary care for all pet owners and supporting shelters in helping their communities.
Dr. Amie Burling
Dr. Amie Burling is an Assistant Teaching Professor with the University of Missouri Shelter Medicine Program. She graduated from the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine and completed a residency in Shelter Medicine with the Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program at the University of Florida and a Master’s in Public Health degree from the University of South Florida. Her interests include veterinary education, infectious disease control, behavioral welfare, public health, and veterinary social work.
Mindi Callison
Mindi Callison is the Founder and Executive Director of the National nonprofit organization, Bailing Out Benji which focuses on the grassroots effort to combat the puppy mill industry. Mindi founded Bailing Out Benji at 21 years old after falling victim to the puppy mill industry by way of a local pet store, who offered her a credit card with high interest. Upon learning about the pet store/puppy mill connection and learning about the predatory lending practices that these stores utilize to take advantage of low-income families, Mindi knew that she needed to act. Bailing Out Benji and its research have been instrumental in passing humane ordinances across the country, they have also been one of the driving forces behind exposing the national puppy laundering scheme that is currently happening in numerous states.
Jamie Case
Jamie Case is the Maddie's® HASS Project Manager overseeing the organization and management of the Human Animal Support Services Project. Prior to joining the HASS team in January 2021, Jamie was the Executive Director of Gateway Pet Guardians (GPG) for over a decade. GPG’s work is concentrated in the East St. Louis, Illinois community, where almost half of the residents live at or below the poverty line. Jamie led a strong team of volunteers and staff to create community change through boots-on-the-ground outreach efforts. In 2014, she worked with city officials to eliminate breed-specific verbiage and update outdated inhumane verbiage in the city ordinance. Under Jamie's leadership, to solve for the lack of essential services and resources in the area, GPG purchased a former elementary school in March 2019 which has been renovated into the region’s largest pet resource center. This facility which includes the city’s first veterinary clinic opened in the summer of 2020 amid the pandemic that left many people needing low cost and subsidized services. Jamie also currently serves as a member of the St. Louis Petlovers Coalition’s leading Task Force that is dedicated to increasing lifesaving and family support in the entire St. Louis metro region.
Dr. Anna Delabar
Dr. Anna Delabar is a Missouri native, originally from Saint Louis. She is a 2017 graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia College of Veterinary Medicine. She also attended Mizzou for her undergraduate studies, where she earned a BS in Animal Science and a BA in Biology, along with minors in Spanish and Sustainable Agriculture. After graduating from veterinary school, Anna decided to stay in Columbia, MO. She owned and operated a house call practice for several years before shifting her focus to veterinary behavior. Dr. Delabar is a resident in Veterinary Behavior through the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists in a private practice training program. She began her residency in late 2020 under the mentorship of Dr. Colleen Koch. Dr. Delabar is also currently continuing her education by earning a Master’s Degree in Biomedical Sciences with an emphasis in Veterinary Science, through Mizzou’s College of Veterinary Medicine Biomed Online program. She is proud and thrilled to have founded Pet Wellness Alliance, a non-profit veterinary clinic in Columbia, MO, which strives to integrate physical and emotional health for patients and with the mission of making veterinary care more equitable to all pets and families.
Carrie Ducote
Carrie Ducote got hooked on animal welfare in 2007 when she began volunteering with a local rescue group in college. After graduation, she spent four years working at Atlanta Humane Society, eventually becoming the adoption manager. She then spent a year as the operations manager at Georgia SPCA before joining Best Friends in 2015. She began the Cobb County community cat program in 2016 and worked with the East regional team for 6 years partnering with shelters to save more animals and chairing the Georgia Animal Shelter Alliance. She now works nationally to pair mentor shelters with fellow shelters to support the implementation of contemporary practices to increase the number of dogs and cats saved. Carrie holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Georgia College and State University, a master’s degree in anthrozoology from Canisius College and institutional certificates from Southern Utah University in Animal Services Executive Leadership and Cat Lifesaving.
Brittany Fleming
Brittany Fleming created the Unicorn Foster Program at Gateway Pet Guardians in 2019. Under her direction the program successfully reduced the length of stay of their “unicorns” by 70%. Brittany has since moved on to running a private consulting company that specializes in helping animal rescue groups with their “unicorns”. Brittany has a strong passion in helping “unicorns,” in that seeing an animal’s progression from shy, scared or aggressive to confident, happy and social dogs means everything to her, and it’s why she loves to give every animal a chance no matter how they act on intake.
Shannon Glenn
Shannon started with My Pit Bull is Family in 2014 and quickly became an expert in housing policy and surrender prevention for the animal welfare community. She has an extensive professional background in grassroots campaigns, voter outreach, community building, fundraising, homeless advocacy and policy creation. A tireless advocate for adults experiencing homelessness, Shannon previously was the shelter supervisor for the only pet-friendly emergency homeless shelter in the state of Minnesota. The holder of a master’s degree in advocacy and political leadership, she has centered her degree program around drafting policies to end housing and insurance discrimination for families with large dogs. She is a 2021 graduate of the Executive Leadership Certification program for animal welfare at Southern Utah University, in partnership with Best Friends Animal Society. In 2019, she developed the North Minneapolis Pet Resource Center program after volunteering at Minneapolis Animal Care and Control after realizing that her neighbors lacked access to quality pet food, supplies and resources, which led to increased owner surrenders. She lives in North Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her partner, Anthony, their three dogs (Charlotte, Fern and Wilbur) and cat (Max). You can usually find her spending her free time binge-watching true crime shows, starting books and not finishing them, dreaming about traveling and enjoying the outdoors with her family.
Emi Griess
Emi has worked for HHHS for 10 years, has a degree in creative writing, and tries to use the power of story and the power of positivity as secret weapons to helping more animals and people. She has worked as an Adoption Counselor, Volunteer Coordinator, and now Communications Coordinator.
Pamela Hill
A cat behaviorist with 20 years of experience, Pam has worked with the Michigan Humane Society, the Atlanta Humane Society, Broward County Humane Society, the Animal Protective Association and other animal shelters and veterinary clinics around the country. She has previously served as Chair of the Advisory Board to St Louis County Animal Care and Control and is currently the Vice President of IMPETUS, a coalition of animal welfare organizations. She has conducted many shelter staff and volunteer trainings and her educational lectures have previously been featured at the Great Lakes Animal Welfare Conference, the Midwest Animal Sheltering Conference and the Southeast Animal Alliance.
When she's not helping animal shelters improve their cat programs, or providing one-on-one counseling to frustrated cat owners, you can find her working on her website, thatcatgirl.com.
April Huntsman
April Huntsman, CAWA serves as the Director of Animal Welfare Insights for Adopt a Pet and Rehome by Adopt a Pet, the nation’s largest self-supported rehoming service. Her credits include implementing sustainable social enterprise models, developing at-risk animal population programs, and administering no-kill community partnerships. April has been in the animal welfare industry for over 20 years and has worked for both local and national animal welfare organizations including Maricopa County Animal Care & Control, Salt Lake County Animal Services, Best Friends Animal Society, and Michelson Found Animals Foundation. April lives in Utah and is the proud pack mom of 3 senior dogs.
Sarah Javier
As a child, Sarah Javier often found herself caring for abandoned animals near her childhood home in Kansas. This inspired a life-long love for animals which later led her to the Animal Protective Association of Missouri (APA) where she has been President and CEO since 2016. A graduate of Kansas State University and University of Missouri-St. Louis, Sarah has over two decades of leadership in not-for-profit organizations including healthcare, social services, and now animal welfare. She draws on her experience and expertise to develop strategies and guide the entire APA team to success, which she defines as improved quality of life for animals throughout the St. Louis community and a safe, loving home for every adoptable pet. The APA helps more than 4,500 pets find homes each year and thousands more through outreach and wellness initiatives. Sarah is passionate about promoting a positive workplace culture that supports the wellbeing and growth of every employee. In 2021, the St. Louis Business Journal recognized Sarah with their Most Influential Business Women award. Sarah lives in St. Louis, Missouri with her husband and two children. Her family also includes a menagerie of rescue pets including two cats, two dogs, and a leopard gecko.
Dr. Heather Kennedy
Dr. Kennedy was a shelter volunteer, cat trapper, community cat caregiver, and feline foster parent when her interest in Feline Infectious Peritonitis compelled her to go to vet school. While she was at U.C. Davis, she was mentored by FIP researcher Dr. Niels Pedersen and worked in his research lab researching the virus. After graduation, she spent 4 years in feline-only private practice before deciding to focus on the welfare of shelter cats. She is the Chief of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas City Pet Project where she continues to promote humane and progressive care for cats.
Margaret Price
Margaret Price has worked for HHHS for over 20 years with experience in dog training and behavior as well as managing animal care and intake employees and our foster and transfer to rescue programs. Before coming to work full time in animal welfare, she was a teacher.
Shelby Reich
Shelby Reich began at HHHS in October of 2021 and has been working hard to help rebuild and revamp our volunteer and foster programs since then, radiating positivity to both staff and volunteers she works with. 2. Shelby began at HHHS in October of 2021 and has jumped in with both feet, quickly absorbing information about animal welfare, dog and cat behavior and body language, and volunteer management, offering to help in almost every department of the building. Emi and Shelby are both huge fans of Ted Lasso and strive to apply his attitude to the challenges of animal welfare work on the daily.
Stacy Rogers
Stacy Rogers is the Midwest & Great Plains Regional Director for Best Friends Animal Society. She works with shelters, rescues and other animal related organizations in 13 states to help them improve lifesaving and reach No Kill 2025. Stacy lives in ruralIndiana with 3 cats, 3 dogs and 1 human.
Amanda Roos
Amanda Roos serves as the Placement Manager with the Belleville Area Humane Society (BAHS), a 63 year old organization in the heart of St. Clair County, Illinois. Originally from Burlington, Kentucky, Amanda moved to the St. Louis area to attend college. After graduating from Webster University in early 2020, Amanda decided to leave her desk job and focus her mission on life saving by serving the people and pets of Belleville. Since Amanda has been with BAHS, she has helped over 2,000 animals find their forever homes. Amanda currently lives in Belleville, IL with her husband and nine cat children.
Tierney Sain
Prior to joining Best Friends in 2013, Tierney spent nearly a decade working and volunteering with various animal shelters and had an affinity for what most would consider difficult dogs. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Colorado, Tierney joined the Dogtown team at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah. She quickly became an instrumental member of the team due to her ability to work with, and progress, dogs who had significant behavior challenges. Over time she honed her skills and began to not only create customized behavior and enrichment plans for each individual dog, but also began coaching others, which led to her advancement on the team from caregiver to supervisor. As a supervisor in Dogtown, Tierney oversaw the team who took care of the sanctuary’s most challenging dog population. It was here where Tierney led the team through creative problem solving to enhance and diversify their ability to progress dogs with comprehensive behavior issues. Tierney created protocols for expediting progress with shy dogs, implemented playgroups and played a critical role in population management. On a personal level, Tierney also extended her expertise to help several local shelters with limited resources enhancing their shelter operations and improving the quality of life for their canine populations. As the National Mentorship Program Specialist, Tierney is now able to help more dogs and people by providing support and mentoring to shelters across the country for canine training, enrichment and behavior. Originally from Ohio, Tierney now calls Southeastern Utah her home and spends her free time helping progress project dogs at the sanctuary and hiking and exploring with her adopted dogs.
Kasey Spain
Kasey Spain is the Marketing and Communications Assistant Director for American Pets Alive! and the Human Animal Support Services project. With a background as a creative director specializing in design and branding, Kasey has worked with brands such as Neiman Marcus, Lincoln Property Company, Chuy’s, Choctaw Casinos, TIGI Haircare and many more. Kasey previously served as the Marketing and Communications Manager for the Austin Animal Center, the city's municipal shelter. She received an Austin Addy Award and an Emmy nomination for her work on a lost pet awareness campaign produced for Austin Animal Center. As part of her contribution to the HASS project, Kasey leads the Marketing and Communications Working Group and Job-Alike peer group, and is passionate about helping HASS partner organization's marketing staff to transform their services and communities through effective communication.
Brent Toellner
Brent Toellner is the Senior Director, Lifesaving Programs, for Best Friends Animal Society. In this role Brent oversees the programmatic work in the central region and the Best Friends Network Partner Program. In this role he works with the regional programs teams to create strategies to help and support shelters and Best Friends’ 3700 Network partners toward the goal of ending the killing of shelter pets by 2025. Brent joined Best Friends in 2016 as the Regional Director of the South Central and Great Plains Regions and was responsible for connecting, consulting and collaborating with animal shelters, advocates, spay/neuter groups and rescues across the 11 states in the two regions. Prior to joining Best Friends, Brent, his wife Michelle co-founded the Kansas City Pet Project (KCPP). In July 2011, they formed KCPP to bid on the contract to run the Kansas City, Missouri, pound — a place where, for decades, more animals died than were saved. After KCPP took over in January 2012, adoptions increased by more than 200% and helped elevate KCPP to a live release rate of more than 90% for seven consecutive years while remaining an open-admission shelter, making KC Pet Project one of the largest open-admission no kill shelters in the nation. In 2017, KCPP finished the year with a 96% Live Release Rate. Brent has a Bachelor’s in Journalism from the University of Missouri and a Masters in Marketing Communication from the University of Kansas. Brent lives in Kansas City with his wife Michelle and share their home with both dogs and cats. His outside interests include hiking, bicycling and photography.
Kenzie Whalen-Dunn
Kenzie is the Founder and Director of Rescue Allies - an organization that provides training and resources for rescues and shelters. After years working at the top level of a dog rescue, Kenzie realized the need for greater internal organization across the industry. With her background in software engineering, Kenzie has a mind for data and structure so she created a place where rescues and shelters could learn to operate at their peak efficiency.
Beth Wolfer
Beth regularly teaches the Executive Leadership Certificate participants at Best Friends Animal Society on the topic of improving speaking skills to save lives (these are most commonly animal shelter leaders). She also provides coaching and workshops to internal teams and individuals within Best Friends. Her positive coaching style and practical tips help people overcome their jitters and deliver awesome talks. Beth is, by day, a Planned Giving Officer at Best Friends Animal Society and has spent 25+ years as a professional fundraiser. Along the way, she discovered a passion and a knack for coaching public speaking. She loves helping people find and express their voice. She’s been a speaker coach for TEDxSaltLakeCity for several years. She teaches Public Speaking Confidence & Content at University of Utah and Giving Awesome Scientific Presentations (GASP) at the University of Utah School of Medicine. She has presented herself on various topics to professional groups and has also taken part numerous times as an engaging storyteller at The Bee, a lovingly competitive storytelling competition in her hometown. Her "side hustle" is a business called Give Your Best Talk, LLC, where she coaches individuals and offers public speaking workshops and an email course. Beth lives in Salt Lake City with her four boys – two dogs and two cats.
Schedule
Clear your schedule, and join your colleagues from all over the Midwest to learn and network! See the full conference schedule here.
Speakers
Expert speakers are traveling from across the country to present at MASC! See the full line-up here!
Travel
Travel around Columbia is easy and affordable! Find hotel, flight, and parking details here.
“We enjoyed all of the things we learned. We made new friends. Great event for animal people to meet and be educated.”
— MASC 2019 Conference Attendee