Sarah Swanty shares how a rescue that began with 17 homeless cats grew into Animal Friends Alliance, an organization helping 18,000 animals each year by focusing on prevention, innovation, and keeping pets with the families who love them.
Ashley Armstrong shares how We Care Animal Rescue transformed from a cat sanctuary into a thriving adoption and community resource center, proving that the future of animal welfare is rooted in prevention, innovation, and supporting families before they face the difficult decision to surrender a pet.
Kim Sturla reflects on nearly five decades of animal advocacy, sharing how one rescued pig inspired the creation of Animal Place and why education, compassion, and action remain the keys to creating lasting change for farm animals.
John Gerrard shares how a career in business and retail prepared him to challenge the status quo in animal welfare, introducing innovative ideas like Shopify-powered adoptions while encouraging shelters to embrace technology, bold thinking, and meaningful change.
Jackie Ducci shares how a lifelong connection with animals inspired her to create The Human-Animal Alliance, fund organizations preserving the human-animal bond, and produce Unspoken Bond, a documentary celebrating the extraordinary relationship between people and animals.
Jon Gary reflects on a 27-year career in animal welfare, sharing how leadership, resilience, and investing in people have helped transform one of the nation’s largest municipal shelter systems.
Danielle Hanosh shares how her background as a middle school teacher inspired the creation of LEAP, an innovative program using farm sanctuaries to teach leadership, ethics, environmental stewardship, and compassion to the next generation.
Dara Worthington shares how thoughtful leadership, community support, and a commitment to seeing the potential in every animal have helped Friends of Strays grow into one of Florida’s most impactful shelter organizations.
Kerri Burns shares how a career spanning disaster response, animal welfare leadership, and community service taught her that the future of animal welfare depends on collaboration, compassion, and putting people first.
After first entering animal welfare in the late 1990s, Kristen left the field due to the trauma of working in shelters with extremely high euthanasia rates. Years later, she returned with a new mission: changing the system from within.
