PET PARTNERS - Key Persons
Dr. Taylor Chastain Griffin is the National Director of Animal-Assisted Interventions Advancement at Pet Partners. In this role, she oversees the organizations' empirical research collaborations and works with other field leaders to motivate standardization and professionalization of the intervention.
With a background as a dog trainer, therapy dog handler, and mental health counselor, Dr. Chastain Griffin came to her position with a variety of experiences that inform her work with Pet Partners. Having completed her doctorate in research psychology with a focus on the human-animal bond, she works to formally integrate expertise in the field of human services with best practices while working with therapy animals. Pet Partners is now creating services for professionals who aim to bring the human-animal bond to their vocational practice-an initiative that has been directed by various large-scale data collection projects and in collaboration with many of the field's most influential leaders.
Dr. Chastain Griffin and her husband live in Georgia with their son and many, many pets. Dr. Chastain Griffin's empirical appreciation for human-animal interaction is matched by her personal and professional testimonies of how her animals have inspired countless meaningful interactions in their work as therapy animals.
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- Member of the Board
- Professor of Education, Cal State Polytechnic
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- Member of the Board
- President, Big Canyon Pet Food Co
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- Digital Marketing Specialist
C. Annie Peters is President & CEO of Pet Partners and the Association of Animal Assisted Intervention Professionals (AAAIP). She is a visionary leader, strategic thinker, and exceptional communicator who brings more than 30 years of leadership experience to the Pet Partners team.
Annie drives the strategic direction of Pet Partners to improve programming and increase organizational sustainability. During her tenure at Pet Partners, she has refocused the organization on the importance of educating the public about standards for volunteer therapy animal teams and on the underlying research of why animal-assisted interventions work. In addition, Pet Partners expanded internationally while introducing special initiatives including Read with Me™, an animal-assisted crisis response program, and innovative programming solutions during COVID, including animal-related engagement (ARE).
Under Annie's leadership, Pet Partners launched AAAIP in 2022 to serve the needs of professionals who wish to practice AAI and integrate an animal into their professional practice. Mental health practitioners, occupational therapists, school-based personnel, and a wide range of other professionals now have a home for education, networking, and certification.
Annie came to Pet Partners from Special Olympics International, where she served as Vice President of Personal Giving and Special Events. During her tenure, she had a broad and positive impact by introducing innovative initiatives globally. She resides in Bellevue, WA with her rescue dog Gidget.
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- EVP, Chief Marketing Officer, Interactive Advertising Bureau ( IAB )
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- Member of the Board
- Senior Vice President, Nutrition Products, the Beachbody Company
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- Chairman of the Board
- Chairman of the Executive Committee
- Chairman / President & CEO, Pet Food Institute
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- National Director of Animal - Assisted Interventions Advancement
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- Senior Associate, Keystone Law Group
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- Member / Volunteer Support Coordinator
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- Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine
Dr. Kerri Rodriguez is an Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine, where she is the Director of the Human-Animal Bond Lab (HAB Lab). She completed her Ph.D. in Human-Animal Interaction from the Purdue University Center for the Human-Animal Bond in 2020, and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Human-Animal Bond in Colorado (HABIC) at Colorado State University following her Ph.D. Her research focuses on quantifying therapeutic outcomes from human-dog interactions, including those with pet dogs, therapy dogs, facility dogs, and assistance dogs. Dr. Rodriguez is an internationally recognized emerging leader in the field of human-animal interaction research, with over 30 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and over 100 national and international presentations given. In addition to the Pet Partners HABAB, she serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of American Humane, the Advisory Board of Fetch by the Dodo, and is a Board Member of the International Society for Anthrozoology (ISAZ). In her free time, she loves to snuggle with her pets - a 100lb German Shepherd named Hendrix and a small-but-mighty orange tabby named Ringo.
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- Member of the Board
- Vice President - Global Regulatory Affairs and Pharmacovigilance, Elanco Animal Health
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- Chief Media & Sales Officer, North American Veterinary Community ( NAVC )
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- Member of the Executive Committee
- Secretary
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- Strategic Partnerships Manager
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- Senior Philanthropic Advisor
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- Member of the Executive Committee
- Treasurer of the Executive Committee
Mary Margaret Callahan is the Chief Mission Officer for Pet Partners, where she is responsible for leading mission delivery, including the Therapy Animal Program and grassroots advocacy program. As an animal lover with a background spanning education and health care, Mary Margaret couldn't be more delighted to find herself at the nexus of her interests and experience working to improve human health and well-being through the power of the human-animal bond.
The daughter of a veterinarian, Mary Margaret grew up surrounded by pets and has a deep appreciation for the strength of the human-animal bond. She joined Pet Partners in 2013 and has worked to establish the organization as both an influencer and a resource within the animal-assisted intervention (AAI) and human-animal bond (HAB) community. In 2018 she was named one of PetAge Magazine's Women of Influence.
Mary Margaret lives on a small farm outside Seattle with her husband, daughter, and menagerie of animals including dogs, cats, guinea pigs, chickens, goats, and miniature donkeys.
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- Global Director of Digital Communications, Mars, Incorporated
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- Member of the Executive Committee
- Vice Chair of the Executive Committee
- Vice Chair / Head of Commercial for North America, Klarna Media
Nancy R. Gee, PhD, HABAB Chair, is Professor of Psychiatry, Bill Balaban Chair in Human Animal Interaction, and the Director of the Center for Human Animal Interaction at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, VA. The Center is the only one of its kind to be housed in a School of Medicine, and in addition to research and educational activities it also houses the "Dogs On Call" therapy dog program. With over 90 DOC volunteer dog-and-handler teams, this program engages in upwards of 100,000 meaningful interactions with patients, staff, and students in the VCU Health system during a typical year.
Dr. Gee has extensive teaching and research experience and has specialized in the area of Human Animal Interaction (HAI) for the past 15 years. She served for five years as the HAI Research Manager for the Waltham Petcare Science Institute, located in Leicestershire, UK. In this role, she was responsible for guiding the selection, funding, and conduct of HAI research projects carried out around the globe, with particular focus on companion animals as they figure in the lives of children and older adults.
Because of Dr. Gee's broad background in HAI across the lifespan, and especially her expertise in the area of pets in educational environments, she is regularly invited to share her knowledge in academic venues across the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Asia. She has more than 50 peer-reviewed publications specific to the area of HAI and has edited and contributed to numerous books on the subject. Dr. Gee serves on the editorial review boards of several peer-review journals and has actively promoted the field of HAI through participation on the boards of HAI organizations and has initiated HAI interest groups in others.
Dr. Gee has shared her life with five therapy dogs (four miniature poodles and one border collie) over the years. Her current poodle, Allie, has not yet decided whether to enter the "family business." The choice will be hers.
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- Member of the Board
- GM Tax & Customs, Microsoft
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- Member of the Board
- Partner, Fenwick & West LLP
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- Chief Development Officer