IATCB - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Member of AZA
• Member of IAATE

Amy earned her BA in Psychology from the University of Georgia. She began her career working with animals at Zoo Atlanta. Later moved to Orlando to work for Natural Encounter, Inc. While at Natural Encounters, Amy worked primarily at the Flights of Wonder show at Disney's Animal Kingdom, the State Fair of Texas and opened the show at the Dallas Zoo. Amy stayed in Dallas to become the Director of Ambassador Animal Experiences. This included overseeing programming at the Wildlife Show, Outreach, Cheetah Run, Monorail and the Wild Encounters stage. Amy became a member of IAATE in 2002 and served as an Executive Board Member from 2010-2014. Amy has been a member of AZA since 2014. Amy completed Dr Susan Friedman's LLA course is a Certified Interpretive Guide-Trainer (CIG-T), Certified Professional Bird Trainer (CPBT-KA) and Certified Professional Animal Trainer (CPAT-KA).

For around 20 years, Christina Lavallee has been working with animals. For just as long she has been a member of the Animal Behavior Management Alliance(ABMA) which has been a great resource to further growth and knowledge. She has presented and attended several conferences with ABMA and the International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators (IAATE), including internationally. She has spent the past decade at Zoo Atlanta working in the ambassador animal department. She not only works with the various birds in the show, but also the smaller education animals and the contact yard critters. She aims to educate guests on conservation measures near and far utilizing the animal's trained behaviors. She is also active on Zoo Atlanta's Green Team implementing changes on zoo grounds and in the community. She is involved in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Ambassador Animals Scientific Advisory Group. In 2023, she will graduate with a masters degree in Biology from Miami University's Global Field Program.

Job Titles:

• Social Media Coordinator

Kelly graduated from the University of Georgia with a double major of Animal and Dairy Science. She began working at the Birmingham Zoo in 2005. Her career started as a part time keeper working in the Children's Zoo Barn. Working and training animals for the wildlife shows and educating the public quickly became her passion. In 2010 the Animal Programs and Interpretation Department was formed at the zoo, and it was an easy decision on where her heart fell. She managed this department for 5 years and worked hard to have a mixed species show including free flight birds. She chaired the Animal Training Committee and Interpretive Committees for the zoo. In 2018 she moved to Athens, Georgia where she is now the Zoo Coordinator for Bear Hollow Zoo. Kelly is a Certified Interpretive Guide and uses her skills as an interpreter to educate and inform the public about the importance of conservation.

Job Titles:

• Chairman
• President

Kimm Hunt started working in animal welfare in 1989 as an animal control officer, where she investigated an abuse case that resulted in the severest penalty for a single count of animal cruelty in IL state history. She began training companion animals, horses, and beloved lab rats while completing a BS in Animal Sciences at the University of IL. She loves teaching kids how to train and managed a program that paired teens in substance abuse treatment with manners-challenged shelter dogs. She helps owners and their families to manage and replace unwanted behavior in their animals while simultaneously enriching their pets' lives, increasing their emotional resilience, and strengthening the animal-owner relationship. She provided canine behavior evaluations and risk assessments for the Southeast's largest animal rescue organization and is particularly interested in working with aggressive behavior. Kimm completed an MSc in Clinical Animal Behavior at the University of Edinburgh at a ripe old age, where she researched "dangerous" canine behavior and how dog rehoming organizations identify behavior they consider a risk to human safety. She is a CPAT-KA, CPBT-KA, and a certified shelter behavior consultant. She lives in Chicagoland and is grateful for the opportunity to serve as a board member for IATCB since 2021.

Robin has been working with ambassador animals since 2008. She is currently the Animal Operations Manager at Naples Zoo after almost twelve years leading Ambassador Animal Experiences at the Dallas Zoo. At Naples Zoo she manages the training of ten adult American alligators and is opening a new stage experience. During her time at the Dallas Zoo, she helped develop their ambassador cheetah program, starred in themed animal shows, and opened the Wild Encounters stage experience. At the start of her career Robin was nervous around birds, but through training and time she has found them to be some of her favorite animals to train, interpret, and observe. Robin took the CPBT-KA exam in 2019 after a guiding push from her director and has been encouraging team members along the same path. The reading materials and study guides really help develop great training thought processes! Robin has an irrational (to some) love for vultures and sharks and irrational (to all) fear of dinosaurs. In her free times she loves traveling, paddle boarding, biking, SCUBA, and general adventures.

Job Titles:

• Owner and Founder of Avian Ambassadors

Sid is the owner and founder of Avian Ambassadors based in Tijeras, New Mexico and is a past-president of the International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators (IAATE). He served on the board of directors of IAATE from 2003 to 2013.