FUNCTIONAL - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Software Engineer
- Director at Large
Bryan is a software engineer, working in supply chain logistics and security. He and his partner, Dr. Jaimie Weber, live on a 19 acre farm in Dade City, FL where they breed Whippets, Border Collies, and a variety of sport mixes. They also regularly assist in rescue and fostering of dogs. They currently have 10 dogs, who compete in Agility, Flyball, Dock Diving, and Disc Dog.
Bryan is one of the founders of The UpDog Challenge, a disc dog organization that puts an emphasis on the human/canine relationship and whose primary mission is to get more people playing with their dogs. Since its debut in 2014, it has grown to become the largest disc dog organization in the world, with over 15,000 teams competing in over 700 events throughout the year worldwide.
His interest in the FDC is with its mission to help breeders make good choices, and produce healthy, functional dogs that are purpose bred - whether that purpose be companionship, service, work, show, or sport.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Director at Large
Christina is an attorney, an executive for a multimillion dollar start-up, and a certified professional dog trainer. After practicing law at a law firm doing litigation for almost 20 years, she started her own practice and began consulting for dog trainers and other pet professionals seeking to start or improve their businesses. As a dog trainer she competes in agility, rally and obedience, and has taught classes related to those sports and puppy and manners classes. She is a longtime volunteer for the IAABC on ethical issues and is on the Board of her local AKC Boxer club. The core value of improving the lives of pet dogs and their people motivates her involvement with FDC. She currently shares her home with a Border Collie mix and Maggie the Boxer.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Research Scientist
Dr. Cornelia (Conny) Kraus is a biologist who worked as a research scientist and lecturer for many years. For her diploma thesis she studied the reproductive strategies of sifakas through the University of Göttingen (1988). After that she researched the life history strategy of wild cavies for her doctoral thesis through the University of Bielefeld (2003). After two postdocs she returned to the University of Göttingen. Conny's main research has been in behavioral and evolutionary biology with a focus on lifespan and aging. She has enjoyed doing field work in several countries and working with a wide variety of study species, ranging from chameleons over lemurs to - most importantly - dogs. She has authored several studies on dog lifespan and aging, partly in collaboration with the Dog Aging Project (University of Washington). Conny has left academia some years ago but isn't quite done with science yet. More recently, she has completed a formation in small animal physiotherapy. She lives with her husband and their canine companion in a small town in Germany.
Job Titles:
- Adjunct Professor
- Advisor
- Member of the Advisory Board
Dr. Marty Becker (he/him), "America's Veterinarian," has spent his life working toward better health for pets and the people who love them. He is the founder of Fear Free, which works to prevent and alleviate fear, anxiety, and stress in pets by inspiring and educating the people who care for them. This includes veterinary and other pet professionals as well as pet parents through FearFreeHappyHomes.com and animal shelter and rescue group staff and volunteers through FearFreeShelters.com.
Dr. Becker is an adjunct professor at his alma mater, the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine, and also at the Colleges of Veterinary Medicine at both Colorado State University and the University of Missouri. Additionally, he has lectured at every veterinary school in the United States and is on the advisory board of World Vets, an international veterinary and disaster relief programs to help animals. A passionate advocate for the human-animal bond, Dr. Becker serves as an adjunct professor at the Research Center for Human-Animal Interaction at the University of Missouri's College of Veterinary Medicine. He practices at North Idaho Animal Hospital because he loves veterinary medicine, pets, and the people who care for them.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board of Directors
Jessica graduated from the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine with a joint DVM/MS degree in 2012. Her Master's work was on stress in hospitalized dogs. She completed a specialty internship in veterinary shelter medicine at the University of Florida's Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program in 2013. She studied for her PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, investigating the genomics of two lines of foxes, one bred for tameness and one for aggression. After receiving her PhD in 2017, she went to work for the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, studying the genomics of behavior in pet and working dogs as part of the Darwin's Ark project and the Working Dog Project. Jessica also teaches online and in person seminars on the biology of behavior. She is passionate about supporting ethical breeding and changing the conversation around what makes a reputable breeder, and founded the FDC in 2020. She lives in Raymond, NH with her husband and three dogs.
Job Titles:
- Treasurer of the Board of Directors
Following a corporate business career, Joyce has held leadership roles in animal welfare for 25 years at the (U.S.) national level, with strong ties to animal sheltering, and including 5-years as Executive Director of PetSmart Charities. A career theme has been innovation in population management techniques to end the use of euthanasia as a means of controlling pet populations. She retired in 2024 from her position as President of the Alliance for Contraception in Cats & Dogs, where she focused on advancing non-surgical sterilization to prevent unwanted litters, globally.
Her interests with FDC includes right-sizing dog populations by uniting stakeholders from the shelter, veterinary and breeding communities in the best interests of dog welfare, around 21st century best practices in dog breeding. Her belief is that strong beginnings for dogs is in the best interest of both dogs and people.
Joyce was a founder and long-term advisor to the Animal Shelter Alliance of Portland, former board member of The Delta Society (now Pet Partners) and serves as an advisor to ACC&D and also for the Mars Petcare's Global End Pet Homelessness Campaign. Based in Portland, OR, her family includes her shelter dog Dexter and cat Phillip.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Director at Large
- Founder of Datacanis
- UI / UX Engineer
Nina is an UI/UX engineer and a dog breeder from Finland. She has Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Information and Communications Technology). Nina has worked in multiple projects building and designing applications, websites and other technical structures. Nina also has skills in project management and planning.
Dogs have been big part of her life for over 15 years. Nina has been breeding cross-bred dogs since 2012. She is particularly interested in dog structure, movement and anatomy, as well as genetics. She founded Ethicanis in 2021 and since 2023 it has merged with Functional Dog Collaborative for better advancing the near identical goals of both organizations.
Nina is also the founder of Datacanis, the dog database that aims to reform the way we use technology to advance our breeding methods. Her goal is to merge her knowledge and passion in dogs and technology for using technology and data to reform and enhance dog breeding practices and provide better tools for dog people in all aspects of the field. Nina's aim is to be part of creating user-friendly, data-driven tools that promote sustainable and ethical dog breeding.
Job Titles:
- Vice Chair of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Teacher
- Trainer
Sarah Stremming (she/her) is the teacher, trainer, podcaster at The Cognitive Canine, home of Cog Dog Radio. She helps people solve behavior problems from her virtual office across the globe and travels to teach when not impeded by a pandemic. Sarah holds a bachelors of science degree in psychology from Colorado State University and currently resides north of Seattle Washington. An avid competitor in the sports of Agility and Obedience, Sarah has a special interest in helping high-intensity sport dogs function in the human world through her concept the Four Steps to Behavioral Wellness. She believes creativity and nonlinear thinking are the key to cracking even the toughest behavioral codes and is known for her out of the box solutions. Sarah has three dogs; two border collies and an Icelandic sheepdog and spends as much of her time as possible following them through the woods of the Pacific Northwest.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Member of the Advisory Board
- CAAB EMERITUS
Stephen L. Zawistowski, PhD, CAAB Emeritus served as a senior executive at the ASPCA for 26 years. "Dr. Z" is a well-known speaker on a number of animal behavior, shelter and animal welfare topics. He completed a PhD in behavior-genetics at the University of Illinois (1983) and was a National Science Foundation post-doctoral fellow at Indiana University. Dr. Z was certified as an applied animal behaviorist and chaired the Animal Behavior Society's Board of Professional Certification from 1998-2007, is founding co-editor of the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, and an adjunct professor in the Animal Behavior and Conservation graduate program at Hunter College. He co-edited Animal Shelter Medicine for Veterinarians and Staff with Dr. Lila Miller (2004) and the second edition in 2013, co-authored a history of the ASPCA, Heritage of Care with Marion Lane (2008), and authored a textbook Companion Animals in Society (2008). Dr. Z served on the ACC&D Board of Directors for eight years (2005-2013), including multiple years as Board Chair. He received public service awards from the USDOJ and USDA for his work on the Michael Vick dog fighting case.
Job Titles:
- Secretary of the Board of Directors
Trish McMillan holds a Master of Science degree in animal behavior, and is a certified professional dog trainer, certified dog behavior consultant and associate certified cat behavior consultant. She has been involved in the animal rescue and sheltering world since the mid-1990's, starting out as a volunteer and working her way up to director of animal behavior. She worked for the ASPCA for nearly eight years; first as Director of Animal Behavior at their NYC shelter, then as a behaviorist on their field team, helping assess and rehabilitate dogs from cruelty cases, dogfighting and hoarding situations, then she joined the Shelter Research and Development team. Trish currently does animal behavior consulting near Asheville, North Carolina, working with dogs, cats and horses. Her farm, Pibble Hill, is home to a happy herd of animals of five species. Trish speaks and consults nationally and internationally on animal sheltering issues, dog, cat, and horse behavior, dog aggression, and defensive handling. Her online shelter dog behavior mentorship has helped students from around the world apply best practices at their respective shelters and rescues.