MEDYMEX.COM - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Policy Advisor
- Chief Legal Adviser at the European Institute for Animal Law
Alice Di Concetto is the Chief Legal Adviser at The European Institute for Animal Law & Policy. She additionally is a lecturer in EU animal law and ethics at the Sorbonne Law School and Sciences Po (Paris, France). She was previously a fellow in the Animal Law & Policy Program at Harvard Law School, from 2016 to 2018. Her publication record includes several law review articles in journals. She is also the author of the forthcoming book "EU Animal Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing). Alice earned a master's degree in Animal Law (LL.M, 2016) from Lewis & Clark Law School (USA), for which she obtained a Fulbright grant. She graduated from Sciences Po Law School in Paris (Master in Law, 2015).
Job Titles:
- Head of Digital Services and Operations - Sentient Media
- Head of Operations - 50by40
Arturo Jose (AJ) Garcia is passionate about changing our food systems via a just transition to mitigate the climate crisis, improve human and planetary health, and reduce the exploitation of human and non-human animals. He has fifteen years of international experience and ten years in senior management, public awareness campaigns, public relations, and undercover investigations. He has been a leader in the non-profit realm for the last decade, working with animal protection organizations such as CARE (동물권단체케어), Mercy For Animals, and Animal Recovery Mission. Currently, he is Head of Operations at 50by40 and serves on several advisory boards. In addition to his efforts in the non-profit realm, Arturo was head chef and general manager of Huggers, a plant-based restaurant in Seoul, South Korea. He is also an audio platform enthusiast, which led him to create and host the Woke Stutter Podcast to chat with leaders and change-makers about animal protection, social justice, food justice, climate justice, and the future of food.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Aquatic Animal Alliance
Catalina Lopez is the Director of the Aquatic Animal Alliance, the coalition of over 140 organizations in 69 countries that are working around the globe to reduce the suffering of aquatic animals. Catalina is a Veterinarian from Colombia, and a member of the World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association. She currently resides in Mexico City.
She has worked in the farmed animal protection movement for over six years, previously leading the Corporate Engagement team at Mercy For Animals Latin America on their work in cage-free campaigns. In 2023 she was included in the , which highlights scientists, thinkers, scholars, writers, and activists working on solutions to today's (and tomorrow's) biggest problems.
She is also an active speaker on aquatic animal welfare in conferences such as the World Ocean's Summit, the Animal Grantmakers conference, the Reducetarian Summit and many others.
Job Titles:
- Aquatic Animal Alliance Engagement Coordinator
Cecilia is the Aquatic Animal Alliance Engagement Coordinator at �������ϲʿ���ֱ��. She has extensive experience in engaging with different stakeholders. Cecilia joined the animal advocacy movement in 2017. She led the corporate relations efforts at Mercy For Animals in Brazil and served as a member of the Open Wings Alliance Advisory Board, a global coalition of animal protection organizations focused on creating a unified front to end the abuse of chickens worldwide.
Cecilia's background is in journalism and public relations, with a master's degree in Communications in Science, Environment, and Health from Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona). Before transitioning to the non-profit sector, she worked as a journalist and public relations for major global pharmaceutical companies.
Besides Portuguese, her native language, she speaks fluent English and Spanish. Cecilia has shown her compassion early in life, being vegetarian since she was a kid. Her goal in life is building a better world for humans and non-human animals and a more sustainable food system.
Cecilia is based in São Paulo, Brazil, and in her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, playing with her baby daughter Clarice and the companion cat Dominque.
Job Titles:
- Head of Strategic Initiatives
Christine is the Head of Strategic Initiatives at �������ϲʿ���ֱ��, where she leads ALI's efforts in advocating for improved animal welfare standards in capture fisheries with international institutions and the private sector.
Christine has extensive experience in international ocean conservation, having worked with major NGOs in Washington, DC, including using geospatial technology to track fishing vessels and deter illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
Originally from Tianjin, China, Christine grew up in California and now resides in Spain. She holds dual bachelor's degrees from UC San Diego and a master's degree in Corporate Responsibility from EOI Business School in Madrid.
Job Titles:
- Director of Animal Welfare at Rethink Priorities
- Strategic Advisor
Daniela R. Waldhorn is Director of Animal Welfare at Rethink Priorities. She has more than 15 years of experience in animal advocacy in Latin America and Europe, and has extensively researched several farmed invertebrate welfare issues. Daniela is also a Ph.D. researcher at the Department of Social Psychology at the University of Barcelona, and board member of the Centre for Animal Ethics at Pompeu Fabra University (Spain). She also serves as an advisor to the Shrimp Welfare Project. Daniela has an MS in International Development (Jaume I University and University of Valencia) and an MS in Ethics and Politics (University of Barcelona).
Dr. Kikiope is a veterinarian with more than a decade of interrelated experiences in Animal Welfare and One Health programming, research, and nonprofit management. She bagged her DVM degree from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and further acquired an M.Sc. degree in Global Health and Infectious Diseases at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland through the Commonwealth Scholarship. She is also an alumnus of the 2021 Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation program.
In the course of her work on animal welfare and One Health, she has managed national, sub-national and pan-African programs and research with organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), African Union-InterAfrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR), and Animal Advocacy Africa (AAA). She has also established and led nonprofits dedicated to animal welfare and One Health causes - cofounding Healthier Hens (a global hen welfare charity) and founding the Nigeria-based One Health and Development Initiative (OHDI).
Kiki's passion for animal welfare (including of aquatic life) stems from its seeming neglectedness and scale of impact, especially in the global south. She recognizes the need for concerted collaborative action, with awareness, advocacy, policy influencing, and movement building to alleviate the suffering of aquatic life; and is committed to supporting the change process to achieving improved welfare of aquatic life globally.
Dr. Sneddon has worked for over two decades on topics that have advanced fish health and welfare and used her research to drive the agenda for the improved welfare of fishes. Fish welfare was an understudied area prior to 2002 since it was previously believed that they did not possess pain receptors (nociceptors). Sneddon worked in Dr Mike Gentle's laboratory at the Roslin Institute, UK, as a postdoctoral fellow from 1999 and identified nociceptors on the head and face of rainbow trout for the first time which was published in 2002. This novel discovery that fish experience pain has since fueled Sneddon's research, and she has dedicated her career to informing the way in which fishes are treated in the laboratory and in other contexts.
Sneddon has become the recognized world expert on fish welfare and was invited to develop training resources, participate in workshops, and deliver educational events and talks to veterinarians as well as technical care staff and academics. She is also regularly invited to give talks at academic conferences, laboratory animal meetings, animal law conferences, public events and to industry and other stakeholders. In 2023, Sneddon was awarded the Johns Hopkins CAAT and Charles River Excellence in Refinement Award and she is giving the Charles River Ethics and Animal Welfare Lecture at the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) meeting. Sneddon currently leads her team at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden investigating how to improve the way we treat fishes, decapod crustaceans and cuttlefish.
Inspired by the principles of Effective Altruism and aware that welfare means much more than just good health, Giulia decided to dedicate her competencies, skills and time to improving the standards for animals raised for food worldwide and she is currently working as Global Policy Lead at the �������ϲʿ���ֱ��.
When engaging with National and International stakeholders, Giulia focuses on the importance of making the interlocutors understand what "animal welfare" means, beyond false beliefs, stereotypes or emotional illusions. Her strength is to mold the different points of view in order to offer another perspective to identify opportunities to exploit.
Giulia holds a Degree in Animal Breeding Techniques and an MSc degree in Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law. In her free time, she enjoys being outdoors, doing sports and playing music.
Job Titles:
- Teaching Fellow and Adjunct Professor - Center for Animal Law Studies
- Vice Chair of Publications
Hira Jaleel is a Teaching Fellow and Adjunct Professor at the Center for Animal Law Studies. As a Teaching Fellow, Hira is responsible for contributing to the success of the online Animal Law LLM and Animal Law MSL degree programs. As an Adjunct Professor, Hira teaches Aquatic Animal Law in both the in-person and online modalities, and also co-teaches Food Law with Professor Pamela Frasch. Hira's research and scholarship focuses on international and comparative animal law issues, and she is especially interested in developing animal law as a field of study in South Asia, with a focus on Pakistan.
Beyond her work at CALS, Hira is the Vice Chair of Publications and Co-Chair, Wildlife Law Subcommittee for the Animal Law Section of the American Bar Association (2023-2024). Hira is also the Vice Chair Programs of the International Animal Law Subcommittee of the International Law Section of the ABA (2023-2024).
As part of her work, Hira has worked with all four provincial governments in Pakistan to update their animal welfare legislation. Hira has also been a consultant for Pakistan's Federal Ministry of National Food Security & Research, and has worked on a new Federal Animal Health Bill for Pakistan in collaboration with the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH).
Joshua V. Barr is an Emmy and national award-winning, transformational leader, human rights attorney, training people in all 50 states and 5 continents. After trying to force a corporate career, he chose to pursue his true passion: working to create a fairer world for all people. Joshua has worked on policy change at the local, state, and federal levels as a civil and human rights executive director, attorney, and consultant. His Bridging the Gap initiative while serving as a civil & human rights director for the City of Des Moines, Iowa utilized community dialogues to craft, develop, and implement 25 new city policies and practices designed to improve community-government relations and help residents move up the socioeconomic ladder. In 2020, Joshua debuted his Emmy award-winning documentary, Breaking Bread, Building Bridges, where nearly 40 strangers were matched up based on their differences to have dinners together over the course of a few months to determine if they could find common ground despite their differences. Joshua now serves as the Chief Strategist and President of his own organization, Raising The Barr, where he collaborates with and counsels government entities and other organizations that are committed to transforming their cultures and improving socioeconomic outcomes for their community stakeholders. In this role, Joshua developed the Citizen Participation & Equitable Engagement (CPEE) Toolkit for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Block Grant Development Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Program and continues to conduct community dialogues around the country in his ongoing efforts to make every corner of the country a better place.
Job Titles:
- Communications and Marketing Specialist
- the Communications and Marketing Specialist
Livia is the Communications and Marketing Specialist at �������ϲʿ���ֱ��. She joined ALI in 2021, where she is responsible for developing impactful marketing campaigns, graphic designs, and managing all online platforms to elevate ALI's impact.
Livia is originally from Switzerland, grew up in Bermuda, and earned her Bachelor's Degree in Human Geography in London, UK. Beyond her role at ALI, she runs a small greeting card business, through which she has organized a fundraiser to support the Bermuda SPCA.
As a committed vegan, Livia extends her passion for animal welfare beyond the workplace. In her free time, she remains an unwavering advocate, aligning her principles with actions to make a positive impact on the world around her.
Job Titles:
- Strategic Marketing Consultant & Advisor
Nico has spent his career helping many of the world's biggest brands, most innovative businesses, and fastest-growing disruptors across all consumer categories toward creative effectiveness and marketing success. Along this journey, he has envisioned and built teams uncovering the future of people-inspired, data-empowered creative marketing. He combines deep expertise in strategy with broad experience across all levers of marketing to help brands and businesses thrive in a AI-curated world.
After more than ten years at Meta/Facebook, he is now helping those who are trying to shift the food system away from animal-grown products to communicate effectively with their audiences.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director - the Humane League UK
Job Titles:
- Founder / President - Ϲʿ ֱ