Phil Arkow
Phil Arkow
Internationally acclaimed lecturer, author and humane educator Phil Arkow is Director of Link® Programs at the American Humane Association, the nation's oldest federation of child and animal protection organizations. He also chairs the Latham Foundation's Animal Abuse and Family Violence Prevention Project. He lectures around the world to cross-train employees of animal shelters, child protection agencies, domestic violence prevention programs, and veterinarians to recognize and report family violence. He teaches a distance-education certificate course in Animal-Assisted Therapy & Activities through Harcum College and a similar campus course at Camden County College. He has authored or edited numerous articles and nine key reference books on the human-animal bond, humane education, animal-assisted therapy, violence prevention, and animal shelter management. He has served with the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Delta Society, the National Animal Control Association, and the American Association of Human-Animal Bond Veterinarians.
Frank R. Ascione, Ph.D.
Dr. Ascione received his bachelor's degree in psychology from Georgetown University in 1969 and his doctoral degree in developmental psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1973. He is a professor in the Department of Psychology and adjunct professor in Family and Human Development at Utah State University (USU). Dr. Ascione has published numerous articles on the development of antisocial and prosocial behavior in children, co-edited two books Cruelty to Animals and Interpersonal Violence: Readings in Research and Application (1998), Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, and Animal Abuse: Linking the Circles of Compassion for Prevention and Intervention (1998), both published by Purdue University Press, and authored Safe Havens for Pets: Guidelines for Programs Sheltering Pets for Women who are Battered. In the fall of 2001, the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention published Ascione's review of animal abuse and youth violence as a Research Bulletin. Children and Animals: Exploring the Roots of Kindness and Cruelty is Dr. Ascione's latest book and was published in 2005 by Purdue University Press (the book has been translated into Japanese and Italian editions). The International Handbook of Animal Abuse and Cruelty: Theory, Research, and Application, edited by Dr. Ascione was published in May 2008. Development of this handbook was sponsored by the Scott Charitable Trust. Dr. Ascione was selected to receive the 2001 Distinguished Scholar Award from the International Association of Human-Animal Interaction Organizations and the International Society for Anthrozoology and, in 2002, was selected as USU's College of Education Scholar/Researcher of the Year. He serves on the editorial boards of Anthrozoös, and Aggression and Violent Behavior and is an adjunct faculty member with the American Humane Association. During January through May 2009, Dr. Ascione will be a visiting professor at the University of Denver's Graduate School of Social Work. He will be affiliated with the Human-Animal Connections Institute.
Dr. Ascione has conducted research related to humane education and children's attitudes toward animals. More recently, he has focused his attention on child and adolescent animal abuse. This research examines the common roots of violence toward people and animals and is directed at identifying an early indicator of at-risk status in children. An invited speaker at local, national, and international conferences (including conferences in Tel Aviv, Geneva, Dublin, Prague, Florence, Rome, Brussels, Gothenburg, Cambridge, Oxford, Toronto, Vancouver (BC), London (Ontario), Rio de Janeiro, Kobe, Tokyo, Osaka, Sendai, Kumamoto, Kanazawa, Gifu, Miyazaki, Hiroshima, Kagawa, ,Amsterdam, the Hague, Utrecht, Haarlem, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Darwin, Mackay, Adelaide, Auckland, Glasgow, Regensburg, and Santorini (Greece)], Dr. Ascione has collaborated with human services, social work, and child development staff working with abused children, with youth corrections personnel, and with state shelters for women who are battered. His work has been supported by the Humane Society of the United States, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the American Humane Association, the Scott Charitable Trust, and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. Dr. Ascione has provided information or testimony for the state legislatures of Utah, Ohio, Colorado, Tennessee, and Washington, regarding cruelty to animals legislation. He has appeared on CNN's "Live from the Headlines", the Oprah Winfrey Show, had his research cited in the NY Times, USA Today, and Oprah Winfrey's magazine, O (June 2008), and has been a guest on numerous local, national, and international TV and radio programs.
A member of the American Psychological Association and the Society for Research on Child Development, Dr. Ascione served on the Scientific Advisory Council of the Humane Society of the United States and serves on the Child and Animal Abuse Prevention Advisory Council of the Latham Foundation. He is past president of the Southwestern Society for Research in Human Development and is a member of the cadre of experts for The American Psychological Association's Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family.
Born and raised in New York City, Frank and his wife Deborah have three adult children, Matthew, Catherine (Santangelo), and David and two grandsons, Calvin and Luca, and reside in Logan, Utah.
Allie Phillips is the Director of Public Policy for the American Humane Association and manages the Washington D.C. office which advocates for federal and state legislation to protect children and animals from maltreatment. Ms. Phillips was previously employed as a Senior Attorney with the National District Attorneys Association's National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse in Alexandria, VA, and was an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in Michigan for approximately 8 years. She has over 15 years experience working with child abuse and domestic violence victims, over 10 years helping abused and abandoned animals, and is a nationally-recognized author and trainer on The Link® between animal cruelty and human violence, and investigation and prosecuting child abuse and animal cruelty.
Ms. Phillips created the Pets and Women's Shelter (PAWS) Program™ to assist shelters in housing family pets on-site based on her personal experiences as a trial prosecutor and seeing many abused women return to their batterers in order to protect their pets. The PAWS Program is the first national program to address the important of the human-animal bond for both people and pets when dealing with trauma. The program advocates for keeping families and pets together during a crisis, rather than housing the pets at a separate animal shelter. She received her Juris Doctorate cum laude from University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.
Coordinator of the Linkage Project since December 2005. The Linkage Project's mission is to raise awareness and change policy practice and laws through a collaborative advocacy model.
Prior to coming to the Linkage Project, Ms. Jariz held leadership positions in State Government for 25 years working at the systems level in the fields of mental health, mental retardation, vocational rehabilitation, organizational development and performance management. Often that work required a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach to achieve effective and responsive service delivery systems. In addition to policy and program management, Ms. Jariz has significant experience in fiscal and legislative issues.
Originally from Maine, she is a graduate of the University of Southern Maine with a degree in Social Work, has taken several graduate level courses in public policy and administration and has significant training in management/leadership, including the Governor's Leadership Program.
Karen D. Schaefer received her Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is the training coordinator at New Mexico State University Counseling Center. In addition to training and supervision, her areas of professional interest include adult survivors of childhood abuse (physical, emotional, sexual, neglect) or trauma, grief and loss issues, offenders of abuse, animal abuse including offenders and victims who witnessed such abuse, the healing aspects of human-animal interactions and the provision of animal assisted therapy as an adjunct to psychotherapy.
Dr Feeser is the owner of and veterinarian for High Desert Animal Hospital. She has previously owned a small animal practice in North Carolina was the veterinarian for Duke University's lemur colony, the veterinarian for the County Animal Disaster Response Team for 2 different counties in North Carolina and has been the veterinarian for a NC county's Board of Health. In addition she has been a certified animal cruelty investigator for a county in NC. She founded the first Pet Safe program in the state of North Carolina. She currently runs the Pet Safe program for Sandoval County. She is also the chairperson for Rio Rancho's Animal Welfare Task Force. In addition she is the veterinarian for NM's Animal Sheltering Board as well as the veterinary forensics advisor the NM Attorney General's Animal Cruelty Task Force.
Ms. Gojkovich is a criminal investigator for the Dona Ana County Sheriff's Department specializing in child abuse and animal cruelty cases. She assisted with investigating two large dog fighting cases and the successful prosecution of the first cock fighting case in New Mexico. She previously served on the County's special response team and as a patrol officer. She was a law enforcement officer with Arizona State University Police Department, a maximum-security correctional officer with the Arizona State Prison and an Emergency Medical Technician for Phelpes Dodge Mine Rescue. Ms. Gojkovich was born and raised in Silver City, attended college in Douglas Arizona, and is a single mother of two.
Officer Jimenez has been an animal control officer with the City of Las Cruces Police Department since 2002. He also serves as a Public Information Officer for the department. He spent six years as an animal control officer for the Grant County Humane Society and holds numerous certifications in animal control and media relations. He is the Vice President of the New Mexico Animal Control Association and has served as the organization's Secretary/Treasurer. In 2005, Officer Jimenez was named Animal Control Officer of the Year by the New Mexico Animal Control Associations.
Ms. Ward is the Community and Social Services Coordinator for New Mexico Juvenile Justice Services. She developed Project Second Chance, a program that teams incarcerated youth with shelter dogs. The program was recently featured on the Paula Zahn CNN show along with other national and regional media. Ms. Ward has presented at numerous conferences and trainings regarding juvenile delinquency and animal assisted interventions. She received her Bachelor of Social Work from New Mexico State University and has done post-graduate studies at Highlands University and the College of Santa Fe. She is a certified ANICARE trainer.
Karen Wyman is the Community Outreach Trainer for the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence. In her work for the Coalition, she coordinates the 40 Hour Advocacy Training for new domestic violence victim advocates and provides technical assistance to service providers around the state. Karen holds a Bachelor's degree from Alfred University in New York and has done graduate work at the University of Southern Maine. She is passionate about raising awareness of domestic violence in New Mexico and working to create a state in which every home is a safe home.
Steven Suttle is a career prosecutor with thirty-five years trial and appellate experience. A 1974 graduate of the University of Oklahoma College of Law, Suttle worked as an assistant district attorney in Oklahoma’s Third District until being elected district attorney in 1982. Suttle moved to New Mexico in 1990 and worked as a deputy district attorney in Albuquerque. His duties included major crimes prosecutions, prosecutor training, representing the district attorney in the appellate courts, and service as a legislative liaison for New Mexico District Attorneys’ Association. Suttle joined the New Mexico Attorney General’s staff in 1996 in the criminal appeals division. His duties included general appellate practice in the state and federal courts and service as a legislative lobbyist. In 2007, Attorney General Gary King promoted Suttle to the position of Special Counsel with responsibility for advising the attorney general on matters pertaining to investigations, prosecutions, and appeals within the office as well as service on the office’s legislative team. Past professional activities: