Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dogs - Board of Directors, Scientific Advisors, Staff

Board, Staff, and Advisors

Board of Directors

Photo coming soon!		Joel Adamson Consultant (semi-retired), Brakke Consulting Joel Adamson has significant experience and skills in business development and marketing. His business development work has included intellectual property management, licensing, strategic planning, legal and regulatory activities, and international business arrangements. Within marketing his experience includes brand management, channel and distribution management, product development and launch, business communications and margin/profitability analysis. Mr. Adamson recently retired having served as senior vice president, business development for Sergeant’s Pet Care Products, Inc., a leading manufacturer and marketer of pet supplies and healthcare products for pets. In this position he was responsible for intellectual property management, legal affairs, licensing and contracts, planning, and industry relations. Prior to this, he served as senior vice president, marketing for Sergeant’s with responsibility of overseeing product and brand management, communications, channel management and related activities. He currently serves as a senior consultant for Brakke Consulting, Inc., a leading business consulting firm to the animal health industry. Mr. Adamson has held a variety of executive positions in general management, marketing and operations for companies which manufacture and market consumer packaged goods, animal health products, chemical specialties and other products. He has an engineering degree from University of Nebraska and an MBA from University of Nebraska at Omaha. Mr. Adamson serves on the board of directors for American Pet Products Manufacturers Association (APPMA) and on the board of directors for the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (PIJAC).

		Joyce Briggs, M.S. (Secretary) President, ACC&D Briggs has been involved in a leadership capacity with ACC&D since 2004 and has served as President since 2006. During this time she has helped substantially advance interest in, work toward, and support for creating non-surgical sterilants for progressive population control of cats and dogs. She has led the organization’s strategic planning, fundraising, and program development, established a respected Scientific Advisory Board, and produced and directed two major scientific symposiums and two scientific think tanks. She has played a key cultivation role in developing strategic partnerships advancing this field. Briggs has been a leader in national animal welfare for over fifteen years, through top general management, marketing, development, program and public relations positions at national nonprofit organizations, and as a management consultant bridging nonprofits, corporations and communities. As executive director of PetSmart Charities from 1999 - 2004, Briggs developed and oversaw the grants program which raised and distributed $23 million to the animal welfare cause, supporting pet adoption and spay/neuter programs. With 2400 adoption partners in adoption centers in over 620 PetSmart stores, PetSmart Charities found homes for over 1.2 million once-homeless pets in that time. Briggs was senior director of marketing and PR for the American Humane Association. She also served on the national Board of Directors for the Delta Society for three years and is active with the Animal Shelter Alliance of Portland (ASAP) a regional coalition of animal shelters. Prior to working full-time in animal protection, Briggs held corporate positions for 15 years. Her career spans management positions with New York City advertising agencies, including Ogilvy & Mather, and marketing leadership positions with Nabisco, Nutri-System and the Franklin Mint. She holds a master's degree in advertising from Northwestern University. Briggs shares her home in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, daughter, two dogs, and two hens.

		Linda Rhodes, V.M.D., Ph.D. Vice President-Clinical Development, AlcheraBio, LLC Dr. Rhodes has 23 years of accomplishments in human and animal drug discovery, development, biomedical research and clinical veterinary medicine. She has an extensive background in physiology, medicine, molecular biology, and drug discovery and development. As a senior research fellow at Merck Research Laboratories for 10 years, Dr. Rhodes led pre-clinical biology efforts for several marketed human drugs. Dr. Rhodes practiced clinical veterinary medicine for five years, with experience in both companion and farm animal practice. She worked for Sterling Winthrop Animal Health, and most recently for Merial Ltd., as director of development projects, leading project teams developing novel compounds for a variety of indications. She was also head of new technology assessment, leading the evaluation of licensing opportunities. In April 2001 she formed AlcheraBio, a consulting, marketing communications and contract research firm specializing in working with biotechnology and animal health companies, and has clients in the U.S., EU, Canada and Australia. AlcheraBio was acquired in 2008 by Argenta, a formulations and contract manufacturing company that specializes in animal health, and Dr. Rhodes now holds the position of Vice President - Clinical Research. She received her V.M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine and completed her Ph.D. in physiology at Cornell University with funding from the NIH.

		Andrew N. Rowan, Ph.D. Executive Vice President, Operations Humane Society of the United States Born in Zimbabwe and raised in Cape Town, South Africa Andrew Rowan serves as Chief Scientific Officer for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and as chief executive officer of Humane Society International. Rowan came to HSUS in 1978 as associate director of the Institute for the Study of Animal Problems. In 1983, he moved to Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, where he founded the Tufts Center for Animals & Public Policy and served as professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Studies. Rowan is the author and editor of numerous books and articles and is the founding editor of the journal Anthrozoös. He is Treasurer of the World Society for the Protection of Animals, on the Advisory Board for the Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) and is a trustee of Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R) in Boston.

		Betsy Saul President and Co-Founder, Petfinder.com Senior Vice President, Discovery Channel Saul is the co-founder and president of Petfinder.com, one of the busiest web sites on the Internet. With a vision to change the way the public views shelter pets, Betsy and her husband, Jared, harnessed the infant technology of the Internet in 1996 and molded it into one of the most successful e-businesses to date. Petfinder, which Betsy describes as a "social profit company," is on a mission to see that no pet is euthanized for lack of a home. In November of 2006, Petfinder.com joined forces with The Discovery Channel, greatly increasing Petfinder.com's ability to help pets worldwide. Saul has been working with and volunteering to help animals since she was a teenager in Joplin, Missouri. She received her bachelor's degree in biology from Missouri Southern State University and a master's in forest ecology from Clemson University. She worked as an urban forester for the State of New Jersey, as an agriculture extension agent at Rutgers University, as a park ranger at Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska, and as a field scientist for the Army Corps of Engineers in South Carolina. Her work has always emphasized collaboration and consensus building. Saul shares her home in North Carolina with one dog, two cats, three senior horses, one sheep, two turtles and two goats.

Photo coming soon!		Bill Torgerson, DVM, MBA (Board Vice Chair) Consultant Former Director of Companion Animal Services, American Humane Bill Torgerson joined American Humane in the summer of 2005 after serving as Chief Operating Officer of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in Washington, D.C. After nine years as a zoo veterinarian and an appointment as assistant professor at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine, he held positions as President and CEO of Zoo Montana in Billings and then Director of the El Paso Zoo. In each zoo he supervised completion of national accreditation and capital improvements. For a time he served as the El Paso Parks and Recreation Director. Bill also was Vice President for Advancement with the Hornocker Wildlife Institute, Bozeman, MT and was certified as a fundraising executive (CFRE) in 1999. In April of 2008, Torgerson returned to American Humane from a 12 month tour of duty with the US Army in Iraq. While there he served as a Provincial Reconstruction Team Officer reporting to the US State Department as the Section Head for Health Services, Public Health and Education as well as in the capacity of Senior Veterinarian for Ninewa Province, Mosul, Iraq. Torgerson is a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserves Medical Department and Civil Affairs Branches and is currently the Medical Readiness Officer for the 358th CA Brigade, headquartered in California at March Reserve Base. Dr. Torgerson attended the University of California, Davis, where he received his Bachelor of Science in Biology, a Master’s Degree in Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology and his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine. He subsequently completed the Canadian Residency in Wildlife Medicine and Veterinary Pathology at the Ontario Veterinary College, Canada. More recently he completed his M.B.A. at the University of Texas, El Paso.

		G. Robert Weedon, DVM, MPH Veterinary Outreach Coordinator, Alliance for Rabies Control Adjunct Faculty, University of North Carolina Wilmington Bob Weedon has recently embarked on a new career as the Veterinary Outreach Coordinator for the Alliance for Rabies Control, an international nonprofit whose mission is to reduce the global burden of rabies. Weedon is the retired Senior Partner of College Road Animal Hospital, PLLC, a nine-doctor, two-location veterinary practice in Wilmington, NC. Since 1999, Weedon has been an Adjunct Professor in Honors and Biology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He also assists with advising of pre-veterinary UNCW students and serving as one of the faculty advisors of the Pre-Veterinary Medical Association. During the 2001-2002 academic year, Weedon attended the Management Academy for Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was the community partner on the team that represented New Hanover County. In 2007, he completed a year-long leadership development program at the Southeast Public Health Leadership Institute within the UNC School of Public Health. As an advocate for solving the problem of pet overpopulation, Weedon volunteers with Friends of Felines, a group that surgically sterilizes feral cats in the Wilmington community, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dogs, an organization whose mission is to support the development of methods of nonsurgical sterilization. He is the veterinarian representative on the New Hanover County Board of Health, and is a member the Animal Control Services Advisory committee. He was the Vice-Chairman of the Board of Health in 2008, and Chairman in 2009. Weedon also volunteers on the Board of Directors of the Public Health Foundation of New Hanover County and served as President 2008-2009. In June, 2008, he received the Bill Lehman Memorial Award from the National Animal Control Association as the outstanding animal control volunteer in the United States. Weedon attended Purdue University where he received his bachelor of science in animal science in 1977 and his doctor of veterinary medicine in 1981. He received his master of public health in May 2005 from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

		Stephen L. Zawistowski, Ph. D., CAAB Executive Vice President and Science Advisor Director of National Programs The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) Stephen L. Zawistowski, Ph.D. is Executive Vice President and Science Advisor of The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals where he currently oversees the ASPCA’s National Programs. “Dr. Z” is a well-known speaker on a number of animal shelter issues including animal behavior, humane education, using statistics to manage programs and the history of animal sheltering. He is a certified 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, adjunct professor of clinical medicine at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, and an adjunct assistant profession in the Animal Behavior and Conservation graduate program at Hunter College. He co-edited Animal Shelter Medicine with Dr. Lila Miller (2004), co-authored a history of the ASPCA, Heritage of Care with Marion Lane (2008) and authored a textbook Companion Animals in Society (2008).

International Advisory Council
Science Advisory and Product Development Committee

Cheryl Asa, Ph.D.
Director of Research and Director of the AZA Wildlife Contraception Center
St. Louis Zoo, St. Louis, Missouri

Barry Ball, Ph.D., D.V.M.
Professor, University of California, Davis, Department of Population Health and Reproduction
John P. Hughes Endowed Chair in Equine Reproduction

Stephen Boyle, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Professor of Microbiology, Center for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Diseases
VA-MD Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia

Scott Coonrod, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Baker Institute for Animal Health
College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University

Wolfgang Jöchle, D.V.M.
Consultant (semi-retired)
Manahawkin, New Jersey

Dennis Lawler, D.V.M
Research Veterinarian, Ralston Purina Company
St. Louis, Missouri

Elaine Lissner
Director of Medical Research Programs
The Parsemus Foundation

Katherine Moldave, M.B.A.
Vice President-Mark Support, AlcheraBio, LLC
Metuchen, New Jersey

David M. Petrick, V.M.D., J.D.
President, Delta Consortium Regulatory Consulting, Ltd.
Princeton, NJ

Margaret Slater, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Veterinary Epidemiologist
ASPCA Animal Health Services Program Office

Staff
Joyce Briggs, M.S.
President
Joyce@acc-d.org

Briggs has been a leader in national animal welfare for over a decade, through top general management, marketing, development, program and public relations positions at national nonprofit organizations, and, since mid-2004, providing management consulting to bridge nonprofits, corporations and communities. During her four and a half years as executive director of PetSmart Charities, the organization raised and distributed $23 million to the animal welfare cause, primarily to support local pet adoption and spay/neuter programs. With adoption centers in over 620 PetSmart stores, PetSmart Charities, working with over 2400 adoption partners, found homes for over 1.2 million once-homeless pets in that time. Prior to working for PetSmart Charities, Briggs was senior director of marketing and PR for the American Humane Association. Early in 2006, Briggs became the first staff member of ACC&D. She also currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Delta Society.

Prior to working full-time in animal protection, Briggs held corporate positions for 15 years. Her career spans management positions with New York City advertising agencies, including Ogilvy & Mather, and marketing leadership positions with Nabisco, Nutri-System and the Franklin Mint. She holds a master's degree in advertising from Northwestern University.

Briggs shares her home in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, daughter, two cats, and two dogs.

Karen Green
Director of Outreach
Karen@acc-d.org

Green joined the ACC&D team in 2006, bringing knowledge and experience gained during 10 years working in animal welfare. As director of outreach she manages the Organizational Partners Program, EsterilSol Small Grants Program, website and e-newsletters, and other communication with animal health and welfare stakeholders. Additionally, she contributes to the day-to-day management of the organization, including development, planning, and program administration.

Previously, Green worked for Best Friends Animal Society as the assistant director of the national No More Homeless Pets campaign, where she oversaw community program and consultation efforts and assisted with the development and management of the campaign. Prior to that, as the community programs manager for the western U.S., Karen consulted with shelters, rescue groups, other humane organizations and individuals across the country. Additionally, she developed resources and assisted with organization of No More Homeless Pets conferences and workshops. Her other roles at Best Friends focused on pet retention, re-homing, adoption, and medical care.

Green holds a BA in Organizational Communication and a Certificate in Conflict Resolution and Mediation from Marylhurst University. She shares her home in Portland, Oregon, with two dogs and one very large cat.