Amy Schilz
Contemporary Animal Training
Amy Schilz is a Senior Animal Behaviorist at the Giraffe Center for Conservation & Care.
When standing in front of a giraffe training partner, Amy is acutely aware of how lucky she is to have been surrounded by such amazing people and animals throughout her life. Her path into this career field was forged at a young age; she started interning at The Milwaukee County Zoo in high school. From there, she attended the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and earned a B.S. in both Wildlife Management and Biology, and minored in Captive Biology.
Since that time, she's soaked up every opportunity to learn more about animals and how best to try to save them. She's dabbled in field research, veterinary nursing, and zookeeping. While exploring all of the options of where she could best focus her time and energy to make a difference, she discovered the science of behavior change! It has changed how she's worked with animals throughout the years, and she's currently really focused on how to best train with a dialogue style of learning. She enjoys coaching training sessions, running giraffe workshops, and continuing to learn from others through consulting opportunities provided by Behavior Works.
Bianca Papadopolous
Animal Training
Bianca has always had a passion for animals, and it was her dream from a young age to become an animal trainer. Bianca started her career in 2005 working with elephants and seals at Melbourne Zoo, Australia. Since then, Bianca has worked with a wide range of different species across all taxa at several facilities in Australia and has spent time volunteering at various marine parks and zoos in the US. In 2011, Bianca returned to Melbourne Zoo working with primates including gorillas, orangutans and gibbons. In 2017 Bianca was appointed as the inaugural Animal Training Coordinator at the zoo, where she manages the animal training programs for all species and helps coach and upskill the keepers in this space. The programs are designed to allow the animals the opportunity to be active participants in their own health care and improve their welfare. In 2015, she was successful in acquiring an international fellowship through the International Specialized Skills Institute to investigate world leading animal training applications and programs in a zoo setting. Through the fellowship she was able to attend animal training workshops, courses and conferences worldwide. During the fellowship, it directed her down the path of the science of behavior change. Bianca works hard on continuing her learning journey and disseminating her learnings to help build skills to not only her direct colleagues but also to the broader zoo community in the Australasian region.
Bob Chastain
Leadership
Bob Chastain is the President & CEO of Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.
"Four goals drove me and continue to drive me. 1) develop a culture where after a person leaves they would say it was the best place they ever worked. It is worded that way because I realized people don’t always know what they have until it is gone. 2) While at Cheyenne Mountain, they would use their discretionary energy for the mission. 3) In my mind, every animal deserved the best home possible. Because of that we did not stop building new homes for over 20 years straight. We wanted every exhibit and animal to be set up for success. This would have been impossible without a basic understanding of principles like antecedent arrangement, the negative side effects of punishment, reinforcement vs reward, and the now famous bridge and curse. This list grew and grew in complexity and understanding for over 15 years. You too can understand all of these principles with a skilled guide to help you see how animal behavior and people behavior are just behavior.
Christy Alligood, Ph.D., BCBA-D
Chief Science Officer
Dr. Christy Alligood is a sought-after teacher, speaker, and thought leader whose experience spans the science and practice of behavior analysis.
Dr. Alligood received an MA (2003) from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and a Ph.D. (2007) from West Virginia University. She is also a doctoral-level Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA-D).
For over 10 years, Dr. Alligood has been a behavior scientist at Disney’s Animals, Science, and Environment. In that capacity, she uses her expertise in the application of behavior analysis to enhance the welfare of nonhuman animals through cooperative training, environmental enrichment, behavioral problem solving, and behavior change strategies supporting the conservation of wildlife and wild places.
Dr. Alligood is a faculty member in the Department of Applied Behavioral Science at the University of Kansas. She previously held faculty positions at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology and the University of Florida, where she was a nominee for the 2021 UF College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Teacher of the Year Award. She has served in many leadership roles in the Association for Behavior Analysis International, including president of the Applied Animal Behavior Special Interest Group, Coordinator of the Special Interest Groups Board, and At-large Representative to the Executive Council. She is also a past president and secretary of the Southeastern Association for Behavior Analysis. She is an instructor for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Environmental Enrichment in Zoo & Aquariums course and general member of the AZA Behavior Advisory Group serving on the Culture Change working group.
Jill Fernandes
Enrichment
Jill Fernandez is an Animal Welfare Scientist.
"I’m a scientist and consultant in the applied field of animal welfare. I aim to empower people to shape a better world for the animals under their care and for animals in the wild. I work with zoos, aquariums, farms, and animal facilities around the world to establish science-based animal welfare improvement programs. My consulting approach is participatory and builds on caregivers’ knowledge, with the goal of turning all animal caregivers into animal welfare scientists by equipping them with the understanding, tools, and confidence to make evidence-based decisions that improve animals’ lives.”
Ken Ramirez
Chief Training Officer
Ken Ramirez is the Executive Vice-President and Chief Training Officer at Karen Pryor Clicker Training where he helps to oversee the vision, development and implementation of training education programs for the organization.
Previously, Ken served as EVP of animal care and animal training at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium, where he developed and supervised animal care and animal health programs, staff training and development as well as public presentation programs for more than 32,000 animals. He worked at Shedd Aquarium for over 25 years and continued as a consultant for several years after.
A more than 50-year veteran of animal care and training, Ramirez is a biologist and animal behavior specialist who has overseen or consulted on training projects for many zoological organizations throughout the world. He began his training career working with guide dogs for the visually impaired and has maintained a close affiliation to pet training throughout his career. He hosted two successful seasons of the pet training television series Talk to the Animals that compared pet training to the important work done with training and caring for animals in zoological facilities. He has also worked closely with several search and rescue dog organizations, service dog groups, as well as with bomb and narcotic dogs.
Ramirez has been active in several professional organizations, including the International Marine Animal Trainer’s Association (IMATA), of which he is a past president. He taught a graduate course on animal training at Western Illinois University for 20 years. Ramirez has written for numerous scientific publications and authored countless popular articles. He authored the book ANIMAL TRAINING: Successful Animal Management through Positive Reinforcement, published in 1999. His most recent book The Eye of the Trainer: Animal Training, Transformation, and Trust, was published in 2020. Notably, in the past ten years, Ken has received three lifetime achievement awards from different professional training organizations: ABMA (Animal Behavior Manager’s Alliance), IMATA (International Marine Animal Trainers Association), and APDT (Association of Professional Dog Trainers).
Kiki Yablon
Assessments
Kiki Yablon, MA, KPA Faculty, CPDT-KA, is a Chicago-based dog trainer and teacher with a master’s degree in applied behavior analysis. In addition to consulting with private clients both locally and online, she coaches other professionals as Karen Pryor Academy faculty, a coinstructor for BehaviorWorks, and a well-regarded conference speaker. Kiki is a former newspaper and magazine editor and shares her insights about the practical application of behavior analysis on her blog at kikiyablondogtraining.com
Megan Sanders
Behavioral Skill Training
Megan Sanders has worked in the zoo field for the last 23+ years, with much of her career spent at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (CMZ). She started as a keeper in the children’s zoo, then moved to an area responsible for a variety of species including carnivores, primates, birds, reptiles, and marsupials. The experience of applying the science of behavior change to a range of species supported her in becoming CMZ’s first Animal Behavior Programs Manager. In that role, Megan oversaw zoo-wide training and enrichment programs, helped establish CMZ’s natural behavior show programs, and advanced medical/husbandry training.
In addition to her zoo work, Megan spent 17 years teaching for the Zoo Keeping Technology Degree Program at Pikes Peak State College. She developed curriculums and instructed courses including Introduction to Animal Training, Animal Training Applications, Animal Behavior, and Introduction to Captive Animal Management.
Megan has also broadened her skills as a contract trainer for a service dog organization, through multiple long-term consulting partnerships, and currently is a zoo behavior consultant and course co-instructor for Behavior Works LLC. She holds a master’s degree in Applied Behavioral Science from the University of Kansas. Her thesis research focused on effective teaching strategies for animal trainers and transferring training skills into real-world settings.
Rick Hester
Chief Executive Officer
Rick Hester is the Director of Animal Care and Wellbeing at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado. His career at the zoo spans nearly two decades, beginning as a zookeeper in 2006 caring for a wide variety of species, including small primates, great apes, penguins, African lions, and bears. In 2015, he started working with Dr. Susan Friedman and began to understand the importance of behavior analysis and its application for animals in human care. He began curating the zoos behavior programs in 2018 and now oversees the zoo’s animal department. His work includes the zoo's animal training for husbandry, medical, and public show behaviors, engineering enriched environments, developing programs to improve problem behavior situations, the zoo's formal animal welfare assessments, and exhibit design. He is affiliative faculty at Colorado State University in the Department of Biology and a behavior consultant and course co-instructor for Susan Friedman's Behavior Works LLC.
Steve Martin
Enrichment
Steve Martin is the President & CEO of Natural Encounters Inc.
In 1976, Steve Martin set up the first of its kind, free-flight, natural behavior bird show at the San Diego Wild Animal Park (now called the Safari Park). After the show gained international acclaim, he went out on his own in 1980 to set up bird shows at various parks around the world. In 1983, he branched out to apply his training skill with all types of animals in the zoo and aquarium world. His consulting activities have now taken him to over 30 countries working with more than 130 zoological facilities.
Susan Friedman, Ph.D.,
Founder
Dr. Susan G. Friedman, Ph.D. is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology at Utah State University. Susan has co-authored chapters on behavior change in five veterinary texts, and her popular articles have been translated into 17 languages. She teaches seminars and courses on animal learning online (How Behavior Works: Living & Learning With Animals), with students from 63 countries so far. Susan also consults with zoos and animal organizations around the world. She was appointed to the F&WS California Condor Recovery Team from 2002 – 2010, after which time the team was retired due to the success of the birds in the wild. She is the Chairperson of the Scientific Advisory Committee of American Humane Association (AHA) Film and TV Unit, and a member in good standing of ABAI, ABMA, IAATE and IAABC.