One-Minute Video Review Crew
Monthly Video Coaching
Participants enrolled in the full program receive personalized video coaching sessions every month. Students will upload a one-minute training video and then meet virtually in a small group with expert instructors for focused feedback using the Start-Continue-Stop coaching model.
This process strengthens your own training performance and builds deep behavioral insight—empowering you not only to improve your work, but also to coach others with confidence.
Megan Sanders, M.A., Crew Leader
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.
Kiki Yablon, M.A.
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
Laura Monaco Torelli
Laura Monaco Torelli is the founder of Animal Behavior Training Concepts in Chicago, Illinois. Her career began in 1991 at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, where she was part of the animal care team for beluga whales, dolphins, sea otters, seals, river otters, and penguins. After nearly a decade at the Shedd, she moved on to San Diego Zoo and then Brookfield Zoo as a lead supervisory trainer. During her time in the zoo community, Laura learned from a wide variety of species, including primates, large cats, birds of prey, horses, parrots, tree kangaroos, giraffes, red pandas, and dogs. In 2020, the Wildlife Discovery Center team invited her to help support their wildlife rescue animal husbandry program.
Laura serves as a faculty instructor with Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training & Behavior, as well as a teaching assistant for Dr. Susan G. Friedman’s Living & Learning with Animals online course.
She has presented at professional conferences and taught seminars across the United States, Italy, Sweden, the UK, Singapore, Japan, and the Caribbean. Laura’s speaking engagements include presentations and workshops for the American Veterinary Medical Association, Midwest Veterinary Conference, Penn Vet Working Dog Conference, ClickerExpo, Aggression in Dogs Conference, Animal Behavior Management Alliance, and the International Marine Animal Trainers’ Association.
Her broadcast media appearances include FOX 32, WGN and NBC 5 news, WGN Radio with Steve Dale, and WCIU’s You & Me This Morning. Laura contributed training video content for the Fear Free Professional Trainer Certification program along with the Karen Pryor Academy Better Vet Visits online course.
Mandy Hester
Mandy started working in the zoo field over 20 years ago. She spent most of her career working at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo as the lead keeper of Primate World, working with great apes, gibbons, monkeys and callitrichids. In addition to primates, she’s worked with a variety of other species including warthogs, African penguins, hippos, big cats, and a Komodo dragon. In 2008, she was fortunate enough to meet Dr. Susan Friedman, and she began to learn about the science of behavior, transforming her ability to teach the animals in her care. She was part of her zoo’s training mentor team, teaching and coaching other trainers throughout the zoo and working to foster a culture of openness around training feedback. She has also consulted with staff from other zoos to help train husbandry behaviors with great apes and facilitate introductions of hand-reared infant great apes to fosters.
Since leaving the zoo in 2022, Mandy has worked as a reading tutor at an elementary school, helping emerging and struggling readers build literacy skills.
Her newest animal endeavor is a backyard chicken flock, which she co-manages with her favorite teammate- her daughter Perrin.
Ruth LaRocque
Ruth has owned an animal training and behavior consulting business for over 20 years. In addition, she enjoys being a co-instructor for Dr. Susan Friedman's Living and Learning with Animals (LLA) course for professionals. Ruth lives in Seattle, Washington, USA, with her partner Tim and two active border collies who compete in dog agility and sheepherding.