Phil Arkow
Phil Arkow
Internationally acclaimed lecturer, author and educator Phil Arkow is coordinator of the National Link Coalition and a consultant for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Animals & Society Institute. He recently directed 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 was one of the founders of the National Link Coalition, the National Animal Control Association, the Animal Welfare Federation of New Jersey, and the Colorado Federation of Animal Welfare Agencies. He trains internationally on a variety of topics for animal shelters, child protection agencies, domestic violence programs, adult protective services, law enforcement, judges and veterinarians. He is an adjunct faculty member at Harcum College and Camden County College where he teaches Certificate courses in Animal-Assisted Therapy.
A former newspaper reporter and foundation communications officer, Arkow is a prolific writer. He has authored and edited innumerable articles, chapters and reference books on the human-animal bond, violence prevention, humane education, animal-assisted therapy, and animal shelter management. He has also served with the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Delta Society, and the American Association of Human-Animal Bond Veterinarians.
Barbara Walling Boat, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist, an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and Director of the Program on Childhood Trauma and Maltreatment. She is also Executive Director of the Childhood Trust at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. She received a B.A. in Psychology and Spanish at Macalester College, in St. Paul, Minnesota, a MA in Child Behavior and Development at the University of Iowa, and a Ph.D. in Psychology at Case Western Reserve University. In addition to providing evaluation and treatment for children, adolescents and adults, supervising trainees, and presenting at national and international conferences, she has conducted research on the use of anatomical dolls in sexual abuse investigations and currently studies relationships among animal cruelty, child abuse and domestic violence, including dog bites. She currently is part of a National Center on Child Traumatic Stress grant to assess the effectiveness of a group intervention with incarcerated youth that addresses trauma and grief issues. Her special clinical interests are treatment of post-traumatic stress and dissociative disorders and the training and utilization of evidenced-based interventions for traumatized children and their families.
Sheryl Brown is the owner of Real to Reel LLC, a production company based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her MBA in entrepreneurship and a CPA license have proven invaluable in exploring low cost filming alternatives and tax credits. She has produced numerous New Mexico projects, including a feature film, several award-winning shorts as well as spec commercials. Sheryl is currently in pre-production on the TV Series "Employee to Entrepreneur" and is an Executive Producer of the documentary "The Deadly Link". She was a guest panelist at the Albuquerque Film and Media Experience this June alongside notable film producers Peter Touche (over $5 billion in Film & TV deals) and Tony Mark (academy award winning The Hurt Locker).
Ms. Fiebelkorn is the President of eSolved, Inc., an environmental and business consulting firm. She provides project planning, economic and environmental analysis, legislative analysis, lobbying and financial management to a variety of clients across the United States. Ms. Fiebelkorn has degrees in Economics and Finance from Northeast Louisiana University as well as a Master’s Degree in Environmental Economics from Colorado State University.
She is the Chairperson for the Committee Forming Positive Links, a volunteer group dedicated to educating the public about The Link between Animal Abuse and Human Violence and providing training to domestic violence workers about this issue. She dedicates time to legislative efforts to increase the protection of the environment and animal rights and was instrumental in the passage of ordinances in Boulder and Estes Park, CO that prohibit the exhibition of wild and exotic animals as well as legislation to create New Mexico’s Link Awareness Day. Ms. Fiebelkorn lives with her furry kids – Willy (16 year old mutt) and Penelops (13 year old mutt) - in Albuquerque.
Robyn Gojkovich has been a Criminal Investigator for the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Department since 2002. She has specialized in Animal Cruelty crimes since 2005 as well as her regular duties working felony cases. She has worked over 100 animal crimes and was the first to obtain guilty convictions in Dog Fighting and Cock Fighting in the State of New Mexico. She has charged and obtained numerous convictions in felony animal cruelty, misdemeanor animal cruelty, and hoarding cases. She has assisted in numerous cases throughout the State of New Mexico in the following counties: Otero, Luna, San Miguel, Cibola, Hidalgo, Torrance, and Santa Fe and in the cities of Capitan and Santa Clara. She was requested to and has assisted in hoarding cases in the following states: Indiana, Illinois (2010, 2012), New Jersey, and Maryland. She has given expert testimony in Extreme Animal Cruelty and Dog fighting (2013).
Investigator Gojkovich has given presentations on Extreme Animal Cruelty, Animal Cruelty, Hoarding, Dog Fighting and Cockfighting at various Conferences including the ASPCA Conferences in Pittsburgh and Colorado, Governor’s Link Conference in New Mexico, Sheriff Conferences in New Mexico, NM State Police Academy, and Doña Ana County Police Academy as well as several schools and Boys and Girls Clubs.
Nina Knapp is owner of Crone Productions, LLC, an independent company in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is the Director and an Executive Producer for THE DEADLY LINK documentary project. As a writer, Knapp has won awards or recognition for her feature screenplay, “Four Women and A Horse.” Knapp is the Director/Writer of the recently released (March, 2013) documentary film, THE SANDOVAL 64, which has been well-received by reviewers and audiences alike. She has been a producer, director, writer, or other roles on several short films: “A Word from Our Sponsors,” “One Night,” “Undying Love,” and “Pigeon Camera.” Knapp was also Director of Photography in 2007 for “Pie Crust 101,” a not-for-profit fundraising DVD. Knapp recently retired from Albuquerque Public Schools and intends to devote her time to various film projects, especially THE DEADLY LINK.
Jami McFerren serves as a client advocate, volunteer coordinator and media manager for Community Against Violence, Inc. (CAV) - Taos County’s only domestic/sexual violence survivors’ service provider and shelter. A former award-winning radio and television journalist, McFerren brings decades of reporting on issues related to interpersonal violence as well as decades of volunteer work to her job as a direct service client advocate. Her scope of duties as a trained domestic/sexual violence survivors’ advocate includes crisis phone line response and one-on-one work with clients as they enter shelter and define their goals for transition to safe living.
Patricia Norris, DVM is currently the Sheriff’s veterinarian for the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Department. She is also one of five veterinarians in the world who has completed the Graduate Certificate Program in Veterinary Forensic Science through the University Of Florida College Of Veterinary Medicine. She is a charter and current member of the International Veterinary Forensic Sciences Association. She has been certified by the Court system as an expert witness in veterinary medicine, cockfighting and for the first time in New Mexico Court system in veterinary forensics. She is also the veterinarian for the New Mexico Animal Sheltering Board.
As Sheriff’s veterinarian Dr. Norris has been involved in many animal cruelty cases throughout the state; cases including dog fighting, cock fighting, hoarding, felony and misdemeanor animal cruelty as well as animal abuse occurring in conjunction with domestic violence. She has made several presentations on veterinary forensics and animal cruelty issues to local, state and federal law enforcement officials as well as to in-state and out-of-state animal control, animal welfare, adult protection and child welfare groups. She was a consultant for the A&E “Hoarders” and as a private practitioner she set up Pet Safe programs in both North Carolina and New Mexico which provided boarding and veterinary medical evaluations of animals at no cost to the victims of domestic violence.
Matthew Pepper is the Director of Animal Care Services for Bernalillo County. He has more than 15 years of experience in animal care and control including the investigation of complex animal cruelty cases. In addition to his professional positions throughout those 15 years he has previously served on the Board of Directors for the Michigan Association of Animal Control Officers, Louisiana Animal Control Association and the National Animal Control Association. Throughout his career he has provided training in a variety of topics, primarily animal cruelty investigations, to animal control and law enforcement personnel in Michigan, Tennessee, Louisiana and New Mexico. Matthew has a Bachelor’s Degree in Wildlife Biology from Grand Valley State University.
Dr. Shaening is President of Shaening and Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in public sector organizational development and system change, program planning, and research and evaluation. Shaening and Associates, Inc. is located in Santa Fe, New Mexico and has been in operation since 1977. The majority of contracts performed by Dr. Shaening and her Associates are with state and local government entities, philanthropic foundations, non-profit health and human services organizations, and advocacy agencies. Projects involve organizational development and system engineering as well as research and evaluation in the areas of behavioral health, education, child welfare, public health, courts, and criminal justice. Many of the current contracts focus on facilitating, planning, and organizing projects with numerous agencies to develop new or altered systems of services. These include project management of the SAMHSA funded System of Care project and several court improvement projects in child welfare/protective services. Dr. Shaening received her Ph.D. in Research and Statistical Methods from the University of Northern Colorado. She received her Master’s and Bachelor’s Degrees in Philosophy from the University of Michigan. Dr. Shaening has taught undergraduate and graduate classes in evaluation, research methods, statistics, sampling, and measurement for several universities.
Helga Schimkat is a New Mexico lawyer and consultant. She has worked on issues related animals and the environment for 15 years, often for non-profit organizations and the State, and did estate planning, real estate and corporate law before that. She was named the Animal Advocate of the Year in 2011 by the leadership of the New Mexico Humane Conference which she planned and organized from 2007 through 2010. She has extensive experience at the New Mexico Legislature, including serving as Chief of Staff for the House Majority. Helga also writes on animal issues and has served as the Chair of the Animal Law Section of the New Mexico State Bar since its inception. She is a graduate of Yale University and Columbia Law School.
Andrea Taylor is a Lieutentant with the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department. She is a Field Services Division Graduate of University of New Mexico, with a Bachelors' in Criminology and Psychology. Currently, she is attending the Chicago School of Professional Psychology working towards a Masters in Forensic Psychology.
Lieutenant Taylor has been with the BCSO for 12 years and is currently assigned as Field Services Watch III Patrol Commander, Commander of the Field Training Program and is co-founder and Commander of the Animal Cruelty Task Force. This is the first joint law enforcement/animal care services task force of its kind in New Mexico. She was previously assigned to the Narcotics Unit, Region I Narcotics Task Force and DEA Task Force. She also supervised the Gang Unit before being promoted to rank of Lieutenant in 2011. Lieutenant Taylor has over 1,200 hours of advanced training, attended the 250th FBI National Academy and is an instructor and expert witness in the area of narcotics use and trafficking.
Lieutenant Taylor volunteers with New Mexico Dogs Deserve Better, a non-profit group based out of Albuquerque's South Valley. NMDDB work with the Bernalillo County Animal Cruelty Task Force to rehabilitate, foster and medically take care of the dogs rescued by the task force.
Ms. Ward is a certified AniCare and AniCare Child trainer. She is retired from her long-time position as 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.