September 23, 2020 by Geraldine D'Silva, Janet Hoy-Gerlach, Aimee St.Arnaud and Derrick Prioleau

Audience: Executive Leadership, Shelter/Rescue Staff & Volunteers, Veterinary Team

Learn how a private veterinary practice is partnering with human health care and social workers in unique ways to support people and their pets. We'll explore how two non-profits are reaching out to their community to help keep pets and their people together using a wide range of services ranging from veterinary care, food assistance, behavior support, pet support guides, outreach events, and more.

Geraldine D'Silva from San Diego Humane Society, Dr. Derrick Prioleau from SPCA of Texas, Aimee St.Arnaud from Open Door Veterinary Care/Community Pet Care Clinic, and Dr. Janet Hoy, Associate Professor from the University of Toledo School of Social Justice will share what they are doing and answer questions on how your organization can implement some of these programs.

Join us on Wednesday, September 23 at 12n Pacific / 3pm Eastern for a one-hour discussion with time for Q&A.

Register Here

This webcast is one hour and will be recorded. Maddie's Fund® has applied for advanced approval of Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credit.

Bio portrait of Geraldine D'Silva, smiling in a dark blue shirt

About Geraldine D'Silva
Director of Human-Animal Support Services at San Diego Humane Society

With over 10 years of experience in the human-animal welfare world and a passion to navigate the complexities that bridge the gap between human services and animal welfare, Geraldine and her team helped PAWS grow to be synonymous with safety net services, building strong volunteer and community partnerships, and distributing over 2 million meals just this past year. She was instrumental in integrating this proactive program with San Diego Humane Society and enabling the entire organization to take on the model of providing vital services and resources to help people keep their pets. Brought up in India, she completed her B.A. in Sociology and travelled to remote villages to study the caste system. She has an M.B.A. from the Edinburgh Business School in Scotland and a background in research consultancy, advertising and branding.


About Janet Hoy-Gerlach, PhD, LISW-S
Associate Professor, University of Toledo School of Social Justice

Dr. Janet Hoy-Gerlach has extensive experience as a social work practitioner in the public mental health service system and is an avid advocate for the inclusion of human-animal interaction considerations within social work practice. Her current research is focused on: benefits of the human-animal bond; facilitators of mental health recovery among individuals living with mental illness; and the use of qualitative research to inform intervention research. She is on the board of the Toledo Area Humane Society (TAHS), where she developed and supervises MSW internship placements that facilitate benefits of human-animal interaction. She helped develop the TAHS Hope and Recovery Pet Program (HARP), which places shelter animals as Emotional Support Animals (ESAs); this is one of the only such programs in the United States. Dr. Hoy provides expert witness testimony for the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Department on benefits of human-animal interaction.


About Derrick Prioleau, DVM
Veterinarian at SPCA of Texas

Dr. Derrick Prioleau was born and raised in Irmo, South Carolina. He is a proud alumnus of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2015 he completed his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine at Tuskegee University College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Prioleau moved to Dallas, TX to start his veterinary career as an associate at The Animal Care Center in Duncanville, TX. For the last four years he has dedicated full time service and extracurricular service as one of the many veterinarians at The SPCA of Texas. Dr. Prioleau enjoys the thrill of doing whatever he can to help and be a great vet.


About Aimee St.Arnaud
Director of National Veterinary Programs, Best Friends Animal Society

Aimee previously served as Director of Programs at the ASPCA Spay/Neuter Alliance, where she handled curriculum design and program oversight that trained 1,000 veterinary medical professionals a year and provided grant funds for organizations starting spay/neuter clinics.

Grant-making is a passion of Aimee's and she worked as a Program Manager at PetSmart Charities, giving out $15 million a year to organizations that help dogs and cats. She also was a co-founder of Ohio Pet Fund, which provides grant funds through specialty license-plate funding.

Aimee has experienced the opening of a spay/neuter clinic from both sides, having founded Humane Ohio, a low-cost spay/neuter clinic performing 19,000 surgeries annually. Seeing the need for increasing access to veterinary care, Aimee is a business partner in two full-service veterinary clinics in Ohio and North Carolina that focus on removing barriers to care.