Applied Animal Behavior and Welfare Contacts

Professional/research interests- One Welfare, companion animal behavior and welfare, occupational wellbeing in animal care employees. Contributions to OMALS- committee member and course instructor.

Education • DVM, University of Torino, Italy, 1983 - 1989 • PhD Neurological Sciences, University of Torino, Italy, 1990 - 1994; Neurophysiology of animal behavior, animal welfare; course instructor, committee member for some master students.

Animals have always been the defining element of my life and work. I hold a PhD is in Animal Behavior from the University of Washington, with professional certifications including Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB) with the Animal Behavior Society, Certified Equine Behavior Consultant (CEBC) with the IAABC, and Certified Fear Free Professional. I currently teach university courses in equine and zoo animal behavior and welfare, including APSC 5244: Applied Equine Behavior and an clinical Behavior and Training Course hosted by the MARE Center in Middleburg, VA. 

Dr. Lisa Gunter is an Assistant Professor of Animal Behavior and Welfare in the School of Animal Sciences at Virginia Tech. She is a course instructor and serves as a committee member in the OMALS Applied Animal Behavior and Welfare concentration. Lisa earned her Master's degree in 2015, and her PhD in 2018 in the behavioral neuroscience and comparative psychology program at Arizona State University. Before beginning her graduate studies, she worked for nearly a decade with dogs in animal shelters and with pet dogs and their owners. 

My research program focuses on bovine reproductive physiology, reproductive bio-technologies, embryonic and fetal development, and beef cattle management. The goal of my extension program is to improve reproductive efficiency of beef cattle production systems. For OMALS we teach a course on Reproductive Technologies in Cattle, to help student become familiar with reproductive management of beef and dairy production systems.

I work as a dog trainer and companion dog behaviorist since 2008 and coach a range of clients whose dogs displayed problematic behaviours, such as fear-related behavior, inter- and intraspecific aggression, or stereotypic behaviours. I hold a BSc (Hons) degree in Applied Animal Behavior from the University of Portsmouth (UK), a MSc degree in Applied Behavior Analysis from Queen’s University Belfast (UK), and a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences with an emphasis in Behavior Analysis from Queen’s University Belfast. 

My research seeks to understand how neural and behavioral processes - and the environmental and developmental factors that impact those processes - contribute to animals' survival and reproductive success. I teach in the Applied Animal Behavior and Welfare program.

Mindy is a clinical assistant professor in the Animal Behavior Program at Carroll University in Waukesha, WI and instructor at Virginia Tech in the Applied Animal Behavior and Welfare program, where she is also on several graduate student committees. She is a board-Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB). In addition to teaching and consulting, Mindy engages in research on companion canine behavior. Her early studies focused on the prevalence, function, and function-based interventions for mouthing behavior in dogs. Current studies focus on protocols or interventions which can be implemented by owners.