Assistance Dogs International would like to thank all of the volunteer assessors and their programs that allow them to participate. Without these hardworking individuals the ADI accreditation process could not happen. 

Amy Perrow (trainee)

Operations Coordinator
Dogs for Better Lives

Amy Perrow studied Environmental Science with a focus on Applied Ecology and Resource Management as well as minoring in Fisheries and Wildlife through the Oregon State University Distance Learning Bachelor’s Degree Program.  After moving to Oregon from Florida, she took her career in a new direction and joined the Dogs for Better Lives (DBL) team in October of 2018 as the Operations Coordinator.  She works very closely with the Client Services and Program teams and has been instrumental in helping Client Services transform their application process from a completely paper application to completely digital.  She also created and maintains the DBL Client Portal for current Clients with Dogs, and Clients awaiting their dog, stay up to date with current paperwork, communications, and events happening in the DBL world.

Angela Bentivegna (trainee)

Hearing Dog Guide Instructor
Lions Foundation of Canada Guide Dogs

Angela Bentivegna started her career with animals, working as a vet assistant before attending the Animal Care program at Sheridan College. After doing a co-op placement working with large cats at a small zoo, she fell in love with working alongside animals. She moved on to training marine mammals before shifting to dog training and adoptions at the local SPCA. She started training service dogs in 2008 at the Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides.  During her apprenticeship in the Service Dog Program at LFCDG, she also gained experience working with seizure response dogs and hearing dogs. Angela started specializing in hearing dogs in 2012. Angela’s favorite part of her work is training the dogs and seeing the difference they make in the client’s day-to-day lives. 

Cabell Youell

Executive Director
Saint Francis Service Dogs

Cabell Youell is the Executive Director of Saint Francis Service Dogs.   She graduated from the University of Virginia and earned her law degree at Washington and Lee University School of Law.  After practicing law for several years, she joined Saint Francis Service Dogs in 2003.  Cabell has been an ADI Assessor since 2017.  In addition, Cabell has served on the Board of Directors of ADI and ADI North America.  She lives in Roanoke, VA with her husband and two dogs. 

Clark Pappas
National Director of Client Services
Canine Companions for Independence

Clark Pappas joined Canine Companions for Independence in 1988 and became the National Program Director in 1992 where he implemented new programs and enhanced existing ones. In his current role as the Director of Client Services, he oversees all national and regional client operations.  Over the years, he has served on several ADI sub-committees including the initial ADI Accreditation Committee.  In 1999, he authored the first working draft of the accreditation manual and helped facilitate three years of spirited committee collaboration prior to its implementation.  In 2002, he coordinated the logistics of the first wave of accreditation surveys.  The following year, he formed the Accreditation Review Committee (ARC) to promote objectivity and transparency in the accreditation process.  He lives in Northern California with his wife and three children.

David Bailey
Service Improvement Lead – Canine Assisted Services
Guide Dogs for the Blind Association (UK)

David joined Guide Dogs For The Blind in 1985. He has worked at a number of Guide Dogs sites in the UK and has also worked for the South African Guide Dogs Association. During his time there he qualified as an Animal Behaviour Consultant and is an Honorary Life member of the ABC of South Africa. He spent 7 years working for Canine Partners UK  as Director of Operations before returning to Guide Dogs to work on their  dual dog program. David was an IGDF assessor and is now an ADI assessor and part of the Accreditation Review Committee.

Elieen Bohn
Director of Programs
Helping Paws, Inc.

Elisabeth Faerbinger
Founder and Managing Director
Verein Partner Hunde Österreich 

Elisabeth Faerbinger has always been fascinated by dogs and could hardly wait to get her first dog at the age of 13. She grew up "living the dream" of watching trainers and taking part in several dog competitions. After finishing school she started to study biology, but was drawn back to dogs. This led her to start the first assistance dogs program in Austria. In the thirty plus years the program has been helping people, the program has placed over 350 assistance dogs all over the German-speaking area is Europe (Germany, Switzerland, and Italy). Her program offers assistance dogs for children and adults with a focus in service, hearing, diabetes, and autism dogs.

Grete Eide
Chief Canine Care Officer
America’s VetDogs and Guide Dog Foundation

Grete Eide is Chief Canine Care Officer of the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind, Inc.® and America’s VetDogs®. She earned her BS in Biological Sciences with a concentration in animal anatomy and physiology from Cornell University. She also studied in the PhD program in Physical Anthropology with a focus on primate ecomorphology at Stony Brook University. At the Guide Dog Foundation, Grete leads the Breeding, Veterinary Services, Volunteer Services, Canine Care, and Consumer Services teams. She plays an active role in Assistance Dogs International, having served as a founding member of ADI’s North American Breeding Cooperative and an international accreditor since 2017. She is an instructor in the School of Professional Studies and Young Visionaries Academy at Long Island University. Grete shares her home with a menagerie of dogs, cats, chickens, honeybees, and one very patient spouse!

Hannah Plant
Assistance Dogs Specialist
Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind

Hannah holds a Hons degree in Anthropology (Anthrozoology) and a MSC in Biology (Canine behavior), as well as a diploma in Project management.  Since joining the assistance dog field 17 years ago Hannah has been training Dogs and adults and children with a range of impairments for charities such as Hearing dogs for Deaf People UK, Dogs for the Disabled IE and now Irish Guide Dogs for The Blind in both team leader and management roles. Hannah is a great believer in empowering confidence within people and using positive reward based approaches in her training.  She has served as an ADI accreditation assessor since 2014, and finds this to be a rewarding and enriching experience. When she is not working and assessing, Hannah enjoys nothing more than running her two dogs on the beautiful Irish beaches and idyllic countryside, and enjoying a pint of Beamish by the fire in her local traditional Irish pub.

Helen McCain
Director of Training and Development
Dogs for Good

Helen McCain is Director of Training and Development at Dogs for Good. Over many years Helen has led the development of assistance dog services to help adults and children with a wide range of disabilities and also children with autism. She personally trained the charity’s first autism assistance dog in 2007.Helen was instrumental in developing Dogs for Good’s Community Dog service, training therapy and activity dogs to work alongside specialist handlers in schools and communities. Together they help adults and children to overcome specific challenges and develop life skills. Helen has played an integral role in setting standards for Assistance Dogs International and is also an assessor.

Jenny Barlos
Client Services Director
Ability Center Assistance Dogs

Jenny joined Assistance Dogs for Achieving Independence as the Client Services Director in 2007. She is responsible for interviewing potential clients, organizing and facilitating team training and graduate activities and all graduate support after placement. Since ADAI’s merger with the Ability Center of Greater Toledo in 2011, she has also worked in development for ADAI and the Ability Center. Jenny has a BA in Communications from Bowling Green State University and her background includes working with animals, as well as working in education and government. She has been an assessor for ADI since 2015 and is also on the ADI Standards Committee and Education Committee. Jenny and her husband live in northwest Ohio with their two dogs and a cat.

Jessica Pigott (trainee)
Guide and Assistance Dog Trainer

Scale Dogs asbl

Jess joined Scale Dogs (Belgium) in 2018 after volunteering there as a pet puppy class trainer. She now works as one of their guide dog trainers. At this smaller program, this role encompasses everything from puppy selection and raiser classes to guide dog mobility instruction. She also has trained and placed several autism assistance and buddy dogs for children with special needs. Jess graduated in 2019 with a MSc in Applied Animal Behaviour and Training and its Best Student Award from Bishop Burton College, after completing her BSc in Psychology and Educational Sciences at the Universities of Lausanne and Brussels.

Jo Baker
Managing Director
Righteous Pups Australia

Joop Mekke
Head of Programs, Instructor
Buttersmekke 

After working as a psychiatric nurse, Joop started working with assistance dogs at Hulphond Nederland in 2003 as a Client Instructor and Manager of Client Care. While working there he helped start a pilot program for seizure dogs for those with epilepsy. After having clients inquire about training their own assistance dogs, which was not offered at his current program, Joop was inspired to co-found his own assistance dog program in 2008. Joop knew from his time as a nurse working in a rehabilitation center where it was always the goal to get people motivated to work together in solving their ‘problems’ or issues that what you can do yourself, do it yourself, in a way that’s fitting with your situation; he knew it would be possible for a person to train their own assistance dog. He now enjoys working with people to train their own assistance dogs as well as being an assessor for ADI. He believes we all can learn a lot from each other and that the bonding is important in growing together - just as it is between a person and it’s assistance dog!

Julianne Larson (trainee)

Director of Training

Can Do Canines

Julianne Larsen has a degree in sign language interpreting and combined that skill with her passion for
dogs when she joined the staff at Can Do Canines, then Hearing and Service Dogs of Minnesota, in 2003.
Since that time she has served in various roles within the program until accepting the position of
Director of Training in 2010. In that capacity she oversees all aspects of program relating to dogs and
clients. She developed Can Do Canines’ breeding program and continues to take an active role in
breeding management and in the International Breeding Cooperative. She is on the ADI Education
Committee and serves as Chair on the Candidate Program Subcommittee. Julianne and her husband
enjoy spending time in the summer at their lake place with their two dogs.

Kyria Henry Whisenhunt 
Founder and Executive Director
paws4people

Kyria founded paws4people in 1999. Kyria serves as Executive Director of paws4people. She is the Program Director and Instructor of the University of North Carolina Wilmington Assistance Dog Training Program, the first and only comprehensive Assistance Dog academic certificate program at a state university. She has also served as an adjunct faculty member of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. Most importantly, she is mom to her Ambassador Assistance Dog, WYATT, and her Scent Detection Facility Dog In-Training, HOBBS. Kyria started as an assessor for ADI in 2019.

Lori Stevens
Founder and Executive Director
Patriot PAWS Service Dogs

Lori Stevens is the Founder and Executive Director of Patriot PAWS Service Dogs. In 2005, while working as a professional dog trainer, she was asked to help a group of disabled veterans train their dogs. After working with these veterans and visiting the VA Hospital in Dallas, she realized just how many of our disabled veterans are in desperate need of assistance dogs and she knew she had to help.  With the help of a few friends and family, she started Patriot PAWS Service Dogs in Rockwall, TX. Lori began as an assessor for ADI in 2017. 

Marianne Slingerland
Director, Head Trainer
Scale Dogs asbl

Marianne is the Director and Head Instructor of Scale Dogs, a small guide dog program in Belgium. After giving pet dog classes at Scale Dogs as a volunteer, she decided in 2003 to leave behind her professional career in the commercial sector in order to start as a guide dog instructor. Over the years she took on more responsibilities and, since 2009, has been sharing her time between the management of the program, training dogs, and coaching the instructor team. The team at Scale Dogs during her time has grown from 3 people to 7 people and the program has started an autism dog program in addition to their guide dog program. Additionally, Marianne is a board member at Dyadis, another service dog program. Marianne became an assessor in 2014. She enjoys working with new programs, sharing experiences while verifying whether they are right on track, and helping programs by providing advice.

Michelle Woerner
CEO
K9s 4 Mobility

Michelle was one of the founders of K9s 4 Mobility in 2012. She became an Assistance Dogs International Certified Instructor in 2002 after completing a three-year training program with an Assistance Dogs International Accredited Program. She has been involved in the breeding, training and placement of Assistance Dogs since 1997. She has also served as a board member for the North American region of ADI from 2008-2012. Michelle has worked with ADI as an Accreditation Assessor since 2009, traveling to many different programs around the world. She is the CEO for K9s 4 Mobility located in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Sandi Clark (trainee)

Director of Client Success
Indiana Canine Assistant Network

Sandi joined ICAN staff in 2014 and serves as the Director of Client Success.  She began with ICAN in 2010 as a breeder caretaker, furlough volunteer and puppy raiser.   Sandi is responsible for application processing, interviewing applicants, matching dogs and clients, organizing Team Training and all graduate team post placement follow up and training.   Sandi has placed over 115 assistance/service dogs with individuals and in facilities.  While working in the medical field, and seeing the impact the furlough dogs had on the patients, she had a strong desire and passion to further her ability to serve individuals who were seeking assistance and independence through a Service Dog.  Sandi lives in Central Indiana with her two daughters and two dogs. 

Sheila O’Brien
Director of External Relations, Quality Assurance and Program Development
America’s VetDogs and Guide Dog Foundation

Sheila O’Brien began her career in the Assistance Dog Industry in 1978 training Hearing Dogs. She created a canine test to assess the potential of shelter dogs for hearing dog work that is still used in the industry today. She became a Charter member of ADI and served four terms on the ADI Board of Directors as its 1^st Vice President. She presently is serving a 5^th term on the International Board and Chairs the Board of Directors for the North American Region. She serves on numerous committees and introduced many new concepts into the Assistance dog Industry. These achievements include: a voluntary “Program of Excellence” that that became the basis for the ADI accreditation standards, becoming an assessor, serving on the Accreditation Review Committee, leading a delegation to South Africa to further introduce the concept of assistance dogs, chairing the committees that created the standards for Prison Puppy Programs and military-related PTSD placements, and developing a service dog training program for wounded veterans, which developed into a Trauma Alert Dog program that also serviced veterans with PTSD. Presently she is working with the airlines as well as Senators and Congressmen to make the airlines accessible for all those who travel with Service Dogs. 

Valerie Cramer
Service Dog Program Manager
America’s VetDogs

Valerie has volunteered and worked for the Guide Dog Foundation and America’s VetDogs since 2003. For over 15 years, Valerie's passion for working with dogs began as a volunteer puppy raiser for the Foundation and eventually lead to a career as a Certified Guide Dog Mobility Instructor in 2005. After seven years working as a Guide Dog Mobility Instructor, Valerie transitioned to a service dog apprentice program in 2012 earning her certification as a Service Dog Instructor in 2014. Valerie has placed more than 175 assistance dogs with U.S. Military Veterans and individuals that are blind and as of 2019 has become an ADI Assessor. During her tenure, Valerie’s most notable accomplishment, was the training and placement of Sully, former President George H.W. Bush’s service dog, who now serves at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Valerie is also responsible for creating and implementing the Combat Stress Control Dogs (COSC) program where specially trained canines are deployed in theater to provide emotional support for active military personnel as well as Facility Dogs that provide animal assisted therapy intervention to wounded soldiers and active duty personnel during their recovery at various military hospitals and veterans' medical centers. 

Vanessa Wey
Director
OS'MOSE asbl

Vanessa lives in Belgium, though a piece of her heart is still in Switzerland. Her first contact with dog training was when she followed lessons with Vaya, her own beautiful Flat-Coated Retriever, in a dog school when she was just a teenager. She trained her first service dog, Alissa, as a volunteer in 2000. Vanessa moved to Switzerland two years later, where her focus was on positive training for dogs. She obtained a Federal Certificate as Dog Trainer and also continued to train and follow-up on service dogs in Belgium. Her thesis focused on the relationship between dogs and young offenders in teenage prisons. She wanted to prove that dogs can help to create and build human relationships, develop communication skills and build self-esteem. When she came back to Belgium in 2010 she founded Os'mose. Os'mose trains dogs to react and work with as few commands as possible. Her organization was first accredited by ADI in 2015 and they are currently building a beautiful dog training center from natural elements: wood, straw and natural rubber. Vanessa, who has been employed as director of Os'mose since 2016, is also fighting an ongoing battle for the right to access public spaces with a service dog. Vanessa enjoys being an assessor for ADI stating, "To be an assessor is a big chance for me to evolve constantly. A chance to improve my method and to create links with other organisations in Europe. A great opportunity, sometimes stressful or tiring, but to be better and better each day and mostly to meet a lot of interesting people."

Victoria Cavaliere
Director of Service Dog Program
Tender Loving Canines/Guide Dogs of America

Victoria began as a volunteer dog trainer with Tender Loving Canines Assistance Dogs (TLC) in January of 2013, as a way of giving back to the community. Her love of training dogs and passion for making a difference, prompted her to join the TLC staff. In November 2014, Victoria helped launch the Prisoners Overcoming Obstacles & Creating Hope training program as a way to increase the population of trainers available to help raise and train TLC’s service dogs. Victoria’s experience is in the overall development, implementation and oversight of the program. She works closely with prison staff to develop all policies and procedures, has taught classes to program participants and volunteers and works to secure future sustainability of the program. In 2014 Victoria became a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Professional (CTP). Victoria has been an assessor for Assistance Dogs International (ADI) since 2019. She also serves on ADI’s Standards Committee. In 2020, TLC merged with Guide Dogs of America and Victoria is now the Director for the Service Dog Program.

Zuhey Medina-Gonzalez (trainee)
Genetics, Reproduction and Puppy Care Director
Southeastern Guide Dogs

Zuhey Medina-Gonzalez is the Director of Genetics, Reproduction and Puppy Care at Southeastern Guide Dogs. She has been with SEGD since September 2013 and has experience in breeding, whelping, puppy education and production management. During her tenure as director, she has created a team to elevate breeding techniques at SEGD and has helped create a high quality puppy education program. Before she joined the assistance dog world, she worked at Nestle Purina at their Product Technology Center in Missouri. There, she worked with cats and dogs and developed a passion for nutrition and puppy development. Zuhey has a B.S. in Animal Science from New Mexico State University and has experience working in different kennel settings and veterinary clinics. Zuhey became an ADI assessor in 2019.