What if we could make it possible for veterinarians and pet parents to save the lives of over 500,000 U.S.-based pets each year? With Waggle we can. And we're not the only ones who know so. We're lucky to have some of the top pet-industry minds in veterinary medicine, pet care, and charitable giving helping shape the future of the Waggle Foundation.
Kristen Smith, Director of Marketing at Pet Sustainability Coalition
Kristen has spent 15 years in the pet industry, specializing in consumer marketing, communications, and public relations. She currently drives a direct-to-consumer playbook utilizing organic and paid digital activations, CRM optimization, e-commerce growth strategies, and multimedia marketing campaigns. Kristen's work history demonstrates proven success in marketing, brand building, public relations, content creation, digital outreach, social media, fundraising, and philanthropy. Her experience in development with nonprofit organizations has attracted funding from private, corporate, and governmental sources. Kristen holds a master’s degree in Latin American Studies and has lived and worked throughout Central America.
Rae Hutchins, DVM, DACVIM, Chief Clinical Officer at United Veterinary Care
Dr. Hutchins has 23 years of experience in the animal health field. She received a Bachelor of Science in biology and chemistry from the University of North Carolina and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from North Carolina State University. She is board certified by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. Dr. Hutchins served as medical director of a large, multispecialty hospital prior to transitioning into hospital operations. She maintains an adjunct faculty position at North Carolina State University. Prior to joining United Veterinary Care, Dr. Hutchins served as group vice president at VCA Animal Hospitals and was previously chief operating officer for Pet Partners, a community of over 90 general practice and specialty hospitals across the U.S.
Betsy Banks Saul, Co-Founder, Petfinder; Board Member, Petfinder Foundation
With a vision to change the way the public views shelter pets, Betsy harnessed the infant technology of the internet in 1996 and molded it into Petfinder. Petfinder was acquired by Discovery Communications and, later, by Nestlé Purina. She remains on the board of the Petfinder Foundation. To help keep pets and their families together, Betsy created 911FosterPets and Heal House Call Veterinarian. She received her bachelor's degree in biology from Missouri Southern State University and a master's degree in forest ecology from Clemson University. Betsy has worked as an urban forester for the State of New Jersey, an agriculture extension agent at Rutgers University, a park ranger at Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska, and a field scientist for the Army Corps of Engineers in South Carolina.
Jerry A. Smith, Managing Director, Data Sciences, Machine Learning, and AI
Jerry is a visionary entrepreneurial data scientist with 20 years of cognitive computing, artificial intelligence, enterprise data sciences, and machine learning experience. He is recognized as a leading expert in the simulation of human thought and the development of enterprise cognitive and data sciences capabilities. Over the past five years, Jerry has worked on practical methods for unifying data science capabilities and big data infrastructure throughout the enterprise, in order to solve real problems facing today's businesses.
Steven Mornelli, CEO and Founder of Waggle
Steve has led international teams in diverse fields, including data science, engineering and institutional research. His experience leading advanced behavioral-based analytics as a partner for the big data firm Teradata brings critical insight on social and business network dynamics to our crowdfunding platform. Previously, Steve was a senior vice president at Sanford C. Bernstein (New York) and Brown Brothers Harriman (London) in the fields of macroeconomic and quantitative research.