Meet the Learning Advancement Team

Aimee Charlton, Director and Facilitator

Aimee Charlton, National Director of Learning Advancement at Best Friends Animal Society utilizes her advanced degree in education and her corporate experience to create and facilitate educational programs like the Best Friends Animal Services Executive Leadership program and now many more.

Aimee is a learner who promotes curiosity and building trust relationships as the foundation for change, both personally and professionally. She has a background in education, leadership studies, emotional intelligence, and online engagement strategies. Aimee is known for being a trailblazer, and creating new teams and programs where they didn’t exist before is her love language. She was honored with the Transformational Leader Award at the One Utah Summit in 2022.

Aimee has a bachelor’s degree in Spanish/English with an emphasis in Secondary Education, as well as her master’s degree in education. She has been teaching in some capacity for nearly 30 years. She’s thrilled to bring this background to the table in her current role at Best Friends. She is energized by the opportunity to meld industry expertise with higher education to innovate and create new offerings and pathways for animal services professionals or those interested in learning more about and entering this evolving field of contemporary animal services. Her current role is the perfect way to infuse her background and skills into her love for people and animals.

Aimee resides in northern Utah and enjoys the outdoors, where there are plenty of beautiful options to choose from. She has three children, and all of them are on the same page about the fact that the household revolves around their two rescue dogs – Charlie White and Prince Gilbert.

Tawny Hammond, Facilitator

A graduate of the Masters in Interdisciplinary Studies program at Southern Utah University, Tawny has more than 30 years of experience in the public service arena, creating and implementing programs and services, working effectively with appointed and elected officials, creating and leading teams focused on professional excellence and best practices.

Tawny has a proven track record of success, serving for more than 25 years in municipal government in Fairfax County, Virginia. She brought the Fairfax County Animal Shelter to a 90 percent save rate in less than two years by removing ineffective breed restrictions, growing a robust volunteer program, establishing a cutting-edge foster program for the dogs losing their lives, strengthening community cat programs, and establishing the animal shelter as a community center for residents of Fairfax.

Tawny is also the former chief of animal services for Austin, Texas. Under Tawny’s leadership, Austin and Travis County, Texas, reached a new milestone in 2017, achieving a save rate of 98% of the more than 17,000 animals who came through the doors.

Tawny is devoted to ending the killing of pets in shelters and believes that how we treat pets, and their people is connected to social justice, community wellness and our compassion as a society.

As the current Director of No Kill Advancement at Best Friends Animal Society, Tawny’s role is to communicate and advocate for what No Kill animal services are and their connectivity to better government and compassionate communities. She writes and speaks on all topics related to ending the killing of companion animals in our nation’s shelters.

April Moore, Senior Manager and Facilitator

April Moore is the Senior Manager on the Learning Advancement team with Best Friends Animal Society. Throughout her two-decade long career April has played an integral role in helping communities develop policies and programs that promote lifesaving, enhance public safety, and connect people with the resources needed to keep their pets and neighborhoods safe and healthy.

April has worked in and supported many communities across the nation implementing progressive programing, proven lifesaving practices, and the latest in data technology to address animal-related community concerns, enhance public health and safety, and create a more livable city all while honoring the human-animal bond.

Cathie Myers, Senior Manager and Facilitator

Cathie Myers is a senior manager of learning advancement for Best Friends. She joined the organization in 2002 and spent the first five years in the humane education department, first as assistant manager and then, a year later, as manager. During that time, she oversaw the internship program, groups visiting Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, and helped develop and manage on-site workshops.

In 2008, Cathie coordinated the re-launch of the Best Friends National Conference and began managing the conference. By 2020, her educational events team was responsible for not only the conference, but regional summits, Sanctuary workshops and All-Staff Week.

In July 2020, Cathie accepted her current role with the Best Friends learning advancement team. She develops and facilitates courses in collaboration with Southern Utah University. These programs are geared toward helping animal welfare professionals and those who want to help animals gain the knowledge and skills they need to advance in the field and make positive changes for animals.

Cathie currently lives in PA with her husband, a senior dog, two cats and a rotating door of foster animals.

Julie Guerra, Senior Specialist and Facilitator

Julie Guerra joined Best Friends in 2018 after an inspiring career in the vibrant world of hospitality. Her unwavering love for animals and a growing desire to make a positive impact on their well-being made for a simple transition to the field of animal welfare.

As a Senior Specialist on the Learning Advancement team, Julie has infused her project management skills to implement efficient and organized processes on various initiatives and programs all with the goal of enhancing lifesaving for pets. She is passionate about building relationships, fostering collaboration, and supporting the people and communities that protect the animals.

Tina Overgaard, Senior Instructional Designer

Tina is the instructional design senior specialist and plays a key role in developing innovative educational experiences. She has over a decade of experience in education and holds degrees in special education, and instructional design, and a Certified Associate in Project Management credential.

Over the past 22 years, Tina has held volunteer roles with various municipal animal shelters and nonprofit rescue organizations. This direct involvement has strengthened her knowledge in animal welfare areas such as outreach, social media, advocacy, transport, animal care, shelter operations, and nonprofit management.

Prior to joining Best Friends as the first instructional designer and co-developing the Executive Leadership Certification program in 2019, she taught multiple subjects for students with disabilities and created and implemented district-wide educator training programs in a public school setting. Tina has a passion for applying andragogy, accessibility, instructional strategies, and project management principles to learning opportunities that empower animal services staff with the knowledge of how to create positive and sustainable change for pets and people in their communities.

Caitlin Gill, Instructional Designer, and Facilitator

Caitlin is a specialist in the Best Friends Learning Advancement department. Her work includes instructional design and course creation for certification programs run in collaboration with Southern Utah University.

Caitlin's background is in education, conservation and over 15 years of experience in the broader field of animal welfare. She has worked with both domestic pets and wildlife in rescue, rehabilitation and sheltering settings. Caitlin's professional experience also encompasses the fields of humane education, volunteer engagement and human-animal bond studies.

A favorite accomplishment while working in a shelter was launching one of the first day trip and sleepover programs in Montana for dogs and the community's response to this new program. She is passionate about initiatives and programs that combine the community's desire to help pets and people with the goals and needs of animal services organizations.

Don Jennings, Senior strategist and Facilitator

Over the course of 13 years as a Montessori teacher and trainer, a decade with the YMCA, and 10 years in animal welfare, Don has made a specialty of creating environments where communities of consensus are able to realize their best potential.

He’s an unflappable problem-solver with a passion for details, data, and observation, all in the service of “making things work.” His skillset makes him ideally suited for Best Friends’ Learning Advancement department, crafting and implementing lifesaving education programs for adult learners.

Meaghan Colville, Facilitator

Meaghan Colville is the Shelter Director and a founder of Cincinnati Animal CARE, a humane society contracted to provide animal control and animal services for Hamilton County, Ohio. Meaghan's background in education led her to a career in animal services that has lasted 14 years. She holds bachelor and master degrees in education and taught elementary school for 3 years. While teaching, Meaghan began volunteering at a local shelter and with a greyhound rescue group.

A passion for animal welfare quickly developed and led Meaghan to Los Angeles where she took her first job at an animal shelter as a Humane Educator. For three years, Meaghan was part of a team who taught positive reinforcement dog training and life skills to middle school students in at-risk neighborhoods of south central Los Angeles.

In addition to formally teaching in a classroom, Meaghan has been a high performance tennis coach for 15 years. Teaching and coaching have been the cornerstone of Meaghan's leadership style and the foundation of the approach she brings to the over 100 employees at Cincinnati Animal CARE.

Lee Ann Shenefiel, Facilitator

Lee Ann Shenefiel is the AmPA Executive Advisor for American Pets Alive/Austin Pets Alive in Austin, Texas. She is currently planning a new pet resource center in Hays County, Texas, aiming to integrate pet care with public health and social services. With nearly two decades of experience in local government, Lee Ann has worked with municipal and non-profit shelters, rescue groups, and stakeholders to overcome barriers to lifesaving with Best Friends Animal Society.

From 2017 to 2019, she served as Interim Chief Animal Services Officer for the City of Austin, where the shelter achieved over 95% live outcomes for nearly 16,000 annual intakes. Her team piloted neighborhood-level programs to boost community engagement. Previously, as Deputy Chief, she oversaw Animal Protection, Outreach, and volunteer programs.

Before Texas, Lee Ann was assistant director at Fairfax County Animal Shelter in Virginia, achieving a save rate over 90%. She also teaches Finding Success in Animal Services as an adjunct professor at Southern Utah University.

Taylor Lefebvre, Facilitator

Taylor Lefebvre joined the Best Friends Embed team as a manager of operations - embed project in March of 2023. She recently completed a 13 month project in Brownsville, Texas. The shelter experienced a 53% increase to their annual save rate over the course of the project and reached a monthly 90% save rate for the first time in their history. Before joining Best Friends, her experience in animal welfare included being the Program Manager of the Baltimore Animal Rescue & Care Shelter (BARCS), Director of Operations for the Charlottesville SPCA, and Program Director for PetConnect Rescue.

Taylor is dedicated to developing, implementing, and measuring programs designed to better support both animals and humans. She is committed to using a community-based approach of offering whole health resources to help pet owners keep animals out of the shelter system. Taylor also served on the board of My Pitbull is Family, a nonprofit geared at ending breed discrimination in the housing and insurance sectors and is a certified Animal Control Officer.

She loves to foster and will often bring home senior dogs with medical needs, bottle babies puppies, and spicy kittens.

Jana de Peyer, Co-founder and Facilitator

Jana de Peyer is one of the co-founders of Best Friends Animal Society and has held many functions over the years, including developing the sanctuary’s first adoption and membership programs. She has been involved with a version of the Running a Lifesaving Animal Sanctuary course/workshop since 1998.

Jana has many years of fundraising experience and helped develop the major gift program for Best Friends. She is currently working with the philanthropy team.

Jana was born in New York City and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a degree in fine arts. She lives at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary with her husband and four rescued dogs.

Silva Batista, Co-founder and Facilitator

Silva Battista is one of the co-founders of Best Friends Animal Society. In the 1980s, the early days of Best Friends, Silva was primarily involved in grassroots fundraising and program development. She went on to work with her husband, Francis Battista, on initiating and running the various events and outreach programs of Best Friends in the Los Angeles area. During that time, she was key in building enduring relationships within the entertainment industry and she created Best Friends’ celebrity relations department.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Silva was part of the support team managing the flow of staff, rescuers and volunteers at the Best Friends rescue shelter in Tylertown, Mississippi.

Currently, Silva helps the human resources department which includes onboarding new staff and focusing on introducing them to the history and guiding principles of Best Friends. In addition, she co-facilitates the Running a Lifesaving Animal Sanctuary course, run in collaboration with Southern Utah University and held online and at the Sanctuary.

At home, Silva and Francis always have a full household of rescued pets. In her life before Best Friends, Silva earned a degree in fine art from Bristol College of Art and worked as a graphic artist and horticulturalist, including a stint in the gardens of Buckingham Palace.