Press Office

C. Annie Peters is President & CEO of Pet Partners and the Association of Animal Assisted Intervention Professionals (AAAIP). She is a visionary leader, strategic thinker, and exceptional communicator who brings more than 30 years of leadership experience to the Pet Partners team.

Annie drives the strategic direction of Pet Partners to improve programming and increase organizational sustainability. During her tenure at Pet Partners, she has refocused the organization on the importance of educating the public about standards for volunteer therapy animal teams and on the underlying research of why animal-assisted interventions work. In addition, Pet Partners expanded internationally while introducing special initiatives including Read with Me™, an animal-assisted crisis response program, and innovative programming solutions during COVID, including animal-related engagement (ARE).

Under Annie’s leadership, Pet Partners launched AAAIP in 2022 to serve the needs of professionals who wish to practice AAI and integrate an animal into their professional practice. Mental health practitioners, occupational therapists, school-based personnel, and a wide range of other professionals now have a home for education, networking, and certification.

Annie came to Pet Partners from Special Olympics International, where she served as Vice President of Personal Giving and Special Events. During her tenure, she had a broad and positive impact by introducing innovative initiatives globally. She resides in Bellevue, WA with her rescue dog Gidget.

To arrange an interview with Annie, please contact the press office at [email protected] or call (425) 679-5537.

Mary Margaret Callahan is the Chief Mission Officer for Pet Partners, where she is responsible for leading mission delivery, including the Therapy Animal Program and grassroots advocacy program. As an animal lover with a background spanning education and health care, Mary Margaret couldn’t be more delighted to find herself at the nexus of her interests and experience working to improve human health and well-being through the power of the human-animal bond.

The daughter of a veterinarian, Mary Margaret grew up surrounded by pets and has a deep appreciation for the strength of the human-animal bond. She joined Pet Partners in 2013 and has worked to establish the organization as both an influencer and a resource within the animal-assisted intervention (AAI) and human-animal bond (HAB) community. In 2018 she was named one of PetAge Magazine’s Women of Influence.

Mary Margaret lives on a small farm outside Seattle with her husband, daughter, and menagerie of animals including dogs, cats, guinea pigs, chickens, goats, and miniature donkeys.

To arrange an interview with Mary Margaret, please contact the press office at [email protected] or call (425) 679-5537.

Dr. Taylor Chastain Griffin is the National Director of Animal-Assisted Interventions Advancement at Pet Partners. In this role, she oversees the organizations’ empirical research collaborations and works with other field leaders to motivate standardization and professionalization of the intervention.

With a background as a dog trainer, therapy dog handler, and mental health counselor, Dr. Chastain Griffin came to her position with a variety of experiences that inform her work with Pet Partners. Having completed her doctorate in research psychology with a focus on the human-animal bond, she works to formally integrate expertise in the field of human services with best practices while working with therapy animals. Pet Partners is now creating services for professionals who aim to bring the human-animal bond to their vocational practice—an initiative that has been directed by various large-scale data collection projects and in collaboration with many of the field’s most influential leaders.

Dr. Chastain Griffin and her husband live in Georgia with their son and many, many pets. Dr. Chastain Griffin’s empirical appreciation for human-animal interaction is matched by her personal and professional testimonies of how her animals have inspired countless meaningful interactions in their work as therapy animals.

To arrange an interview with Dr. Chastain Griffin, please contact the press office at  [email protected] or call (425) 679-5537.

Traci Pryor joined Pet Partners in 2014 and serves as the Chief Development Officer. In this role, she works closely with many of Pet Partners’ collaborative partners including generous national corporate and strategic partners. Traci is also responsible for creating many national signature events and initiatives for Pet Partners including the Animal-Assisted Workplace Well-being program, the World’s Largest Pet Walk and National Therapy Animal Day.

Traci worked with Aetna to pilot their workplace therapy animal program that went on to become a national initiative across the United States. Thousands of participating employees reported reduced stress, better mood, and increased productivity because of spending time with Pet Partners therapy animal teams who visited their workplace. Pet Partners went on to work with other innovative companies such as Intel, Farmers Insurance, the National Basketball Association, Google, and Microsoft to bring therapy animals into their offices and industry events.

She has spoken at conferences such as Best Pet Workplaces and Wellness 4 All presented by Nationwide and WUF World, and on national radio broadcasts such as Steve Dale’s Pet World and Voice America’s Cat Talk Radio. In 2021 Traci was named a PetAge Magazine Woman of Influence.

Before joining Pet Partners, Traci served in various non-profit executive roles at organizations including Big Brothers Big Sisters, Special Olympics International, and the Arthritis Foundation. She holds a degree from James Madison University and a certificate in non-profit management from Virginia Commonwealth University. Traci lives in Richmond, Va., with her husband, two sons and their beloved basset hound Frisco.

To arrange an interview with Traci, please contact the press office at [email protected] or call (425) 679-5537.

Nancy R. Gee, PhD, HABAB Chair, is Professor of Psychiatry, Bill Balaban Chair in Human Animal Interaction, and the Director of the Center for Human Animal Interaction at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, VA. The Center is the only one of its kind to be housed in a School of Medicine, and in addition to research and educational activities it also houses the “Dogs On Call” therapy dog program. With over 90 DOC volunteer dog-and-handler teams, this program engages in upwards of 100,000 meaningful interactions with patients, staff, and students in the VCU Health system during a typical year.

Dr. Gee has extensive teaching and research experience and has specialized in the area of Human Animal Interaction (HAI) for the past 15 years. She served for five years as the HAI Research Manager for the Waltham Petcare Science Institute, located in Leicestershire, UK. In this role, she was responsible for guiding the selection, funding, and conduct of HAI research projects carried out around the globe, with particular focus on companion animals as they figure in the lives of children and older adults.

Because of Dr. Gee’s broad background in HAI across the lifespan, and especially her expertise in the area of pets in educational environments, she is regularly invited to share her knowledge in academic venues across the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Asia. She has more than 50 peer-reviewed publications specific to the area of HAI and has edited and contributed to numerous books on the subject. Dr. Gee serves on the editorial review boards of several peer-review journals and has actively promoted the field of HAI through participation on the boards of HAI organizations and has initiated HAI interest groups in others.

Dr. Gee has shared her life with five therapy dogs (four miniature poodles and one border collie) over the years. Her current poodle, Allie, has not yet decided whether to enter the “family business.” The choice will be hers.

To arrange an interview with Dr. Nancy Gee, please email [email protected] or call (425) 679-5514.