Laurisa’s commitment to animal welfare is a long time coming. She grew up with all kinds of animals and deeply accommodating parents. Laurisa aspired to be a veterinarian with a law degree but got carried away in commercial marketing in East Asia and American public education. After nearly a decade in Hong Kong, she built a career leading nonprofits focused on structural change in the education system through policy, politics and advocacy.
A few years ago, Laurisa had the opportunity to tour a chicken processing plant in her home state of Delaware. What she observed was catalytic: human and environmental degradation, low wage workers in cold, soaked conditions, and lines of trucks crammed with live chickens coming in one end, leaving empty at the other. Laurisa started her move to animal policy that day.
Laurisa serves on the Humane World Action Fund board, the 501c4 arm of Humane World for Animals. Policy and power issues that combat cruelty on the federal level inform the local Delaware animal coalition of shelter and political leaders that she co-leads. The coalition so far builds trust, support and collective action concerning animal cruelty criminal prosecution pathways, spay/neuter access, puppy mill sales bans, and more.
Living in Asia meant visceral proximity to food systems and the transparent suffering of wild, companion, farmed and aquatic animals. On the morning route to work, it was common to see commuters shopping in wet markets of animals trapped, caged, stripped and hung amidst a cacophony of wailing. She felt intense pain but did not know at the time how to tackle the source of cruelty or approach cultural change.
Laurisa is incredibly excited to join Lewis & Clark’s community of like-minded strategists to learn the historical and current context of the animal law and advocacy field.