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Demonstrations

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Virginia M. Prevas
First Strike Campaign Manager
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

The First Strike™ Campaign is a national campaign that was launched in 1997 to raise awareness about the connection between animal cruelty and human violence in our society. In this position, Ms. Prevas oversees and coordinates all activities of the campaign including professional outreach, community coalition development, and grant writing. She also works closely with local advocates to respond to high profile cruelty cases, strengthen state anti-cruelty legislation, develop educational materials on the connection, and promote the development of local antiviolence programs.
Ms. Prevas also has previous experience working in the areas of animal welfare, human services, and criminal justice. In 1998 and 1999, she served as Coordinator and Law Clerk for the Montgomery County Animal Matters Hearing Board in Rockville, Maryland. While in this position, she worked closely with animal control officers, board members, county attorneys, and citizens on animal cruelty cases. In 1999 and 2000, she provided social work services to incarcerated adult males at the Maryland House of Correction as part of a social work internship. And in 2000 and 2001, she interned with the Affiliated Santé Group, a community mental health agency in Silver Spring, MD, where she provided psychiatric rehabilitation services to persons with a chronic mental illness.
Ms. Prevas received a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore in 2001 and a B.A. degree in sociology and criminal justice from Mount St. Mary's College in 1998. She joined The HSUS staff in September 2001.

Sharon Quillen Adams
Executive Director
Virginia Beach SPCA

As director of Virginia Beach SPCA, she is responsible for overall administration and programmatic activities of shelter; liaison to the Board of Directors, volunteers and the donor community: responsible for overall budget development and implementation with an emphasis on grants and large gifts. She conducts a variety of training both locally and statewide on a variety of topics.
Sharon has extensive experience in the human service/public sector, not for profit sector and private industry. Volunteer activities include the League of Women Voters, the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and various children, women and environmental groups and local and state appointed commissions and task forces. Co-founded a variety of community-based organizations including a battered women's shelter, a regional women's legislative roundtable and two regionally based environmental organizations.
Ms. Adams graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the College of William and Mary and a Master of Public Administration, from Old Dominion University.

Dr. H. Marie Suthers-McCabe
Associate Professor
Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine

Dr. Suthers-McCabe is Director of the Center for Animal Human Relationships (CENTAUR) an innovative new academic center for the Study of the Human-Animal Interface in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech.
Dr. Suthers-McCabe earned her DVM degree from The Ohio State University in 1982. She serves as faculty advisor for the VMRCVM Pet Loss Support Hotline, chairs the Virginia 4-H Pets/People Curriculum Component Committee, and serves on the Certification Board of Animal Assisted Therapy at Winchester Medical Center and Shenandoah University and the Human Animal Bond Committee of the Virginia Veterinary Medical Association. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Saint Francis of Assisi Service Dog Foundation, the Equine Facilitated Mental Health Association and the American Association of Human Animal Bond Veterinarians. Dr. Suthers-McCabe is a Veterinary Medical Officer with the Veterinary Medical Assistance Team-2 of the National Disaster Medical System

Teresa Dockery
Director of Spay Virginia
Virginia Federation of Humane Societies

Teresa Dockery has been a legislative liaison to the Virginia General Assembly and member of the Animal Control Officer and Humane Investigator Advisory Committee to the State Veterinarian, the State Animal Control Training Committee, and The Department of Criminal Justice's Animal Control Officer Job Task Analysis Committee. She is currently the Director of Spay Virginia, an initiative of VFHS to provide additional spay/neuter services to the Commonwealth. She has been an advisor to the Richmond Spay and Neuter Foundation, instructor at Southwest Virginia Law Enforcement Committee and Board Member of the Tennessee Humane Association. She served for two years as Vice President of VFHS prior to becoming President, and as President of the Bristol Humane Society for eight years. She holds a BS degree from VPI & SU and lives in Abingdon with her husband, one dog and three cats.

Peggy Allen
President, Virginia Federation of Humane Societies

Peggy Allen is a graduate of James Madison University with a Bachelor of Science degree in
elementary education. She has worked as a veterinary assistant and was employed as humane
educator for the Rockingham-Harrisonburg SPCA from 1991-2000. During that time she developed a pet-assisted therapy visitation program and a disaster response program for animals. She has been a volunteer of the Virginia Federation of Humane Societies for the past ten years and currently serves as its president.

Dr. Douglas Gordon (Dean Dog)
Christopher Newport University

Douglas Gordon teaches English at Christopher Newport University. In addition to Shakespeare and Victorian Literature, he teaches a popular special topics course "Dogs in Literature" the only one of its kind in the country. He writes and lectures regularly about dogs in literature. He is a contributing editor to The BARk (yes, k is lower case), a quarterly cultural/arts magazine exploring the unique bond between humans and dogs, and is a regular reviewer of classic dog books. He lives with his wife Linda and their Irish Water Spaniel Ducks in Newport News, VA.