Ken is the EVP and Chief Training Officer at Karen Pryor Clicker Training, co-leading the company with Aaron Clayton. Ken oversees the vision for, and development of, training education programs. You will usually find Ken teaching at a ClickerExpo conference, leading a course at the Karen Pryor National Training Center (The Ranch), or teaching one of the Karen Pryor Academy courses.A 40+ year veteran of animal care and training, Ken is a biologist and behaviorist who has supervised the development care and training of more than 40,000 species. He has worked with organizations across the globe to improve animal training, program effectiveness, and animal health and welfare. Ken’s diverse body of contributions includes designing and implementing conservation projects for elephant protection and spearheading projects to train everything from komodo dragons to butterflies. Ken’s extensive canine work includes working with trainers, organizations, and federal and state agencies on training procedures for topics including aggression, search-and-rescue, and scent detection.

Ken has written/edited two successful books, taught at a major university, hosted two successful seasons of the television series Talk to the Animals, and was EVP of animal care and training at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium. When he’s not doing cool stuff with animals and people, you might find Ken at a NY theater or at any movie screening.

Mara Velez

Mara Velez, MA, CPDT-KA, is the Executive Director of the Shelter Playgroup Alliance and a Certified Professional Dog Trainer. Mara has been working in the shelter setting for over a decade. Most recently, Mara was a behavior and training consultant at Contra Costa Animal Services where she collaboratively designed, developed, and implemented behavior program structures, including a robust volunteer training program, revised behavior evaluation, canine enrichment and playgroup guidelines. It was these procedures that served as the basis for the Shelter Playgroup Alliance guidelines. Mara holds both a bachelors and master’s degree in psychology and completed all of the course work for a doctorate in education.

In addition to completing several animal behavior and training-related programs, Mara continually develops her skills and knowledge of canines by attending seminars and reading science-based canine literature. To date, she has completed over 2,500 hours of continuing education. Mara also enjoys training other species because it expands her training and observation skills. She has worked with: cats, bunnies, wolves, foxes, guinea pigs, coyotes, buffalo, donkeys, goats, alpacas, chickens, birds, and fish.

WEBSITE LINK:  https://theranch.clickertraining.com/live/#next