Kimm Hunt started working in animal welfare in 1989 as an animal control officer, where she investigated an abuse case that resulted in the severest penalty for a single count of animal cruelty in IL state history. She began training companion animals, horses, and beloved lab rats while completing a BS in Animal Sciences at the University of IL.

She loves teaching kids how to train and managed a program that paired teens in substance abuse treatment with manners-challenged shelter dogs. She helps owners and their families to manage and replace unwanted behavior in their animals while simultaneously enriching their pets’ lives, increasing their emotional resilience, and strengthening the animal-owner relationship. She provided canine behavior evaluations and risk assessments for the Southeast’s largest animal rescue organization and is particularly interested in working with aggressive behavior. 

Sid is the owner and founder of Avian Ambassadors based in Tijeras, New Mexico and is a past-president of the International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators (IAATE). He served on the board of directors of IAATE from 2003 to 2013.

Kelly is currently the Zoo Coordinator at Bear Hollow Zoo in Athens Georgia. 

Kelly graduated from the University of Georgia with a double major of Animal and Dairy Science. She began working at the Birmingham Zoo in 2005. Her career started as a part time keeper working in the Children’s Zoo Barn. Working and training animals for the wildlife shows and educating the public quickly became her passion. In 2010 the Animal Programs and Interpretation Department was formed at the zoo, and it was an easy decision on where her heart fell.  She managed this department for 5 years and worked hard to have a mixed species show including free flight birds. She chaired the Animal Training Committee and Interpretive Committees for the zoo. In 2018 she moved to Athens, Georgia where she is now the Zoo Coordinator for Bear Hollow Zoo. Kelly is a Certified Interpretive Guide and uses her skills as an interpreter to educate and inform the public about the importance of conservation.

Amy earned her BA in Psychology from the University of Georgia. She began her career working with animals at Zoo Atlanta. Later moved to Orlando to work for Natural Encounter, Inc. While at Natural Encounters, Amy worked primarily at the Flights of Wonder show at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the State Fair of Texas and opened the show at the Dallas Zoo. Amy stayed in Dallas to become the Director of Ambassador Animal Experiences. This included overseeing programming at the Wildlife Show, Outreach, Cheetah Run, Monorail and the Wild Encounters stage.

Amy became a member of IAATE in 2002 and served as an Executive Board Member from 2010-2014. Amy has been a member of AZA since 2014. Amy completed Dr Susan Friedman’s LLA course is a Certified Interpretive Guide-Trainer (CIG-T), Certified Professional Bird Trainer (CPBT-KA) and Certified Professional Animal Trainer (CPAT-KA).

Amy currently works for Delta Air Lines, she is still flying, just with different wings. This has enabled Amy to enjoy the one thing she loves as much as animals, and that is traveling.