Scholar Luminaries

Dr. Galina Hale is a Professor of Economics and Coastal Science and Policy and Director of the Institute for Social Transformation at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Before that she spent 14 years at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Her research looks at climate finance and the sustainability of the global food system. In this conversation, she discusses how the financial sector could fund climate solutions, animal agriculture’s large share of food-system emissions, and why alternative proteins may be where solar was 20 years ago. She also covers animal welfare laws such as California’s Prop 12, and why she remains optimistic that what we eat can change again.

Dr. Aisha Dickerson is an environmental neuroepidemiologist and Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose work explores how toxic metals, air pollution, and other environmental exposures affect the brain across the lifespan. In this conversation, she discusses lead ammunition and contaminated game meat, air pollution and climate change, environmental justice in “sacrifice zones,” public trust in science, and the shared hope for clean air, clean water, and healthy children.

Dr. David Wiebers is a physician, scientist, and founder of the All Life Institute whose work explores the connections between human health, animal protection, and environmental sustainability. In this conversation, he discusses factory farming, climate change, plant-based food systems, pandemic risk, animal testing, and the importance of compassion for all life.

Dr. Thomas Pool is the Senior Veterinarian for Animal Wellness Action and the Center for Humane Economy, with a career spanning military veterinary medicine, public health, and animal welfare policy. In this conversation, he discusses intensive pig confinement and Proposition 12, cockfighting in Guam, the ecological role of large predators in chronic wasting disease, alternatives to animal testing, and the importance of stronger legal protections for animals.

Dr. Finkelstein is an adjunct professor in the Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz with over 25 years of experience generating scientific evidence that results in tangible benefits to wildlife health.

Dr. Virginia Maxwell is a professor and interim dean at the University of New Haven whose work applies forensic science to the investigation of animal cruelty. A former trace evidence examiner with the Connecticut Forensic Science Laboratory, she focuses on improving crime scene investigation, evidence collection, and training in animal cruelty cases, as well as developing more objective ways to assess pain and stress in animals.

Dr. Elaine Leslie is the former Biological Chief for the National Park Service and serves on the Executive Council of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks. A conservation biologist who has worked with wildlife throughout her career, she focuses on protecting wildlife and habitats, biodiversity, habitat connectivity, invasive species, and reducing environmental threats such as lead exposure.

Dr. Rolf Peterson is a research professor at Michigan Technological University and a wildlife ecologist whose career has focused on wolves and moose at Isle Royale National Park. Through decades of long-term research, he studies predator-prey relationships, the ecological role of wolves, human-wolf coexistence, and how climate change and other environmental pressures are shaping the future of this unique ecosystem.