Kimberly Spanjol, Ph.D., BCBA-D, LBA, LMHC, CHES is a criminologist specializing in Green Criminology, forensic psychology, and animal protection, a licensed and board-certified behavior analyst, licensed mental health counselor, and certified humane education specialist with 35 years of experience at the intersection of behavioral science and human-animal relationships. Her work is driven by a commitment to raising the legal and moral status of non-human animals and translating that scholarship into prosocial public policy that recognizes the interconnection between the oppression of animals and the oppression of marginalized human communities.

Dr. Spanjol has served as a professor of criminal justice and sociology at Iona College, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and Pace University, developing and teaching original courses such as Environmental Crime, Species Justice, Animals, Justice and Society, and Animal and Human Health. She founded Humane Education Learning Programs Inc. (HELP), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit providing humane education, social-emotional learning, and animal-assisted intervention programs to vulnerable youth populations, including incarcerated youth. She has served as National Education Trainer for North Shore Animal League America, developing and leading local and national trainings for the Mutt-i-grees social-emotional learning curriculum in partnership with Yale University's School of the 21st Century, implemented in correctional facilities and educational settings nationwide.

Her scholarly work spans Green Criminology, Link violence, the human-animal bond, and humane pedagogy. She is lead editor of a Social Sciences special issue on Human-Animal Interactions and Issues in Criminal Justice: Toward a Humane Criminology, and has published book chapters and journal articles on humane education in higher education, law enforcement education and animal cruelty, and socio-political risk management related to non-human animals, including a contribution to a Victimology textbook that centers non-human animals as crime victims, a perspective historically overlooked in the field. She has presented locally, nationally, and internationally at venues such as the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics Annual Summer School, the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, and the NYC Bar Association Animal Law Committee, among many others.

Dr. Spanjol collaborated with Dr. Kenneth Shapiro through the Animals and Society Institute on the BARK (Behavior, Accountability, Responsibility and Knowledge) program, including training clinicians through NYU's Silver School of Social Work to deliver therapeutic interventions for animal cruelty offenders. She co-created, implemented, expanded, and evaluated the Rikers Rovers animal-assisted intervention program pairing incarcerated youth with rescued dogs at Rikers Island, and developed a One Health/One Welfare animal-assisted community mental health intervention in Srebrenica, Bosnia in partnership with the United Nations Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. She has built an extensive interdisciplinary network spanning law enforcement, prosecution, courts, and corrections, facilitating collaboration with the NYPD Animal Cruelty Investigation Squad, district attorneys, legal scholars, and Link violence experts to advance education, training, and intervention around the connection between animal cruelty and interpersonal violence. She has consulted with the NYC Mayor's Office on animal protection issues and is a former board member of the Animals and Society Institute and current board member of Inside Animal Ag and the United Federation of Teachers Humane Education Committee.

Dr. Spanjol is the founder of KALI Interconnected Wellness and Interconnected Animals, a clinically grounded, evidence-based, movement-oriented ecosystem that translates animal and environmental scholarship into values-aligned behavior change, connecting the disconnect between people's values and behavior to support the health and well-being of themselves, other animals, and the planet we share.