Meet the Team

HAI Lab Director

Monique Udell, PhD

Dr. Udell is a Professor of Animal Sciences at Oregon State University, where she teaches courses and conducts research on animal behavior, cognition and human animal interactions.

In 2006, while earning her MS and PhD in Psychology at the University of Florida, she co-founded the Canine Cognition and Behavior Lab with Dr. Clive D. L. Wynne. After earning her doctorate she held faculty positions at Flagler College and University of Oregon, before arriving at Oregon State University in 2013.

Her current work focuses on the development of cross-species interactions and bonds in both wild and domesticated animals, and the impact that these bonds have on the behavior and success of both species. This includes research on human-animal attachment, the influence of social enrichment and training on welfare, and mutually beneficial approaches to animal assisted interventions. She has a special interest in the social development and behavior of cats, dogs and wolves, however she has also studied the behavior of a variety of other animals including horses, pigs, sheep, and bats.

HAI Lab Manager

Saethra Darling, PhD

Dr. Darling is a Faculty Research Assistant at Oregon State University. She is the project manager for our “Do As I Do” family dog animal-assisted-intervention (AAI) research projects, in collaboration with the Children & Youth with Disabilities Lab. She is also a co-investigator on our family cat AAI project and our youth-cat partnership community-based AAI project in partnership with 4H.

Affiliated Faculty

Kristyn (Shreve) Vitale, PhD

Website

Dr. Vitale is currently an Assistant Professor of Animal Health and Behavior at Unity College. Previously, she was a Maddie’s Postdoctoral Scholar and a Faculty Research Assistant in the Human-Animal Interaction Lab. Kristyn received her PhD in Animal Science from Oregon State University. Her dissertation work within the Human-Animal Interaction Lab examined cat social cognition and the influence of kitten training and socialization classes on the human-cat bond. Additionally, she received a Master’s of Environmental Science from Miami University where her thesis examined social behaviors between free-roaming colony cats. She also served as a Visiting Research Fellow at Kyoto University in Japan where she conducted cross-cultural research into the cat-human bond. Her research has been internationally featured in media outlets such as National Geographic, Science Magazine, The Washington Post, The New York Times, PBS NOVA, Scientific American, Time, and The Times of London. Her work has also been featured in film documentaries such as How the Cat Conquered the World and the Netflix film Inside the Mind of a Cat.

Giovanna Rosenlicht, DVM

Dr. Rosenlicht is investigating canine oxytocin receptor genotypes and potential application for use in prediction of affiliative and aggressive behaviors.

Graduate Students

Amanda Puitiza

Amanda is a Peruvian American student interested in problem solving, sociality, individual variation, and human-animal interactions. She is also interested in cross-disciplinary research and collaborating with other researchers.

Delaney Frank

Delaney is interested in understanding the factors that influence pet attachment styles. Her current research focuses on evaluating the feasibility and impact of a cat-assisted training intervention for youth with developmental disabilities.

Alisa Tananaeva

Alisa’s main research interest is companion animals’ welfare that she considers as the necessary foundation for strong and mutually beneficial human-pet bonds. Her current project is about measuring and managing stress level in pet dogs living in urban environment.

Current Undergraduate Research Assistants

Kimia Pourmehr

Kimia is an undergraduate studying Animal Sciences with a focus in animal behavior. She is involved with the DAID animal assisted training intervention study as well as the CAT assisted training intervention study

Lily “Cricket” Bauer

Cricket is an undergrad RA studying Animal Behavior in the Honors College. With an ongoing thesis about ethical dog breeding, she hopes to be at the forefront of advocacy for stricter companion animal breeding regulations. Cricket plans to continue to graduate school for an MA. She has promised her high school teacher she will return to present her MA research, after the teacher inspired her to chase her passion when others warned against it.

Rachel Mahler

Rachel is an undergraduate student majoring in Animal Behavior and Psychology. She is actively involved in both DAID-assisted training interventions and CAT-assisted training interventions. She is particularly interested in how the human-animal bond and animal-assisted interventions can support the mental health and wellbeing of children.

Previous Graduate Students and Postdocs

Lauren Brubaker, PhD

Lauren earned her PhD in behavioral sciences from the Human-Animal Interaction Lab at Oregon State University in 2019. She completed her bachelor’s degree at Utah State University in Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Sciences and a minor in Psychology. While at USU, she worked in the behavior analysis research lab studying relapse behavior. In 2016, she received her master’s degree from OSU with an emphasis in applied animal behavior and social psychology. While obtaining her MS degree her research revolved around the problem solving, persistence, therapy practices, social cognition, and factors that affect the success of working human-animal pairs (such as canine search and rescue). Her PhD work also focused on studying professional human-animal programs, and she worked to understand human behavior and human-animal interactions using psychometrics and developmental psychology. Her research with the HAI lab has involved collaborations with researchers and participants around the world and has gained the attention of several media outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Reuters, and NPR. She has an interest in studying how humans and non-human animals behave and interact, and what factors influence the behavior and success of individuals in applied contexts. Lauren currently works as a behavior scientist for the United States government.

Lauren Thielke, M.S.

Lauren earned her PhD in behavioral sciences from the Human-Animal Interaction Lab at Oregon State University in 2019. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Zoology. Her research interests include human-animal interactions and dog behavior, particularly with regard to different factors that contribute to the development of behavioral problems in dogs.

Lindsay Mehrkam, PhD, BCBA-D

Lindsay was a postdoctoral scholar in the Human-Animal Interaction Lab at Oregon State University. Lindsay received her Bachelors in Animal Behavior from Franklin & Marshall College, and her Masters and PhD in Psychology/Behavior Analysis from the University of Florida. Her research examines how the environment affects play behavior in dogs, wolves and wolf-dog “hybrids” and how human interaction influences the welfare of companion and exotic animals. She has also published several studies on the benefits of human-animal interaction, enrichment and applied behavior analysis in evaluations for improving the welfare of a wide range of species in captivity. She currently works as an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Monmouth University.

Shelby Wanser, M.S.

Shelby was a Faculty Research Assistant in the Human Animal Interaction Lab and a leader on the DAID Animal Assisted Intervention Project for children with and without developmental disabilities and their family dog. Shelby also completed their undergraduate and MS studies at OSU, receiving an Honors Bachelor of Science in Animal Sciences in 2015. Shelby has a strong interest in animal behavior particularly as it relates to training and other human-animal interactions. They have been training dogs in dog agility since childhood, and they have since garnered experience training a wide variety of species in a variety of fields including the film-industry and in animal-assisted therapy. Shelby’s present research focuses on canine-assisted therapeutic interventions for youth with developmental disabilities and their career aspirations include animal-facilitated psychotherapy work with youth. Their other research interests include attachment, synchronization, cognition, and development, especially with dogs and wolves as well as other species.