April 29, 2019

I have resigned from my role as the Executive Director of Wild Animal Initiative, effective July 2019, and have resigned from the Board of Directors, effective immediately.

Right now, we are at a critical juncture for wild animal welfare. Interest in improving wild animal welfare is spreading in academic institutions, animal welfare communities, and the Effective Altruism movement as a whole, and our organization is uniquely positioned to accelerate that process.

Since we merged Utility Farm and Wild-Animal Suffering Research, it has become clear that building academic communities is going to be critical to the long term success of this work. The reality is, the more we learn about wild animals’ lives, the more clear it becomes that the task ahead of us is monumental. However, as we work with more and more researchers, we continue to realize how much progress we can make within academic spaces.

So, we are initiating a search for a new Executive Director better positioned to lead this effort. We’ve posted the job description here. The hiring search will be led by board members and outside consultants.

I see this as a huge opportunity for the organization. We want to do the most we can for wild animals, and by not conducting this search earlier, we may have held ourselves back. I will continue to work with the organization on research and operations to help facilitate the transition, and look forward to seeing this project grow under new leadership.

I urge you to continue supporting our work and research - we strongly believe that this change could lead to dramatically improved outcomes for this work and field, and are excited for the future of the organization.