Lead With Us
Shape the future direction and strategy of our organization, and provide essential support—for the animals—by joining our team as a member of our board of directors.
Our Board of Directors
All Board Directors are Independent Voting Members of the Board.
Alicia Rodriguez
Chair
Alicia is a lawyer with a background in corporate law and animal law. She advocates for sustainable food and climate policy, with a focus on local government plant-based food initiatives.
Melody Hildebrandt
Vice Chair
Melody Hildebrandt is Executive Vice President, Engineering and Chief Information Security Officer at FOX. She has a background in software engineering and wargame development and spent her early career with the Department of Defense and Palantir Technologies.
Jacob Eliosoff
Secretary
Jacob is a NYC-based cryptocurrency entrepreneur from Montreal who has worked at startups, in finance, and as a teacher. He is actively involved in NYC’s “effective altruism” community.
Yaqi Grover
Treasurer
Yaqi is a venture capital investor with a primary focus on the alternative protein space. Having begun her career at Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, she transitioned into venture capital to actively invest in and promote sustainable and innovative solutions in the food industry. Yaqi has been contributing to the animal protection movement since 2011, with a particular dedication to effective animal advocacy.
Mark Middleton
Director
Mark is a dedicated animal advocate that has been a part of the animal protection movement since 2005. Since then, Mark has been a volunteer, employee, donor, and board member of various animal protection groups. In 2008, he leveraged his background in engineering and art to found a web and game development company that allowed him support animal groups through donations. He joined THL’s Board of Directors in 2015 and served as Board Chair from 2017-2021.
Neysa Colizzi
Director
Neysa has a background in change management and strategy execution, training and facilitation, and engineering and business consulting. She is an Expert Principal at Bain and Company.
Craig Dunham
Director
Craig has a background in strategic planning and execution. He brings global experience having led teams across EMEA, APAC and North America. He has worked in corporate finance and more recently with technology start-ups. Craig is the CEO at Lumar, a leading search engine optimization software company.
The Humane League Senior Leadership Team
The Humane League Executive Team
Mark Middleton, Interim President
Mark Middleton is a dedicated animal advocate that has been a part of the animal protection movement since 2005. Since then, Mark has been a volunteer, employee, donor, and board member of various animal protection groups. In 2008, he leveraged his background in engineering and art to found a web and game development company that allowed him support animal groups through donations. He joined THL’s Board of Directors in 2015 and served as Board Chair from 2017-2021.
Shawn Brown, Interim Executive Vice President
Shawn grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, in a family of small business owners, and he has a degree in filmmaking as well as a law degree. He was drawn to community organizing and advocacy while in high school. Shawn was lucky enough to have a priest who had been a community organizer who took him under his wing and arranged for him to get his first paid organizing job in 1995. In the past thirty years, Shawn has worked on issues ranging from East Los Angeles charter schools to organizing West Virginia nursing home workers. When he started as an organizer, he had faith that people had the power to change the world. Thirty years later, his faith is even stronger.
Michelle Strickland-Kucerak, Senior Vice President, Programs and Public Policy
Michelle Strickland-Kucerak (she/her) joined THL staff in 2014 and guides the strategic vision and leadership of the organization related to all U.S. programs and public policy. Since 2019, she has worked alongside THL’s skilled team of organizers to develop a new distributed organizing model to build power and with THL’s highly impactful corporate engagement team targeting cruelty in the food system. In 2021, Michelle oversaw the creation of THL’s new public policy program and continues to support this work. Previously, Michelle led efforts to create and build THL’s fundraising program, growing support from 700,000 to more than 20 million annually. She has served in leadership roles for over 25 years at various progressive nonprofits. Michelle holds a degree in management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and lives in Rochester, NY with her wife (Christa), dog (Ziggy), and cat (BamBam).
Jennifer Barckley, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Communications
Jennifer Barckley (she/her) is the Senior VP of Marketing & Communications for THL—leading strategic communications, including branding, omnichannel content, CRM, social media, advertising, SEO, PR, design, and video production. After joining the organization in 2018, she spearheaded THL’s global rebrand, earning a finalist spot for the Shorty Awards best “Brand Redesign.”
Prior to joining THL, Jennifer worked in the US and internationally for several pro-social organizations, leading their marketing communications, alongside CSR, sales, and training development. As a fun side project, she also started and ran a vegan cookie company. Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Professional Studies from Marist College, and a graduate certificate in Strategy & Leadership from NYU. She lives in New York City with her partner and adorable rescue dog.
Aaron Ross, Vice President, Policy and Strategy
Aaron Ross has been with THL since its founding in 2005. As the Vice President of Policy and Strategy, he oversees global corporate strategy for THL and the Open Wing Alliance (OWA). He helped grow THL from a small band of grassroots activists in a couple of US cities to the leading international organization it is today. Similarly, he helped found and grow the OWA, which has united dozens of animal protection organizations across the globe. He has led and won countless negotiations with the largest food companies on the planet, trained hundreds of activists around the world, and advised dozens of organizations on strategy. He lives in his hometown of Baltimore, MD with his partner and her dog that tolerates him.
Alex Suchy, Vice President, Global Programs
Alex (he/him) is a strategist driven by intuition and fueled by data, and he is fortunate to work and collaborate with dozens of THL colleagues across the globe, and hundreds more via the Open Wing Alliance, to make the world a better place for animals. Teams that Alex works with have been responsible for hundreds of corporate commitments to eradicate some of the worst forms of animal abuse. Alex is hopeful for a future with much less suffering for human and non-human animals and grateful for the opportunity to initiate, empower, and accelerate change for farm animals worldwide.
Kalista Barter, Vice President, Development
Kalista Barter is the Vice President of Development—leading THL’s fundraising program that prioritizes cultivating meaningful relationships with some of THL’s most important partners, our donors. Kalista has spent nearly two decades raising funds to help animals, and joined THL in 2019 to focus her career on expanding programs that maximize the impact of every dollar donated. Since joining THL, she and her team have doubled THL’s operating budget and secured one of the largest grants ever awarded to an animal protection organization, enabling THL to change the lives of hundreds of millions more animals. Kalista was awarded a Leadership Scholarship to attend the University of Southern California, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Communications. She lives in the San Diego, CA area with her husband and her snake, Buster.
Join Our Leadership
Are you an experienced leader inspired to end the abuse of animals raised for food? If so, we’d be thrilled to consider you for our growing Board of Directors. Get started here.