Animal care and control are serious business. At Humane Innovations Consulting, we understand the nuance and complexity of balancing animal health, animal welfare, public health and public safety, all while trying to meet the expectations of diverse stakeholder groups in multi-cultural environments. How do we know? Because we’ve been there. Our consultants have decades of experience working in every area of this industry, and we put their expertise to work to help you solve problems.
Our mission is to help you achieve yours. We can relate to your challenges, strengths, and limitations, and we are committed to working with our customers to meet their needs.
Our first step is to meet. We will schedule a 30–45 minute call at no cost which will help us to understand your needs and help us craft a scope of work. After that, we will draft a plan and present it to you for consideration. In some cases, we will have a fixed amount of work with a clear deliverable. In others, it may make sense to put us on a retainer so you can integrate us into your team as needed.
Get to know the people behind Humane Innovations Consulting — each one bringing a unique depth of expertise and a shared commitment to better animal welfare.
Owner & Principal Consultant
John is an animal services professional with over 21 years of global experience, specializing in field services, rescue, operations, disaster response, and population management. He is devoted to helping people do their best work with animals, and is passionate about the training, equipment, and services that meet the specific needs of this industry.
John’s career in animal welfare began in 2004, when he co-founded the Kuwait Society for the Protection of Animals and Their Habitat (K’S PATH) — establishing and running the first animal shelter and animal control program in the State of Kuwait. He went on to spend 11 years there, building programs, learning, and pioneering animal capture techniques for the Middle East. Since 2008, he has responded to or managed disaster responses in the Philippines, Japan, Haiti, Turkey, Ukraine, and across the United States.
A rocky start and difficult journey taught many lessons which he now brings to his customers, so they can learn the how and why of what truly works in animal welfare. With a logo borrowed from K’S PATH, Humane Innovations was born as a platform for solving industry problems through the lens of two core elements: innovation and humanity. John encourages the whole company to keep asking how we can do this work well, and how we can do this work better — that’s the philosophy you’ll find with everyone you work with here.
Having held leadership positions with several large NGOs over the course of his career, John is committed to finding innovative ways to help organizations and individuals fill their training, operational, and equipment needs. He is a frequent speaker at professional animal services conferences around the world.
john@humaneinnovations.com
Consultant — Shelter Behavior
Laurie Lawless is a nationally recognized expert in shelter dog behavior, with over 16 years of experience in applied behavior, sheltering, leadership, consulting, and animal cruelty response. Her career was sparked in 2008 when she rescued an 85 lb Boxer named Charlie — his behavioral challenges launched her into the world of professional dog behavior work, and she’s been “blaming Charlie” ever since.
In 2023, Laurie founded Shelter Behavior Integrations to help shelter teams implement behavior-forward practices in ways that are accessible, practical, and deeply impactful. Her passion lies in finding calm within the daily chaos of sheltering, streamlining operations and positive outcomes while improving behavioral support for the animals.
Laurie@LawlessShelters.com
Consultant — Leadership & Organizational Change
Julie Bank is a veteran animal welfare professional. For the past 35 years, she has worked in operational and executive roles in nonprofit and governmental animal welfare organizations throughout the United States, on national, international, and local projects.
She has also developed and taught graduate courses, and is an adjunct professor in the University of Florida’s Master’s in shelter medicine program. Julie specializes in change management and helping organizations grow, with clients across the non-profit, government, and corporate sectors.
She uses her skills in strategic planning, management, operations, program development, human resources, business operations, outreach, fundraising, communications, and corporate responsibility to help organizations reach their goals. Julie holds a BS in Business, Management and Finance, and an MS in Interdisciplinary Studies covering education, non-profit management, and animal welfare.
From municipal animal control agencies and open-admission shelters to national NGOs and international disaster response operations — our consultants have worked at every level of this industry, around the world, since 2004.
We have four pricing options available in order to give our clients options.
Hourly rates are best for shorter consults and smaller projects.
Rates vary depending on size and complexity of the project. After our initial, free, consultation, we will produce a scope of work with a pricing proposal for your review. We will negotiate from there.
Covers up to five hours per month, generally for virtual and phone consultations and document editing. This can be a good solution for new projects, crisis management, and support-oriented consulting (such as helping to fix or develop a program).
Expenses include flights, baggage, miles, parking, rental cars, lodging, and meals billed at the relevant U.S. federal government per diem rates. We strive to minimize costs where possible and will only bill what is needed. This model works best for training, speaking engagements, disaster response, evaluations, and other in-person work. Projects requiring a final product such as a report are best billed on a per-project basis, inclusive of travel. A “day” is generally considered 8 working hours. Travel hours are not billed beyond the daily rate, and no additional fee is assessed for disaster and field project work in which 12–16 hour days are expected in some cases.
In all cases, Humane Innovations will produce a scope of work for review and signature of both parties in advance of work. Payment terms are 30 days from the receipt of invoice.
Welcome to Humane Innovations Consulting, where our mission is to help you achieve your goals. We understand the animal services industry because we’ve worked in it for decades. We can relate to your challenges, strengths, and limitations and we are committed to working with our customers to meet their needs.
