Angi Millwood Lacinak

Angi is an Anthrozoology PhD candidate. She completed her MA Anthrozoology from Exeter in 2018 (Distinction) and obtained her BA with a double-major in Drama and English from Jacksonville State University in 1991. Angi’s masters’ thesis explored factors that influence elephant participation in human-elephant interactions in a zoo setting. She also researched human perceptions of animal emotional states (and correlated welfare) in an aquarium setting for an applied course. Both studies are a source of inspiration for her PhD research, tentatively titled, “Investigating the influencers of human perceptions of elephant (Loxodonta africana and Elephas maximus) welfare during elephant-human interactions in zoo settings.” 

  

With more than two decades of zoo and aquarium experience, Angi is the founder of Precision Behavior, an international animal behavior and welfare consulting firm, established in 2009. She writes and instructs workshops directed at improving the lives of people and animals through cooperative interactions as well as working hands-on with both humans and a wide variety of animal species. She served as Manager of Marine Mammals at the Atlantis Resort, The Palm, in Dubai. She was the Animal Training Coordinator at the Fort Worth Zoo, responsible for training programs of more than 350 animal species and was a member of Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s opening team. Angi has presented numerous workshops and papers nationally and internationally at conferences, for zoo staff, college students and business professionals. In 2005 she received the Animal Welfare Advancement Award from the ABMA (Animal Behavior Management Alliance). She served as a course instructor for the AZA professional courses: Animal Training Applications in Zoo and Aquarium Settings and Meeting Your Institutional Goals through Program Animals. She is a professional member of the International Marine Animal Trainers Association and the Animal Behavior Management Alliance, where she served on various committees as well as the board of directors.