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Aimee Gilbreath, Executive Director |
Aimee Gilbreath was born and raised in Arizona. As a child, there wasn’t a pet she didn’t have. Interested in all species from snakes, to dogs and cats, to horses and goats, Aimee’s first career aspiration was to become a veterinarian.
Aimee received a full scholarship to attend the University of Arizona, where she earned her B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology, graduating summa cum laude in 1996. Deciding against pursuing medical school, she began a career in biotechnology and was hired by Motorola Corporation’s R&D division. Aimee was the third member of a team recruited to start a biotechnology research program with the goal to develop a biochip device for use in personalized medicine.
After spending four years in the laboratory researching single nucleotide polymorphisms, Aimee returned to school and earned her MBA at Stanford University. Upon graduation in 2002 she was hired by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a management strategy consulting firm that works with Fortune 500 companies to solve complex business issues. Aimee started in the firm’s Chicago office before transferring to Los Angeles where she was promoted to Principal in late 2006. During her five and a half years working for BCG Aimee served clients in the Health Care and Consumer Goods industries with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions.
In an effort to introduce balance and service into her busy business career Aimee began volunteering for a local animal rescue group when she moved to Los Angeles in 2004. This was her introduction to the issues of pet overpopulation and shelter euthanasia. And, this was where Aimee fell in love with one of the most popular yet misunderstood breeds of dog, the pit bull. She eventually adopted a “pittie” of her own – Rufus – who is now four years old.
Rufus inspired Aimee to return to her first love – animals – and led her to take the position she holds today. In March 2008, Aimee joined Found Animals as the Executive Director and first employee. Now, rather than tackling post merger integrations she is managing a social entrepreneurship startup and applying her business skills to the creation and development of sustainable business models within animal welfare. “I have been blessed with the opportunity to use my business training and skills to tackle the tragedy of pet overpopulation. It's incredibly gratifying to know that our work makes a difference for pets and their people.”
Aimee lives in Los Angeles with her “pittie” Rufus. She enjoys scuba diving and world travel and is an aspiring cook. When she’s not hard at work for Found Animals you will find her strolling the beach with Rufus, testing her latest culinary creation on friends, or exploring Los Angeles and all that it has to offer.
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Shirley D. Johnston DVM, PhD |
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Shirley Johnston, D.V.M., Ph.D., is a leading expert on animal reproduction and a revered veterinarian. She serves as the Director of Scientific Research for the Found Animals Foundation, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization led by business and medical professionals dedicated to saving the lives of animals.
Dr. Johnston oversees the Foundation’s Michelson Prize & Grants in Reproductive Biology, a $75 million endeavor to inspire qualified researchers from a variety of scientific fields to pursue the development of a low cost, non-surgical sterilization product for cats and dogs. Such a product would help end the epidemic of companion animal euthanasia. According to the Humane Society of the United States, half of the 6-8 million pets that enter animal shelters nationally each year are euthanized.
A devoted animal advocate and professional, Dr. Johnston’s career spans more than 30 years and includes academic faculty and administrative experience in veterinary medicine, focusing on canine and feline reproductive endocrinology. She established and led the Endocrine Laboratory as well as Small Animal Reproduction Clinical Services at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Minnesota (1975-1996), and has lectured on canine and feline reproduction to more than 10,000 veterinarians on six continents. In addition, Dr. Johnston was the founding dean (1998–2007) of the 28th College of Veterinary Medicine in the United States, the College of Veterinary Medicine at Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, California. Prior to joining Found Animals in 2009, Dr. Johnston served as Vice President of University Advancement at Western University (2007-2009).
Dr. Johnson was educated at the University of Washington, Seattle (B.S. Zoology, 1967), Washington State University, Pullman (D.V.M., 1974), and the University of Minnesota, St. Paul (Ph.D., Theriogenology, 1981). She is a diplomate of the American College of Theriogenologists (ACT), the veterinary specialty board for animal reproduction and served as ACT’s first woman president.
Dr. Johnston’s honors include the Norden Award for Distinguished Teaching of Veterinary Medicine (1984, 1988), the Distinguished Service Award, Association for Women Veterinarians (1992), and the David E. Bartlett Award from ACT. She is the senior author of Johnston SD, Root Kustritz MV, Olson PNS: Canine and Feline Theriogenology, WB Saunders Co., Philadelphia, 2001.
Dr. Johnston currently lives in Southern California, with her husband, Gary, a veterinary radiologist, their dog Maggie, and cats Blinky and Brenda. Their son, Gary, is a teacher in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and their daughter, Alison, is pursuing her Ph.D. at the London School of Economics.
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Dr. Gary Michelson, Founder |
Dr. Gary K. Michelson is noted as the single most prolific surgeon inventor in any medical specialty worldwide. As a board certified, orthopedic spinal surgeon, he has dedicated his life to creating more effective treatments for the most debilitating of spinal disorders and to the relief of spinal pain. Educated at Temple University and Hahnemann Medical College, he then underwent fellowship training in a joint program between Baylor University and the University of Texas. Dr. Michelson was a practicing spinal surgeon for over 25 years and has more than 110 research papers and publications to his credit. Dr. Michelson was motivated by the plight of his grandmother, a tennis champion in her youth, who was later crippled by neurogenic spinal degeneration. Dissatisfied with the available treatments, he invented comprehensive spinal surgical systems including integrated instruments, operative methods and medical implants. These have become the foundation for many of the modern surgical treatments used for major spinal disorders and Michelson devices have been implanted globally in hundreds of thousands of patients.
Dr. Michelson's inventions are also central to many other spinal surgery systems and devices. Dr. Michelson has over 900 issued or pending patents worldwide related to instruments, operative procedures, and medical devices. In 2005 Michelson assigned ownership of much of his spine-related intellectual property to Medtronic for a price in excess of $1 billion, catapulting him onto the Forbes 400 where he has since remained.
Dr. Michelson strives to live simply by doing his own grocery shopping and driving an 8-year-old, pet-friendly PT Cruiser. A firm believer of doing in life what brings you joy, he decided to put his money to good use by giving it away. Michelson acquired land in Costa Rica and Panama and to date has planted in excess of 3.5 million trees. He also founded and funds two charitable organizations; a medical research foundation that primarily focuses on genetic research, and Found Animals.
Dr. Michelson and Found Animals are determined to make a difference by bringing business principles to bear on the problem of pet overpopulation and the shelter euthanasia that results. He sees Found Animals as an experiment in non-profit social entrepreneurship and says, “One should not anticipate that passive philanthropy - writing checks - will be as effective as active philanthropy. Active philanthropy, in which one personally or through his or her organization, takes responsibility for effecting the desired change, is hard work.”
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