In her role as National Director of AAI Advancement for Pet Partners, Taylor Chastain, Ph.D., focuses on supporting research and professional development within the therapy animal arena. Having witnessed hundreds of interactions between her own therapy animals and the people with whom they’ve visited, Taylor is passionate about supporting the intervention with empirical investigation. To support this goal, she obtained her doctorate in research psychology in 2018, with her studies focusing on the human-animal bond as it is experienced in contexts of shared traumatic experiences. Through her undergraduate education in psychology and animal behavior to her graduate work to become a mental health counselor, Taylor has always strived to shape her educational and professional endeavors with the foundational goal of promoting AAI. Taylor is also a dog trainer and Pet Partners team evaluator, and has been a registered handler with Pet Partners since 2015. Taylor is based in Georgia where she lives with her 7 dogs.