I grew up in the South.
If you can't tell by my accent, but actually I was born in Florida. My dad was in the Navy at the time, so I was initially a military brat, and then we moved around this great country, mostly focusing on Southern states. I went to Wake Forest University.
Go Deacons.
Then I finished my master's at wake Forest, my PhD at the University of.
North Carolina and in Greensboro.
And so I come to you with a great deal of Southern background, but a lot of work in the nonprofit space, and that's why i'm here today.
Well, we're thrilled to talk to you, and we have a little bit in common because I used to live in Raleigh for eight years. So I know your schools very well, and they're great schools, and I'm glad you got a great education. And that's where i'd like to start about going out of school.
Now.
Obviously, we're here to talk a lot about American humane and there's so many cool things starting in eighteen seventy seven, what you've done over almost fifteen years now, which is absolutely incredible, about the programs and ways to give and all the cool things and what you exactly do. But coming out of school, what did you want to do? Because you've got a really diverse background. I mean, you've been in finance and then a nonprofit. But what do you want to do coming out of school?
So when I graduated from Wake Forest, I knew. I knew that I wanted to be a university treasurer.
Really, yes, that's very specific. I know it was very specific.
I said, I'm going to get my PhD, I'm going to finish my MBA, I'm going to have lots of certifications. In fact, I have a lot of financial and accounting certifications for a career as a university treasurer. And my mother said, stop getting so many certifications. You have more certifications than you do children. So I think you've proven a point. I said, thank you, Mom. I guess I did.
And so when I.
Finished up my PhD, I was still working full time at Wake Forest University. I loved my time at that gorgeous campus, both as a student and then as a as a staff member assistant dean for Finance and administration with the NBA School and all. And I had an opportunity. You know, those opportunities come and knocking.
Sometimes sometimes out of nowhere, out of.
Nowhere, and it was Walkovia Bank, and they said to me, Robin, we're creating a new think tank and philanthropy and we know that you have the financial skills that will align you nicely with our wealth management division, but we would like for someone to specialize in the nonprofit space, and we believe you have those skills. So I became the first ever director of the Center for plan Giving in
the Center for Philanthropy at Walkovia. And but before I turned around, I was fortunate to have over five thousand nonprofit clients in our team's book of business that I ran and went around the country met with all these incredible charities, and I knew then that this was my heart and my life was that I was going to work in the philanthropic sector, and that I wanted my life to be devoted not just to serving as a university treasure, which is noble and indeed very import us,
but to be more engaged in meaningful social impact. And that was learned through my first career step at Walcovia Bank, leading their Center for Planned Getting and their Philanthropic Strategies unit.
And Robin, that takes us to twenty ten, about fifteen years ago. Now I do want to ask you this, yes, because we're leading into the job at American Humane. Now you've talked a little bit about your diverse background and what you've done. I can certainly see why they were interested in you joining the organization, but why did you want to join them?
So I felt that this was an opportunity for me to learn the philanthropic space from a key driver. You cannot build social good in the NGO sector without financial resources, and I had a skill set in the financial resources, as my mother told me, more certifications than children, right, and a PhD in nonprofit finance.
So I knew that I had.
A talent where that was and that that could be a very important factor in working in social impact. I wasn't sure which side I would stay on. What I stay on the wealth management side, serving to drive as sets into the nonprofit sector, or would I actually go into the nonprofit sector. And that's when again, opportunity came a knocking, as we say in the South, and it was the Pew Charitable Trust. The Pew Charitable Trust grew from a bank. Did you know that I did? Yes,
It's fascinating story. And so when Pew came to me and offered me a very unique position, it was a wonderful opportunity to join one of the world's top think tanks in philanthropy to drive social good. And so I immediately took that opportunity and spent some formative years of my career with the Pew Charitable Trust, which again was the launching pad for me to become the CEO for American Humane.
Right and also probably just a great training ground too for you right for the next level.
Remarkable Rebecca Raimel was the CEO oft PEW at the time. I learned so much from Rebecca. I learned so much from the senior leaders at PEW, importantly how to drive incremental change, how to evaluate effective programs. So, while I knew the financial resources of the nonprofit sector, the program impact and program effectiveness, the evaluation of those the key performance indicators for social good, it was a question mark.
I didn't have that skill set until I had the opportunity to experience PEW.
Well, I am glad you brought that up. I want to divert just a little bit because I think there's a good teaching lesson for our future entrepreneurs or people who would like to lead a company. Yes, And my daughter is now an aspiring filmmaker in New York. And we've talked about this a lot since our high school years about learning everything behind the scenes. If you want to be a director or cinematographer, learn what everybody else does, learn about blocking, lighting, audio, da da da da da
da da. That way, when you're in a little bit more charge, you know what everybody's doing around you. That's kind of what you did. You were getting all these skill sets before becoming president and CEO of American Humaney. And I imagine I'm not going to assume, but it paid off.
Right, paid off. I'm still I'm still here. We have incredible impact.
We've taken our work, as you know, from one country to forty five countries is very definitely incredible years. And the number of animals we impact, again, we count them, have put paul print, footprint, you know, you name it. We count these incredible creatures that we serve are over one point five billion each and every year that we have touched through our programs. And I feel very fortunate and blessed every day to be in the space.
Well you should and I know you're working very hard too, because you're an accomplished author and podcaster and running a company. I don't know how I have time for everything, but I always know that CEOs and presidents have a lot of extra energy like a rock musician, and I think you have that. So let's talk about American Humane. Let's do this first, because we're going to go into the history and what you do. But what's the mission statement?
You know what it's at American Humane. We are there to uplift the healing power of the human animal bond. We are the nations and I dare say the world's biggest champion and protector of animals. So when I think about American Humaine, I think about rescue, care and protect animals no matter where they are, they know no geographic bounds.
So some of our listeners are going to be new to American Humane, even though it's been around since eighteen seventy seven. And I want you to talk about that in just a second, because it's truly incredibly one of the first organizations out there that is charitable. But if you were to give somebody maybe a thirty thousand foot view, Robin about what you do, what.
Would you tell them we're the largest certifier of the protection of animals around the world. American Humane serves as global humane outside of our country, and we protect over one point five billion animals in all areas of our lives, from conservation, from animals on farms and ranches, from animals and zoos and aquariums, animals and entertainment and working animals.
So wherever we.
See an animal, American Humane has an initiative to ensure that that animal has a humane life. How do we determine what is to be humane? We get so emotional about puppies and kittens, don't we But what we go to is one of our fundamental core values is science. So we have a group of the world's top scientists who provide the critical success factors for each of our programs. And then we added something else very important as we
talk about animals in our lives, and that's ethics. So we have the world's top ethicist for animals also serving at American Humane. So when I think about what we do, we rescue, we care, protect, we serve as the globe's largest voice for animal protection, and importantly, we define what it is to be humane through science. And evidence based practices wonderful.
So we mentioned eighteen seventy seven a couple times, and I imagine that you did your research on the history. Can you tell us about the origins of it and exactly what it was back then to what it is today.
Well, my children think I was around in eighteen seventy seven, so of course they think I was always the CEO of American Humane because they've been raised with this great charity in their lives, this great nonprofit. So in eighteen seventy seven, and our country was coming to terms with the ravages of the Civil War, they were coming to terms with cruelty and abuse and all of those horrific,
horrific changes that were going on in society. And what a group of people started was this great organization called the International Humane Society. I love that at the very formation of this entity, they thought global. They were the very first champions for farm animal protections. And you might say why farm animals, And it was because the railroads
were going into place. Then think about the transportation of herds and flocks from the East coast out west and the unimaginable losses to those animals lives that happened because there were no stops for water, no food, and inhumane standards of care. So it was farmers and ranchers who gathered forces with American Humane to create the very first transportation laws for animals. And that was American Humane also known as the International Humane Society, who created that in
the first years of our founding. Since then we were behind the first ever child cruelty actions and laws because child welfare was associated with animals. Animals and children had no rights, and so we were the very first advocates for children and animals in the eighteen seventies and eighties and nineties, in the turn of the century. And every single major advancement we take for granted today for child protection and animal protection was actually promulgated by American Humane.
Wow.
So yes, eighteen seventy seven, people say, oh, we rescue animals today, and I say to them, did you know the very first rescue program occurred on the battlefields of World War One. Think about trench warfare. Think about the movie Warhorse. The Steven Spielberg so puts on the screen and touches our hearts and our minds and our souls.
That was American Humane rescuing calvary horses and mules in World War It was the Secretary of War of our country that called my predecessor, doctor William Stillman, and said, doctor Stillman, we need you, We need you to go overseas. Before US boys went overseas, it was American Humaine caring for sixty one thousand war horses a month in World War One. That was the very first idea of animal rescue. And it was American Humaane.
It was there and.
How historic, incredible. Well, this is a good segue into programs. And you've got nine that are featured on the website, and I don't know if you want to go through all of them very quickly, but maybe you can touch on some of them, and not necessarily the more important than the others, but can you go through some of the programs.
For us absolutely Well, we talked about rescue, and to this very day, we're rescuing animals that were left behind in the ravages of Hurricane Eleen and Hurricanes Milton. We're there for fires and floods this very day with six rescue caches stationed in high prone disaster areas. American Humaine's there to reunite you with your furry best friend in a time of disaster and crisis. We've been doing that
for well over one hundred years. We think about the idea of animals and film and entertainment, and you already know us. There are no Animals Were Harmed program. We're on thousands of production days every year ensuring that animals you see in film and entertainment are humanly treated and that those animal stars are given the care they so deserve. You already know us through our American Humane Certified program.
If you eat a cage free egg or enjoy a butterball turkey at Thanksgiving time, those are all American Humane Certified. That program's been around almost twenty five years and allows us to make sure that animals aren't farms and ranches have a humane life. It's very, very important you already
know us through our conservation program. If you enjoy some of the world's top zoos and aquariums where you're introduced to an incredible megafauna and you fall in love with a rhino or elephant, those zoos and aquariums that have our Good Housekeeping Silver Approval or American Humane Certified Seal are the world's very and We're very proud of that initiative. And of course you may know us, particularly if you're a veteran. There we our Pups for Patriots Service dog program.
We founded that over seven years ago, providing wounded warriors with those healing paws and healing leashes, and we actually save both ends of the leash. We've placed over three hundred healing leashes on this very day and saved both lives and the ends.
Of the leash.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Everybody, It's just absolutely amazing. I do want to ask you a question about leadership, Robin, and you're such a large organization, and I know you have staff, and then you have managers, and then you have people that work across the globe with you. Yes, when it comes to the vision of the organization, but also your vision, morals, ethics, and how
you want things to go down. Because there are so many people, how does the work get trickled down to make sure that the culture is stole there, your message is still there. Everybody's having a great time with those work life balances, but still saying this is American humane. We're doing all the same thing's the same mission for everybody right across the board.
With that many people, well, we do have a lot of people, and most importantly, all of our people care about those animals. So this mission is personal. This mission is we act professionally in terms of the way we follow our core values that we instituted fourteen years ago. Core values of a culture that embraces kindness, compassion, personal excellence, accountability to the mission. Those are entwined in everyone's individual performance goals.
Isn't that wonderful.
Yeah, So when we.
Talk about a culture of civility, it's because we are running the world's oldest humanitarian organization. So those values of what is to be humane to animals are reflected in our culture. And I believe I'm the number one culture champion right Well, I have to be. I have to be, and so I recognize that I have. It's what Betty White told me before she passed. She said, Rob, and I'm handing over to you heavy mantle of responsibility. I said,
oh no, Betty, I don't know about this. She said, I'm getting old and I want to hand over to you that heavy mantle of responsibility of animal welfare and protection. Gave me goosebumps. It still does, and I share that
story to each and every colleague at American Humane. It's our heavy mantle of responsibility to be that voice for animals to be humane, and that starts with how we are with each other and how we hold each other to excellence, accountability, kindness, compassion, and most importantly love.
I love that. That's fantastic. And Betty Wade, if you don't know, just looved animals, all animals. She was wonderful and uh quite a treasure. So I'm glad you've got some time with her. I think that's really special.
She was our oldest supporter and champion. Seventy five years of her ninety nine year life she was engaged with American Humane.
Amazing, absolutely amazing. I do want to talk to you about challenges. And I always tell people in this series that when we talk to leaders and CEOs and entrepreneurs and presidents of the series that it's always windyst at the top. And sometimes you know, when you have your issues, there's not a lot of people that you can relate with and talk to you about your problems. So I'm here for you. So, but challenges in the industry, are there any presenting you and your team right now.
Well, first of all, let me tell you who I do tell my challenges to. His name is Julius Caesar, and he's his most perfect cat in the world.
So I have to sell of it. Julius Caesar, here's it all. Listen. Oh, he's a great listener.
He purs going through it, and he also gets his tuna every morning at six am because he's an early riser king. But I respect that lovely. So he is certainly a great confident. But when I think about challenges in this space, first and foremost, there's always the challenges of resources, and there's never enough to protect the animals in Africa to the animals in our own backyard. And so I say resources are always a challenge. But that's where I think I had, early on in my career a great.
Talent with finances.
So I ensure that there are key performance indicators with every dollar that we spend, and that we hold each other accountable to using our financial resources with excellence, to expect that we have impact and accountability, and that we measure our social impact. So first and foremost is a challenge, never enough resources, But that makes us more responsible with the resources that we have. Secondly, I don't think people
understand the crises with animals. They think, oh, Robin, you get to work with puppies and kittens all day, And I say, on some days those are the great ones. Churs I had the best cat ever with Julie is at home. But I also think about those animals who have no voice, and we are facing what people don't understand is real, and that is the sixth mass extinction, where one million species will be gone in our children's
lifetime twenty twenty five years. The very web of life on this earth as we know it will not be the same. So as I think about those animal advocates out there, it's important for us to understand that it's more than our companion animals in our lives. We must be better stewards of the earth because the loss of species and the loss of individual animals matters today.
More than ever.
All right, let's talk about a good story. Now. I know, with almost being fifteen years at the organization, yes that there are probably hundreds of great stories, but maybe you could just share one with us about And this is how I present it when I talk to people like you that are in charge of organizations that are doing some incredible things. This is why we get up every day because that happened. Do you have a story for us?
I have lots of stories, I know I do. That's an unfortunate question for me given a limited time of a podcast. So I'll tell you one. I'll talk about Mighty Mitchell. Mighty Mitchell is very, very cute and charming boy, and his T shirt said Mighty Mitchell. I took Mighty Mitchell to Capitol Hill one day.
Man, you know why.
Mighty Mitchell was winning his battle against a horrible form of childhood cancer. Mighty Mitchell was one of the first kiddos to participate in one of American Humane's innovative clinical trials that work to prove the efficacy of the use of therapy dogs for kids with cancer. This was one of my dreams when I joined American Humaine. So let's talk about how we can show and prove in clinical trials and drive great effective public policy by showing the
healing power of the human animal book. I brought Mighty Mitchell to Capitol Heel and he told his stories to members of Congress, and we actually had the most unbelievable study outcomes in eight children's hospitals around our great country that proved the efficacy of the use of therapy dogs for kids with cancer. And that is one of the stories of Mighty Mitchell that gives me great hope for the future because Mighty Mitchell not only a cancer survivor,
but an animal lover. And I'll have to tell you it's the next generation of animal life who I will transfer this heavy mantle of responsibilities to be the animal's voice that Betty White gave.
Me to them.
Outstanding. Thanks for sharing that. I really appreciate that. Why don't we stay on that Capitol Hill because part of your job, I know, is advocating, yes, and not only I will talk about ways to give it, and there's many ways to give with American human we'll talk about that in just a moment. But you're probably constantly advocating, whether you're going to be going up on Capitol Hill or you're going around the world. Can you expand on that just a little bit for us.
Yes, we just finished.
I just finished my second documentary film, Escape from Extinction Rewilding narrated by the legendary Meryl Streep. What a joy it is to have her voice associated with this great message and cause. I'm so honored that Merrill gave up her time and talent to participate in this incredible initiative. I took Escape from Extinction and Rewilding on Capitol Hill.
I wanted to make sure that members of Congress had an opportunity for a private screening that really exposed and indicated the most pressing challenges that we face, the biodiversity crisis and the loss of animals in our lives. That was an incredible opportunity to advocate for a work to protecting dangered species, work in their own backyards, to promote community gardens, work to promote the healing power of the human animal bond. That's one example. I'm taking the film
to show to the EU Parliament. I'm scheduled to do that in January. I'm scheduled to show the film in November to the UK Parliament. I'm taking this one documentary film to halls of government around the world to indicate that we need to work together to create communities of change. Those can happen globally, those can happen locally, but it's important that we create communities of conversation around this very pressing issue.
Well, I'm glad you have the opportunity to do this. As I watch films all the time, specially documentaries, they can be so powerful, yes, and that you're just watching that for ninety minutes however long a documentary would be, and just be able to see it right there, all in front of you. So I'm glad you're getting the opportunity to do that. I think it's wonderful.
Thank you.
Let's talk about ways to give, because what's really cool. When I got on the website several weeks ago, when I found I was going to chat with you, I said, here's an organization as button Ut, because there are a lot of ways to give, Yes, which is cool because we're living in an age that you know, if you're just doing this one donation, that's okay, But it's so different how people give money today, or cars or anything. It doesn't matter or crypto, it doesn't matter what it is.
You have many ways to give. Can you talk about that a little bit?
Yes, absolutely so. Anyone that wants to make a difference in the life of animals, have meaningful impact, create a legacy of compassion, actually inspire your next generation by giving your children an opportunity to make those gifts happen. You can visit americanumane dot org and actually explore our many options.
I love their sophisticated gifting mechanisms through you know, a charitable trust and legacy giving through through wills and iras, which are always tax advantage giving for sure, But there's also ways to make a monthly gift, which is really important to create a program that your family identifies and resonates with. We have many veterans who make monthly donations to our Pups for Patriots Service Dog program in honor of their own service, in honor of somebody who might
have passed away on a field of battle. That's a really important opportunity to have that person's legacy live on through a veteran and service dog team. How wonderful is that to be able to give that opportunity. We also see communities hit by disasters, and those are our neighbors. I've lived for a long time, as I shared with you in North Carolina, and Hurricane Helene provide a great
devastation there. I give to our rescue program there. We have rescue trucks you could name after your favorite dog, so I actually have a lot of my dogs and my mother's dog on one of our rescue trucks because my mother inspired me. So I wanted to give a gift in her honor, and that's her dog on our rescue that provides so much services in our home of North Carolina. So when I see all of there's many ways to give, where's your heart? Where is your passion?
If you want to give to save animals in Africa? I just bought a farm in Africa. Can you imagine we're going to rewild a place that hasn't seen white and black rhino.
In two hundred years?
That's incredible.
I'm cutting down.
Those fences in April, and I'm so excited. So join me in translocating in rhino. Well name the rhino after you.
I love that, right. I guess my point to ask you about this was there's so much variety of ways you can give, and I love that you guys do that so many options. So thank you, and we'll give the website a couple more times as we finish up the conversation. If you're already having Google that we've given him once, well we'll do that again. I did want to do this before I get some final thoughts from
Robin about advice. You've been in this job, as we mentioned, for almost fifteen years, and once again there's a lot of curren CEOs and entrepreneurs listening this program, but also a lot of young people that want to do whatever their journey there is, and yours is exclusive to you
when we realize that. But just maybe a little advice on your journey about going because you did a lot of things before this and now you've invested almost fifteen years in this job, can you part a little advice to people that want to maybe do something someday like you do.
I've always known I wanted to have a life with impact, and so I do believe the first part of my career was building those tools that I needed to be able to effectively run an NGO such as American Humane and again when you're the CEO in the ngospace, but I think this supplies across a for profit areas as well. Your passion has to be evident every single day. So my advice is you have to truly love what you do, and then you have to remember something that's so important.
You have to walk that talk every day as I tell you I'm Chief Culture Officer. I work really hard, but I wouldn't expect any of my colleagues to work any harder than I do. I live this life of compassion, kindness and love because this is the space I choose to be in. I choose to be a humanitarian. Those are the values that I share in a spouse and that is how I lead American Humane and I expect our colleagues to follow along in this journey that we're
on together because we have to lead by example. The world today needs much more unconditional.
Love, agreed naxness.
Passion, Yes, more kindness. And while we are showing this through the voice of animals, animals make us better people.
They sure do. They sure do. Well said, and I'm glad that you talked about passion. That's a common theme with all of our leaders in this program. It's almost the number one deal beside surrounding yourself with people that are smarter than you and what they do and just let them run at it. But I will say this, and I relate my experiences in my industry to our listeners as well too. All the years I've gotten jobs, and some real fun jobs. As it taken me across
North America. The hiring manager wants and got to know me and told me, hey, you know why I hired you. It was not because of your skill set or you're good at this. I hired you because of your passion for this business. Yes, and people really appreciate that and they can feed off it. Yes, And I just think that so powerful, folks said, I just don't want you to underestimate. Is you go into whatever turned you on to be super passionate about it, and that will take care of almost everything else.
It does get you up in the morning, It sure does, and just by whatever else is happening in the world, if you can make a difference through your passion and importantly, you know, what is driving me every day is the fact that I have the privilege of working with volunteers and staff who are literally humane heroes.
Yeah.
These are people who stop their own lives to rush into a disaster. These are people who are connected with veterans ensuring that suicide does not enter into their DNA and that their lives have for ever change by the matching with the service dog. These humane heroes are inspiring to me and I know they make a huge difference in our communities around the world, and a lot.
Of selflessness too, and I think that's just wonderful. As we wrap up our conversation in the last thirty minutes here, I've enjoyed it so much. But what I'd like to do is get some final thoughts from you. Robin and I should really encourage people, as Robin will give the website after some final thoughts for you, we're just hitting the tip of the iceberg about what American Humane does. It really truly is incredible, and you have to check out the website and all they do, ways to give
and how you can be a part of it. But if you could maybe do some final thoughts for us, the floor is yours.
I always say, you can't protect what you don't love, you can't love what you don't know. So many of us have lost the connection to animals in our lives. So many of us have lost the understanding how animals make us better people. We've lost that connection to the earth as well. So I would say to all listeners, find that connection to animals, find the way that you can fall.
In love again.
Visit your local zoo and aquarium, bring an animal into your home, and if you can't do so, volunteer at a shelter plant, a butterfly garden, or a hummingbird feeder in your yard. Bring animals into your life, and that I will tell you will allow you to love, love your life so much and allow you to change the world. I know that many corporate leaders are listening to this podcast today and I'd like to encourage them to reach
out to American Humane. Perhaps we can provide rescue training and education through an employee of giving program as well. So there's many ways to partner with American Humane to bring animals into your employees' lives.
Such good words to live by. Let's give the website one more.
Time, Robin, americanumaane dot org.
Thank you so much for this and you've given a lot and I know there's so much more to do with you and your team, the volunteers and the world and what American Human does. Thank you so much for this. We really appreciate you joining us on CEOs.
You should know, thank you so much for having me