Who are we?
Director
Sarah-Elizabeth Byosiere - PhD, MS, BS, CAAB
Update: Starting in July 2023 Dr. Byosiere will be taking on a new role as the Director of Canine Research and Development at Guide Dogs for the Blind.
Dr. Byosiere is the Director of the Thinking Dog Center at CUNY Hunter College where she focuses on studying the behavior and cognition of domestic dogs and other canids. She began her career at the University of Michigan where she studied the function of the play bow in adult pet dogs throughout her undergraduate and master’s degrees. She has worked at various canine cognition and behavior research groups including the Duke Canine Cognition Center, the Clever Dog Lab and the Wolf Science Center. Dr. Byosiere earned her PhD at La Trobe University in Australia under the supervision of Dr. Pauleen Bennett and the Anthrozoology Research Group. Her dissertation focused on evaluating whether or not dogs are susceptible to visual illusions. More recently at the Thinking Dog Center, her work has expanded to include applied research topics, including dog training methodologies and sheltering practices. Dr. Byosiere has published her research in peer-reviewed scientific journals, presented her findings at conferences, and has been featured on NPRs Science Friday, Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness, The New York Daily News, Gizmodo, WIRED Currents, and CuriosityStream.
Current Lab Members
Kayla Cohen - High School Student
Kayla is currently a senior in high school where she partakes in a science research program. She is helping with Liza’s thesis study on contrafreeloading in dogs, called Eating Styles, to then compete in local science competitions. She hopes to pursue veterinary research and medicine in the future.
Alexandra Genovese - Undergraduate Student
Alexandra is currently an undergraduate student majoring in Biology. She is currently helping Liza with her contrafreeloading study called Eating Styles. She is currently employed at an animal hospital in Staten Island and has hopes to pursue a career in veterinary medicine.
Angie Lee - Undergraduate Student
Angie is an undergraduate student majoring in Psychology with an Animal Behavior concentration. She is currently helping with the ManyDogs 1 project alongside Liza, Maddie, and Gillian. This project is part of her independent study under Dr. Byosiere's guidance.
Madison Murray - MA Thesis Student & '22-23 TDC Manager
Madison Murray is an M.A. student in the Animal Behavior in Conservation at Hunter College. She has a B.A. in Biology and has work experience as a Microbiology Lab Lead, a Lab Assistant, and a Research Assistant. She joined the TDC to combine her love for science with her lifelong love for dogs. She has research interests in social referencing and cueing. She hopes to one day pursue a PhD in animal behavior.
Dana Ravid - PhD Student
Dana is a PhD student at the Animal Behavior and Comparative Psychology program at CUNY Graduate Center. She is currently working on her PhD research on perspective taking in dogs and running another study on olfaction discrimination. She is interested in how dogs perceive the world and in their social cognition.
Liza Rothkoff - MA Thesis Student & '22-23 TDC Manager
Liza is currently a first year student in the Animal Behavior and Conservation program at Hunter College. She is interested in all things canine cognition and will be starting her thesis study on contrafreeloading in dogs. She loves spending time with her English bulldog, Ellie.
Hannah Rose Swanson - MA Thesis Student
Hannah is an animal lover and dog parent native to New York. After graduating from Sarah Lawrence College, she founded Peace of Mind Pet Care, a comprehensive pet care company servicing the Westchester area. Hannah is currently a Masters Thesis student studying Animal Behavior and Conservation. She is the proud parent of two Australian Shepherds who have helped perfect her fetching arm. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, baking, adventuring with her dog friends and going to concerts.
Gillian Schmitt - Certificate Student
Gillian recently graduated from Hunter College where she majored in biology. She is currently a research assistant working on collecting data for the ManyDogs1 project. She is interested in animal science and conservation, and hopes to one day work as a veterinarian.
Kadas Tsoi - High School Student
Kadas Tsoi is currently a high school senior attending the Bronx High School of Science, with plans of majoring in animal science in college. He is currently working on his Seeing Things research paper that has a main focus on facial morphology. In the future, he hopes to pursue a career in veterinary medicine.
Kira Turetsky - Undergraduate Student
Kira is an undergraduate senior at Hunter College majoring in psychology. She is currently working with Rita Kanagat on “What the Fluff: A Citizen Science Study” and working toward completing her undergraduate honors thesis under Dr. Byosiere.
Angelica Cristina Vega - Undergraduate Student
Angelica is currently pursuing a dual Bachelor’s Degree in Clinical Psychology and Studio Art. She is also a McNair scholar and eventually hopes to gain acceptance into a Ph.D. program in clinical psychology towards becoming a licensed clinician specializing in art therapy. She currently serves as a research assistant under Dr. Sarah-Elizabeth Byosiere and is currently working with Mikey Bogese focusing on data collection and analysis of canines for a Reversal-Study. She is very excited to gain this experience in a field that is closely related to her own research aims of understanding behaviors and their emotional motivations.
Kara Hartunian - MA Student
Kara is a second year MA student in the Animal Behavior and Conservation program at Hunter college. Her B.S. is in Integrated Biology from Michigan State University. Over the years she has had the pleasure to work with many different species as both a research assistant and educator, including bears, hyenas, kangaroos, giraffes, and many species of primates. Along with work at the TDC, Kara is also a part of the Wildlife Ecology & Nutrition Project under the guidance of Dr. Jessica Rothman. Her current thesis project will be looking at sex differences in wild olive baboon diets. Kara joined as Team Lead for the Impossible Task study because of both her general interest in social mammals, as well as her love for her own dogs.
Alumni
Jennifer Abrams - MA Spring 2019
Jen graduated from Hunter ABC in Spring 2019. Jen works in animal sheltering and her research interests include welfare and enrichment of homeless companion animals. Her thesis project investigated how to ease the transition period when bringing dogs into the shelter.
Michelle Belio
Michelle Belio CDBC, CPDT-KA is a master’s student in Animal Behavior and Conservation at Hunter College. She is the head trainer/founder of Pawsitively Waggin' Academy LLC and is a certified dog behavior consultant and certified professional dog trainer. Michelle’s current interests are in dog development, cognition & dog behavior. In her spare time, she competes with her Border Collie, Arya, in Disc and Dock Diving.
Mikey Bogese - MA Thesis Student & '21-22 TDC Manager
Mikey Bogese joined the TDC when he became a Masters student in the Hunter ABC program. He comes to Hunter with 6 years of experience in Psychology labs, having worked in the Boston College Cooperation Lab and the Canine Cognition Center at Yale. Mikey is currently running his Master's thesis project, Quality Time, in the lab and is looking for more cats and dogs to participate! He's pictured with his beloved cat, Doodle.
Nicolette Becker - MA Fall 2019
Nicolette is a former TDC member and Master’s graduate from Hunter College’s General Psychology program. She successfully completed her graduate thesis which was on canine illusion susceptibility, also known as the “Bologna study.” Nicolette is currently interested in the substance abuse/clinical psychology field.
Brian Burton - MA Fall 2019
Brian graduated from Hunter ABC in Fall 2019. Brian is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Instinct Dog Training Inc., a national brick-and-mortar dog behavior and training franchise that aims to bring positive reinforcement training options to the public. His thesis project investigated the efficacy of clicker training on different types of training tasks.
Nicole Gerlak - Undergraduate Student 2020-22
Nicole has graduated from Hunter College, while majoring in General Biology and minoring in Psychology, her future goal is to become a veterinarian. She is currently volunteering at the TDC through behavioral coding for the “Unsolvable Study”.
Along with animal behavior she is also interested in wildlife conservation and small animal medicine.
Isabel Lin - Undergraduate Student 2021-22
Isabel is currently a senior at Hunter College where she is majoring in Psychology and minoring in Legal Studies. She has been working at the Thinking Dog Center on the Seeing Things pet illusion susceptibility study. This study will be the topic of her honors thesis, which she is completing under the guidance of Dr. Byosiere. She initially became interested in animal cognition through questions about her own dog, Chloe.
Daniel Mell - Undergraduate Student 2021-22
Daniel is currently an undergraduate senior on his way to veterinary school. He is currently working on the Quality Time study alongside Mikey Bogese, which he is completing as a part of his Honors Thesis project.
Maddie Messina - MA Fall 2021
Maddie joined the Animal Behavior and Conservation masters program in 2018. Her thesis project is focused on identifying techniques to help maximize the acquisition of training in dogs.
She is also interested in companion animal welfare, particularly what humans can do to reduce and manage animal stress in shelter type situations.
Nicole Passmore - MA Fall 2019
Nicole graduated with a masters in Animal Behavior & Conservation in Fall 2019. Her thesis examined how removing breed labels from kennel cards impacted dogs' length of stay at a New York area animal shelter. While her primary interests lie at the intersection of data analysis and companion animal rescue, she also is passionate about anthrozoology and conservation education.
Sasha Prasad - 2020/21 Lab Manager
Sasha is a master’s student in Animal Behavior and Conservation at Hunter College. She is also the current TDC Student Center Manager! She has worked with companion animals for the past 7 years. Though her masters thesis focuses on fish welfare, she is interested in studying the cognition and welfare of all species.
Bryan Perez - Certificate Student
Bryan is a graduated certificate students. He has worked in volunteering for Nicolette’s “Bologna study.” Also in volunteering in Dana’s Theory of Mind study, and handled for Laisuna’s “Unsolvable study” and behavioral coding for Kristiina’s dog video Coding for ACC Lights Experiment.
Amanda Puitiza - MA Independent Study
Amanda joined the ABC master's program in Fall 2018. She is interested in problem solving in social animals, personality, and human-animal interactions. She spent the past summer observing a herd of elephants at a zoo solve a cognition box. Her independent study in Fall 2019 will also look at problem solving in companion dogs at the Thinking Dog Center.
Alan Rodriguez - Undergraduate Student
Alan is currently an undergraduate Senior at Hunter College. He is majoring in General Psychology and minoring in Economics and French Language and Culture, with future goals of pursuing a master’s degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. Volunteering at the TDC because he loves animals, he is currently behavioral coding for the “Unsolvable” and “Play Bow” studies. Alan is interested in dog cognition and enjoys long walks with his Husky, Luna.
Jiaxin Santos - Undergraduate Student
Jiaxin is a senior at Hunter College with a major in Psychology and a concentration in Animal Behavior and Clinical Psychology. She has worked with songbirds and companion animals, and has been a handler in past TDC studies.
Jiaxin is currently studying the effects of petting a dog on stress reduction in pet owners.
Gabriella Smith - MA Student
Gabriella graduated from the Hunter ABC Master’s program in May 2020. Following graduation (and at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic), she worked with Dr. Byosiere on designing and implementing a study called “If I Fits I Sits: A Citizen Science Investigation into Illusory Contour Susceptibility in Domestic Cats (Felis silvestris catus)”. She was delighted at the interest and excitement the project garnered from both the public and scientific community alike. Gabriella is now a PhD student at the Messerli Research Institute, VetMedUni in Vienna, Austria studying curiosity in kea parrots.
Samantha Smith - Research Assistant
Sam is a graduated master’s student in Animal Behavior and Conservation at Hunter College. She is also the current TDC Student Center Research Assistant! She has experience in rehabilitation of manatees, raccoons and birds of prey. Currently she is working on her thesis with humpback whales.
Michael Spiotta - MA Spring 2022
Michael Spiotta is a Master’s student in Animal Behavior and Conservation at Hunter College. He has worked with both wild and domestic mammals for the past 8 years. He is interested in how behavioral research can be applied to inform best practices for wildlife conservation methods. He is also an avid wildlife photographer in his spare time.
Kristiina Wilson - MA Spring 2022
Kristiina has spent over 20 years working with cats, and is currently completing her Masters Thesis work at Hunter College’s ABC program. Kristiina’s thesis looks at the effect of fluorescent light on the stress behavior of shelter animals, with the partnership of NYCACC. Her research work in general draws from her former work as a photographer, and is centered on animal vision as it pertains to welfare.
Laisuna Yu - MA Spring 2020
Laisuna graduated with a masters in Animal Behavior and Conservation in Spring 2020. Her thesis evaluated pet dog and working dog performances in a visual discrimination reversal learning task. If you've been to the center, you've likely met Laisuna as she was our first TDC Student Center Manager. When she is not working with dogs and helping manage the center, she is volunteering in zoos and aquariums!
Rita Kanagat - MA Thesis Student
Rita is currently a master’s student in Animal Behavior and Conservation at Hunter College. She is doing her thesis study What The Fluff: A Citizen Science Study with dogs through The Thinking Dog Center. She also works on dolphin behavior in Diana Reiss’s Dolphin Lab.
