Biography

Dr. Link was first exposed to ethology in high school and became determined to make it her career. In pursuit of this goal, she opted to focus on studying the relationship between humans and animals while pursuing her BA in Psychology from Arcadia University, and her MS in Psychological science from SUNY New Paltz. In her PhD at UC Davis, she shifted to studying the animal side of that relationship and discovered a deep love of working closely with animal shelters. Her PhD research focused on improving the welfare of domestic cats in the shelter through developing low-stress handling protocols and examining the impacts of the shelter environment on cat behavior. In her current role, Dr. Link’s research endeavors to create low-stress handling and behavior modification protocols for use in the shelter, examine the impacts of social housing and different space allowances on cat behavior, and find ways to decrease overall length of stay in the shelter. Concurrently, she works with local and national sheltering organizations to ensure interventions are practical and employable by those they are intended to impact.