Mara Velez is the Executive Director of the Shelter Playgroup Alliance and a Certified Professional Dog Trainer. Formerly a behavior and training consultant at Contra Costa Animal Services where she collaboratively designed, developed, and implemented behavior program structures, including a robust volunteer training program, revised behavior evaluation, canine enrichment and playgroup guidelines. Mara holds both a bachelors and master’s degree in psychology and completed all of the course work for a doctorate in education.