Kimmela is helping to create and support a new professional path for scholars in a variety of academic fields who want to apply their training and expertise to advocacy for nonhuman animals.

People who would like to follow this path, particularly in the sciences, often find themselves being discouraged by others in their discipline, by university departments, or by lack of funding opportunities.

Meanwhile, animal advocacy groups often don’t have the time or expertise to apply science-based advocacy to their programs.

The situation calls for a new professional avenue that can gain attention and respect in the scientific and legal worlds by combining science, scholarship and analysis with animal advocacy.

Kimmela works to bring the intellectual talent, expertise and analytical resources of the academic community to bear on pressing animal advocacy efforts, thereby providing more substance to animal protection and more real-world applicability to academic scholars.