Caging Hope: Unleashing Change, Decreasing Stress and Enhancing Resilience with Therapy Dogs Behind Bars: Room B

Dr. Yvonne Eaton-Stull is an Associate Professor of Social Work at Slippery Rock University (SRU) in Pennsylvania.  She teaches several courses in animal-assisted social work and coordinates the SRU animal-assisted social work certificate.  She is also a licensed clinical social worker who specializes in crisis intervention, forensic social work, and animal-assisted social work and has provided clinical intervention to children and adults for many years.  She has a therapy and crisis response dog, Chevy, and she has provided animal-assisted crisis response following crises and disasters throughout the United States, such as the Virginia Tech shooting, Indiana Tornados and Washington D.C. Navy Yard shootings.  Her recent research has included implementing animal-assisted interventions in state prisons and jails to address stress and anxiety, self-harm, and grief and loss.  

Dr. Chris Streidl is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Slippery Rock University, specializing in mental health treatment. Their work focuses on developing and evaluating innovative approaches to improve mental health outcomes. Committed to transformative change, they employ both traditional and novel therapeutic methods in their research.