About Us
The Center for a Humane Economy (“the Center”) is a non-profit organization that focuses on influencing the conduct of corporations to forge a humane economic order. The first organization of its kind in the animal protection movement, the Center encourages businesses to honor their social responsibilities in a culture where consumers, investors, and other key stakeholders abhor cruelty and the degradation of the environment and embrace innovation as a means of eliminating both.
Our Team
Gerard Boss, M.D.
Board member
Center for a Humane Economy
Dr. Boss is a general internist at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), having received his clinical training at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He has been chair of numerous UCSD School of Medicine and campus committees and served as Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program at UCSD for 10 years and as Co-Director of the Internal Medicine third year clinical core clerkship for seven years. He is principal investigator of a Physician-Scientist Research Training Program and of a Science Education Partnership Award Program designed to increase the number of under-represented minorities pursuing a health sciences career. Gerry has had a life-long interest in animal welfare, having fostered over 100 dogs and cats and serving on the board of a local low-cost spay-neuter organization. With his wife, he helps build houses in Mexico and supports adoption and care of Mexican dogs and cats.
Tamara Drake
Director of Research and Regulatory Policy
Center for a Humane Economy
Tamara’s 30-year career included founding and running a successful nonprofit and working in busy, high profile law firms. She was also a volunteer Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and EMT instructor. Drake coordinates research regarding regulatory testing methods for new product development, monitors agency rule-making changes, and drafts guidance policies. She has co-authored three Citizen’s Petitions to the US Food and Drug Administration on behalf of the Center for Responsible Science, requesting regulatory change to update decades-old preclinical testing requirements, to allow for and incentivize use of human-relevant test methods. Drake also coordinated litigation in Center for Responsible Science v. Norman E. Sharpless, MD, in his official capacity as Acting Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration in DC District Court and the United States Court of Appeals, for the District of Columbia.
Drake has co-authored the following publications:
K. Archibald, R. Coleman, T. Drake, Replacing animal tests to improve safety for humans. In: K. Herrmann and K. Jayne, eds., Animal experimentation: working towards a paradigm change (2019)
K. Archibald, T. Drake, R. Coleman, Barriers to the Uptake of Human-based Test Methods, and How to Overcome Them, ATLA 43, 301–308 (2015)
E. Baker, T. Drake, K. Archibald, K. Tsaioun, R. Coleman, How Regulatory Updates Allowing for More Modern Test Methods, Pragmatic Validation of Preclinical Test Methods, and FDA Guidances Will Lead to Advancement of More Predictive Preclinical Testing Tools, Efficiency, and Safer and More Effective Drugs, FDLI Food and Drug Policy Forum (2015
Jim Keen, DVM, PhD, veterinary
Director of Veterinary Science and Policy
Center for a Humane Economy
Graduating with his veterinary medicine degree and doctorate in epidemiology from the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Keen has 30 years of experience in veterinary and biomedical research, with a specialty in livestock infectious disease issues, public health and more recently, industrial farm animal protection and advocacy.
Dr. Keen spoke publicly about abusive treatment of animals at the USDA Meat Research Center in central Nebraska in 2015 gaining worldwide attention. These revelations were instrumental in driving reforms toward better livestock welfare, better science and more accountability in dozens of federal farm animal research laboratories.
Barbara Stagno
Deputy Director of Humane Science
Center for a Humane Economy
CAARE engages in education, legislation and advocacy to promote the replacement of animals in research with modern and superior methods.
CAARE’s advocacy work has successfully ended lethal experiments on beagles at University of Missouri, and a decades long experiment on cats at The State University of New York, College of Optometry.
Prior to starting CAARE, Barbara worked for over two decades, coordinating numerous campaigns to protest animal abuse in corporate, university and government laboratories, including several that led to the termination of experiments.
Barbara holds a bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College and a degree in nursing from Excelsior College. After working as a Registered Nurse for twelve years, she now applies her knowledge of clinical medicine and health care needs to exposing the unjustified use of animals in science and medicine.
Our Advisors
Zaher Nahle, PhD, MPA, MBA'27
Senior Scientific Advisor
Zaher Nahle is an award-winning scientist, consultant, and nonprofit executive. His interdisciplinary background encompasses science, policy, technology and management. Earlier in his career, he served on the faculty at leading universities and published groundbreaking work in top journals like Nature and Nature Cell Biology. He later served at U.S. medical nonprofits in senior executive positions, including chief scientific officer, vice president for research, executive director and chief executive officer. Dr. Nahle is the founder of IVYCTORY Solutions, a research services and business advisory company specializing in the technology and biomedical discovery markets.
For his academic and nonprofit work, Dr. Nahle earned many recognitions, most recently as a Dean’s Scholar at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, a merit award “For outstanding academic achievement, demonstrated leadership abilities, and commitment to Carey’s values of relentless advancement, boundless curiosity, unwavering humanity, and collaborative leadership.” He is also an awardee of the American Heart Association (AHA), the Department of Defense (DoD)-Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP), The American Cancer Society (ACS) Scholar Award program (Pay if), and the National Priorities Research Program of the Qatar Foundation. Dr. Nahle was a founding investigator of a multimillion dollars NIH-funded U24 Data Management and Coordinating Center (DMCC) grant. And the recipient of the White label PEER award from Genetic Alliance/The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).
Dr Nahle is a strong advocate for relevant study designs and credible research models in medicine, especially New Approach Methodologies (NAMs). For years, he has been making the case for change through written professional publications, contributions to committees and panels, appearance on public television, engagement with health officials and advocacy on Capitol Hill. To that end, he led strategic planning for global programs, organizations and healthcare initiatives. This includes launching research grant programs on four continents, developing medical education tools for patients and healthcare professionals and creating trans-Atlantic coalitions for investigative research purposes. Dr. Nahle directed targeted investment programs with dozens of medical centers, government agencies, and industry partners to accelerate the discovery process in biomedical sciences. He is a frequent organizer, moderator, and speaker at international conferences in the US and Europe, and served on specialized workgroups at federal agencies, including the NIH and the CDC.
Dr. Nahle earned a master’s degree in public administration (MPA) from Harvard University. In addition, he received a fellowship certificate in Public Policy and Management from Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government (HKS), where he was a Mason Fellow. He obtained his PhD in Physiology and Biophysics from Stony Brook University/Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) joint program in New York. Dr. Nahle’s doctoral work identified new mechanisms for viral oncogenes in cellular toxicity, genomic instability and cancer.
Kristina Hancock, Esq.
A summa cum laud graduate of the University of San Diego Law School, Kristina Hancock serves as senior counsel in the private client and tax team at Withers Bergman LLP, focusing on nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations. She serves as corporate counsel to large and small NGOs, including public charities, family and corporate foundations, social welfare organizations, lobbying entities, universities, and museums. She works extensively with organizations focused on foreign charitable operations and has organized and provided ongoing oversight for operations and project funding in Afghanistan, Africa, Central America, China, India, Mexico, South America, and Spain. Starting in 2000, she developed a curriculum for and taught Animal Law, at Cal Western School of Law, as an adjunct professor. Kristina co-founded the American Bar Association’s first Animal Law Committee and served as its Chair during 2006-2007. She is currently on sabbatical pursuing a graduate degree in Climate Science at Scripps Institute of Oceanography.
Troy McCall, PhD
Dr. McCall has more than twenty years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, having worked for more than a decade each in increasingly senior positions in specialty pharma and life sciences services companies. He has a proven track record of success in leading and growing start-up, small, and medium-sized organizations. He has been a managing partner and/or CEO at four companies. Dr. McCall has consistently been successful in building value through a disciplined business approach which includes, but is not limited to, cost rationalization and expense management resulting in industry- leading margins, hands-on and effective engagement with clients, FDA, and other stakeholders, active participation with the sales and marketing organizations to significantly improve top-line results, and top-grading talent at all levels. He has extensive experience with growing and transforming companies and developing entities into successful, sustainable organizations. Dr. McCall has significant expertise in acquiring, integrating, and selling companies, having been involved with more than ten such transactions.
Neil L. Wilcox, D.V.M., M.P.H.
Dr. Wilcox served at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a science and regulatory expert, including Veterinary Medical Officer, Center for Veterinary Medicine; Senior Science Policy Officer, Office of Science, Office of the Commissioner and Science Policy Analyst, Office of Colors and Cosmetics, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. Dr. Wilcox brings substantive international understanding of product safety, regulatory affairs, quality control and clinical study management as related to numerous product types including consumer products, cosmetics, over-the-counter drugs, medical devices and veterinary products. Dr. Wilcox is experienced in the review of new drug applications for regulatory approval and was actively involved in the development of science policy for FDA-regulated products. He represented FDA on all issues related to alternatives to animal testing and was responsible for developing FDA’s policies related to alternatives. Dr. Wilcox chaired the Interagency Regulatory Alternatives Group (IRAG) and was instrumental in developing the strategy and implementation for the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM). Dr. Wilcox graduated Cum Laude from Michigan State University’s School of Veterinary Medicine with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM). He also holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) in Public Health Policy and Administration (PHPA) from the University of Michigan. Dr. Wilcox is currently an independent consultant.
