About Us
The PETA Files is your source for up-to-the-minute information about PETA's campaigns; breaking news about victories, new initiatives to help animals, and animal rights information from across the globe; and, occasionally, a bit of inspired silliness. 'Cuz sometimes, having a sense of humor about a tough situation can make all the difference in the world.
The blog is written by many of the people who help PETA run its campaigns, including folks from PETA's Corporate Affairs, Research & Investigations, and Marketing departments, the PETA Foundation's HR department, and a variety of other departments at PETA and the Foundation, where experts in their respective fields are working every day to make the world a better place for animals.
PETA Files Bloggers
Name: Joel Bartlett
Job: Assistant Director of Marketing
Bio: Joel, a proud Mainer, oversees all of PETA's online marketing efforts and, according to one industry magazine, is something of a rising star. Joel likes to pretend that he plays video games for animal rights purposes only, and he spends his free time trying to convince people that Buffy and Angel are the greatest TV shows ever and that people should really give comic books a shot. Also, Joel wins at eating!
Name: Jennifer Cierlitsky
Job: Membership Correspondence Manager, PETA Foundation
Bio: Jennifer hails from Eastern Pennsylvania, but she spent her college years in Pittsburgh, where she attended Duquesne University and double majored in journalism and psychology. When she's not speaking up for animals, she enjoys baking, lying on the beach, hot yoga, bubble tea, green smoothies, and any summer day over 95°F. She also admits that she has an almost sick obsession with horror movies and loves Halloween—probably more than any little kid.
Name: Christine Doré
Job: Marketing Special Projects Coordinator
Bio: Christine grew up in Michigan and studied advertising and promotion at Western Michigan University before coming to work for PETA. She works on a variety of projects in the Marketing Department but focuses on e-mail marketing. She lives in Norfolk, Virginia, with her two cats, Howdy and Francis. Christine is a huge movie buff and also loves reading, music (she has a bizarre adoration for Michael Jackson), vegan Mexican dishes, and writing.
Name: Amy Elizabeth
Job: Senior Writer, PETA Foundation
Bio: Amy has a degree in cultural anthropology and creative writing from Denver's University of Colorado. A published short-story writer and aspiring novelist, Amy also enjoys painting, traveling, baseball, playing the xylophone, and camping. Currently, she lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with a posse of primates, canines, and felines.
Name: Shawna Flavell
Job: PETA Blogger
Bio: Shawna is from Chicago, Illinois, where she received her B.A. in creative writing. She now works a very 21st-century job as the PETA blogger, and she loves using her education as a writer to expose people to animal rights issues. Outside of writing, Shawna is very interested in vegan cupcakes and the art of making otherwise healthy vegan food unhealthy via deep-frying. She would also like to note that the idea of a deep-fried vegan cupcake makes her cringe.
Name: Liz Graffeo
Job: Teachkind Program Coordinator
Bio: Liz is from Virginia Beach, VA and attended Emerson College in Boston, MA where she majored in Political Communication. She now works in PETA's International Grassroots Campaigns department where she is currently coordinating our TeachKind program. Liz and her dog Violet split their time between fighting crime (against animals) and eating Mexican food.
Name: Missy Lane
Job: Public Information Specialist, PETA Foundation
Bio: Missy hails from sunny Los Angeles, California, and now lives in Norfolk, Virginia, with her magnificent dog, Bobo. She's seen quite a bit of the world and studied massage therapy at the Institute of Psycho-Structural Balancing. She is very interested in traveling, cooking, yoga, and her new passion, photography. When Missy isn't indulging in Mexican, Ethiopian, Indian, and Korean foods, she might be out collecting umbrellas from museums.
Name: Jeff Mackey
Job: Staff Writer, PETA Foundation
Bio: When not writing for The PETA Files or working as a staff writer, Jeff keeps busy writing even more stuff (such as plays and screenplays), meditating, watching art films, going to the theater, and improvising vegan dishes. Among his former vocations and avocations, he has been a certified picture framer, a director of Gay and Lesbian Switchboard Houston, a film critic, an actor whose roles ranged from Hamlet to "Homely Transvestite," and a software engineering project manager for a Fortune 500 corporation. He lives in Houston, Texas, where his down time is spent chilling under the ceiling fan with his hounds, Beau and Gus.
Name: Alisa Mullins
Job: Senior Writer, PETA Foundation
Bio: Alisa regularly contributes to PETA's magazine, Animal Times, and her writing has also been published in The New York Times, The Charlotte Observer, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Reader's Digest, Newsweek, and many other newspapers and magazines. Her proudest achievement was participating in a sit-in at Calvin Klein's office that led the designer to swear off fur. Alisa is an avid gardener and HGTV addict who is never happier than when she has a shovel or paintbrush in her hand.
Name: Amanda Schinke
Job: Media Campaigns Coordinator
Bio: Amanda grew up outside Louisville, Kentucky, but moved to New York in 2004 to attend New York University, where she double majored in English literature and romance languages. She loves baking, movies, cartoons, and video games, and she likes to think of her fascination with all things Harry Potter as a charming eccentricity. At 6 feet tall, she is also very good at changing light bulbs.
Name: Dan Shannon
Job: Assistant Director of Youth Outreach and Campaigns
Bio: Dan is PETA's Assistant Director of Youth Outreach & Campaigns. That means he runs peta2—PETA's effort to reach out to young people about animal rights issues. Dan also started PETA's KFC campaign back in the day and coordinated it during its first few years. He's been interviewed by CNN, FOX News, and MSNBC, and the crowning achievement of his life to date has been appearing on SportsCenter. Dan likes sports, books, and politics, and he's a not-so-closeted mega-nerd. He extends a standing offer to destroy you at Street Fighter II at a time and a location of your choosing.
