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: Jennifer Cierlitsky
Job: Membership Correspondence Coordinator, 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 95ºF. She also admits that she has an almost sick obsession with horror movies and loves Halloween—probably more than any little kid.
Name: Sean Conner
Job: Administrative Assistant for Communications
Bio: Sean grew up in the Washington, D.C., Metro Area and studied sociology and mathematics at the College of William and Mary before settling down at PETA. He is probably cooking, cycling, or cracking wise, when he's not working to help animals. Many of his friends call him "Anti-Sean" because of his vehement opposition to almost everything imaginable.
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
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: 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
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: Matt Prescott
Job: Assistant Director of Corporate Affairs
Bio: As the head of Corporate Affairs for PETA, Matt Prescott skillfully negotiates with corporations to improve conditions for animals used in the food, fur, leather, entertainment, and biomedical industries. Matt was instrumental in expanding PETA's shareholder resolution strategy, is responsible for many groundbreaking victories, and also led negotiations with many KFCs in Canada— which resulted in a massive victory.
Name: Amanda Schinke
Job: Administrative Assistant to Media Campaigns
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.
Name: Lianne Turner
Job: Lianne Turner
Bio: Lianne grew up all over the world as an Army brat and studied communications, creative writing, and religion at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City. Now she lives in Norfolk, Virginia, where she spends her time reading, knitting, searching out good music, and getting lost. Lianne does a little of everything in the Marketing Department but most enjoys being the official voice of PETA Twitter. She admits expensive addictions to world travel and cruelty-free body scrubs (though not concurrently, because of carry-on restrictions).
