ASPCA Careers
Learning & Development

Learning is
a way of life

Develop in your
career, deepen
your impact

Everyone has their own unique career journey, and at the ASPCA, you can gain valuable career experience while doing impactful work.

  • We offer unique opportunities for you to learn and grow through hands-on experiences, developmental relationships or more formal training.
  • Our many ways to learn include classes, on-the-job training, coaching and mentorship with industry-leading peers, internal mobility, volunteer opportunities and so much more.
  • The scale and scope of our work offers you the opportunity to shape your career based on your interests, drive and skills.

Mentorship
opportunities

Learning through others is an important part of our team members' growth. Our position as a leader in our industry provides unique opportunities for you to work with — and learn from — some of the brightest minds in animal welfare. From shadowing other roles or attending Lunch & Learn sessions with our experts, to volunteering to widen your exposure, there are many ways to learn every day. In addition to learning new skills, mentorship opportunities offer you the chance to widen your own professional network.

Do, Learn,
Share: our
commitment
to innovations in
animal welfare

In addition to our focus on developing staff, we elevate our practices by doing work with animals, learning from it and sharing best practices within the ASPCA and throughout the field. With the Do, Learn, Share approach, all of our work is connected, with efforts in one department often feeding and empowering action in another.

  • Do: We take direct action for animals and support active efforts to save and protect them.
  • Learn: We learn from this work and continuously evolve to improve practices.
  • Share: We broaden our impact by sharing our insights, discoveries and innovations to change minds and inspire action. The ASPCA also offers a wide range of grants that help external teams and organizations advance their own work and further research in the field.

Staff testimonials

Cherish Johnette, Senior Director, Learning & Development

When our people thrive in their work, animals live better lives.
When I came to work at the ASPCA, I wanted to do great work with awesome people, and I am happy to report that both things are true. Every day, I have the privilege of elevating the growth of our team by providing them with impactful learning and development opportunities. It is truly an honor to be a part of such a transformative organization. I benefit every day by learning from amazing leaders around me!

Kat Miller, Senior Director, Learning Lab

The Do, Learn, Share philosophy at the ASPCA is truly at the heart of my work.
We have more behavior expertise on staff than any other animal welfare organization that I am aware of. We learn a lot by doing our work, and then we solidify our knowledge through animal behavior research. We're really proud and honored to share what we learn with our colleagues throughout the animal welfare community.

Scott Silvestro, Director, Product Management

I've experienced growth and learning in many different ways.
I took a management academy class to help me transition into the role of being a manager. That was extremely helpful! The number one way that I have grown and learned is by connecting with my colleagues. We are lucky to work with the best-of-the-best in their fields, and tapping into that knowledge base has helped me so much.

Cherish Johnette, Senior Director
Kat Miller, Senior Director, Learning Lab
Scott Silvestro, Director, Product Management

Training and
development
programs

Even if you aren't currently pursuing a career at the ASPCA, we offer plenty of other opportunities for everyone to train and grow with us. From internships, externships, fellowships and residencies to seasonal, temporary, volunteer, foster and deployment opportunities, there's no shortage of ways you can get involved and help animals in need.

Training Opportunities
Volunteer and Foster Opportunities
National Field Response Opportunities

Hear from our team members

I love that I can simply select the trainings I would like to attend and get high quality training from our L&D department.

— Facilities Operations Team Member

We have so many experts in the field, everything from shelter medicine to emergency medicine, forensics and beyond. That is so impressive. Our wealth of knowledge and commitment to learning and teaching others is impressive.

— People Team Member

The things that have made this a forever job for me are the ability to learn new skills and opportunity for advancement, the flexibility to work from home and my team creating such a great work environment.

— Animal Poison Control Center Team Member

The training process was fantastic. You always have multiple points of contact to ask questions, and with your manager you feel like you have a genuine mentor from day one. Most other places I've worked put me in a room with some generic videos that didn't actually show me how to do my job, so I appreciate the time and effort the A puts into training.

— Animal Poison Control Center Team Member