ABOUT US
Board of Directors
|
Octavia J. Brown, Ed.M., Gladstone, NJ
Octavia Brown is Associate Professor of Equine Studies at Centenary College in Hackettstown, and Director of Therapeutic Riding at Centenary. She received a private school and business college education in England. After emigrating to the USA in 1964, she received an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1971 and received an honorary Doctor of Human Letters degree from Centenary College in 2008. |
 Octavia Brown |
| She attended the Cheff Center for Therapeutic Riding Instructor training, 1971 and was a member of the founding board of directors of NARHA, serving several terms from 1969 to 1990. A NARHA Master Instructor, she has served as chair of several NARHA committees, most recently the Certification Committee. |
Octavia joined the board of the Federation Riding for the Disabled International in 1997, and was President from 2000-2003. Octavia was named winner of the NARHA James Brady Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998. Other honors include New Jersey Horse Council Horse Person of the Year 1981, NARHA President's Award 1989, NARHA Special Award for work on Accreditation 1990 and NARHA Directors' Award 1990.
"Bona fide research is perhaps the least well supported area and also the least explored area, due to the very nature of the subject matter: we all know it feels good to ride, but how and why remain mysterious!"
|
Robert Crump, J.D., Cleveland, OH
Secretary
Robert Crump is a partner at Walter & Haverfield LLP, Attorneys at Law, in Cleveland, Ohio, where he has represented privately owned businesses, business owners and professionals in Northeast Ohio for over 35 years. He was also a founding trustee at Fieldstone Farm Therapeutic Riding Center in 1978, illustrating a decades-long interest in equine-assisted activities. Bob has been president of the FFTRC board twice, and also serves as trustee on the the Therapeutic Riding Center Foundation. He holds a BA from Ohio Wesleyan University and a J.D. from Case Western Reserve University.
|
 Robert Crump
|
Susan Harding, Bethesda, MD
Susan Harding, Vice President, Group Publishing Director of Source Interlink Media’s Equine Network, has 20 years in the equine publishing industry. Susan has worked at Newsweek magazine, the Congressional Research Service and McKinsey & Co. She is a graduate of Northwestern University and the Harvard Business School. Susan has served as President of American Horse Publications, on the Board of Trustees of NARHA and on the Advisory Council of the Equestrian Land Conservation Resource (ELCR). Susan owns a PMU horse, a Thoroughbred/Percheron named Metaphor, currently in training to be a fox hunter, and two cats, LC and Moxie.
|
 Susan Harding
with Metaphor
|
Michael Kaufmann, New Milford, CT
Michael Kaufmann has been recognized as a resource in Animal Welfare, Animal Assisted Activities/Therapy and in Humane Education for 20 years and is currently the Farm and Wildlife Director of Green Chimneys Children’s Services/Green Chimneys School.
Kaufmann has worked extensively with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), the American Humane Association (AHA), the Delta Society and the Latham Foundation.
He is a past member of the board of the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA) and a founding board member and committee chair for the Equine Facilitated Mental Health Association (EFMHA). Most recently he served NARHA as Director of Education and Communication and editor of the national magazine STRIDES.
|
 Michael Kaufmann
|
Kaufmann has been professionally quoted by TIME, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, National Public Radio, Reaching Today's Youth, The Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association and the nationally syndicated Ann Landers Column.
The beneficial relationship between people, animals and the natural world shaped Michael Kaufmann’s life while growing up in Switzerland. He has supplemented his official positions with hands-on experiences as a livestock manager, with on-site studies of circus animal trainers and via internships at zoos. He served as manager of two working horse farms early in his life and for several years maintained a small livestock sanctuary at his own farm.
"One of the most exciting things that attracted me to HHRF is the fact that we support and are proponents of all good research, wherever and by whomever it is being done."
Judith Lightfoot, Lyme, CT
Vice President
Forty years of board leadership, therapeutic riding and horses mark Judy Lightfoot's life. From college to now, those three themes tell who she is. Sure, she is a mom to four and a grandmom to twelve, but it is High Hopes Therapeutic Riding, NARHA and the Horses and Humans Foundation which describe her. She was High Hopes' President for five years, NARHA'S for three. She was chairman of NARHA's Task Force on Accreditation and serves as Vice President of HHF. She also has served her community's public library as its president for the last 18 years. She lives in Lyme, Connecticut, with her husband and a number of horses, sheep and chickens.
|
Cynthia Ruiz, CPA, Houston, TX
Cynthia Ruiz, CPA is a financial manager at Tauber Oil Company. She has over 30 years in all phases of finance and accounting with an emphasis in tax, audit and financial and tax planning for medium and small businesses and non-profit organizations.
Cynthia was a member of the Board of Trustees of NARHA from 2004 – 2008 Chairing the Audit Committee. She served on the Board of SIREfrom 2002-2008 serving as an Officer and a Chair of the Audit Committee.
|
 Cindy Ruiz with Lancelot
|
Cynthia competes nationally and internationally in dressage as a Para Equestrian. She has twice made the US Para Equestrian Team representing the US internationally at the World Dressage Championships. Cynthia has received incredible benefits from equestrian activities, both physically and spiritually, and has experienced first-hand the lasting benefits that our equine friends provide. Joining the Board of HHRF will provide the opportunity to support these benefits and educate the world about equine assisted activities.
|
Therese K. Schmalbach, MD, PhD Newton, MA
Vice President
Therese K. Schmalbach, M.D., Ph.D., of Newton, MA is an independent physician consultant to biopharma companies. She has over 15 years of medical drug/biologic/device clinical development experience in the biotechnology/pharmaceutical industry and participated in the design, implementation, data collection and analysis of new chemical entities (drugs), biologics and devices resulting in one approved New Drug Application and one Biologic License Application, as well as >10 Investigative New Drug Applications. She has participated in meetings with FDA, expert clinicians and investigators, scientists, and investors, supervised and directed clinical, biostatistical, data management, project management and medical writing departments, and been responsible for data interpretation and reports including peer-reviewed publications.
|
 Theresa Schmalbach
|
She also has extensive data presentation experience, as well as experience presenting to a variety of levels of audiences.
"My son is a young man with special needs who has participated in hippotherapy at Ironstone Farm in Andover, MA and at the Mass Hospital School in Canton, MA for several years. I saw and learned the benefits a well-run program can offer. My daughter is an avid equestrian who has ridden for over 10 years. I also took riding lessons as an adult and know the thrill and challenge of riding at any level. |
James Smith, DVM, Lexington, KY
James Smith, DVM has been an equine practitioner since 1958. His specialties are theriogenology (Ob/Gyn), ophthalmology, and preventive medicine. He has been associated with Hagyard Equine Medical Institute since 1962. He is a consultant to horse farms in many countries.
Presently, Dr. Smith is President of the Kentucky Equine Humane Center and on the Executive Committee of the Equine Initiative at the University of Kentucky. The Initiative consists of education, research, and outreach. |
 James Smith
|
Dr. Smith is a past president of the Kentucky Equine Practitioners Association and officer of the American Association of Equine Practitioners. He has been a breeder of Thoroughbreds since the mid-seventies and now spends as much time as possible at workshops on equine assisted learning and psycho-therapy.
“Horses & Humans Research Foundation is important for many reasons but to me, number one is proving to the medical community with evidence based research that ‘the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man’.”
|
Molly Sweeney, Hockley, TX
President
Molly Sweeney is president and founder of the Horses and Human Research Foundation. She is originally from Cleveland, Ohio, where she was blessed to grow up with horses in her life. Molly became involved with Equine Assisted Activities in 1990, when she started volunteering for SIRE. Molly is currently a member of the SIRE Board of Directors and a volunteer for almost 20 years. She served on the NARHA Board from 1996 to 2002. Molly says she is not a researcher herself, but has never outgrown that childhood phase where one is always asking, “But WHY?”
|
 Molly Sweeney
|
Alan Young, Punta Gorda, FL
Treasurer
Alan Young is former Vice-President and CFO of Westwood Squibb, a Division of Bristol Myers Squibb. He brings to the table specialized expertise in finance and business planning. Young has served as President of The Financial Executives Institute-Buffalo Chapter, President of the Accounting Council at Canisius College, President of Lotlorien Therapeutic Riding Center and as Treasurer of NARHA. Young says: "I have personally observed the benefits that horses have provided to children and adults both physically and emotionally. It would be rewarding to utilize my business skills to assist an organization that is dedicated to promoting research that will demonstrate the effectiveness of equine-assisted activities."
|
 Alan Young
|
Staff
KC Henry, Chagrin Falls, OH
Executive Director
KC Henry has worked with equine-assisted activities programs in nearly every possible capacity for over thirty years, including founding/co-founding three different programs nationwide. As executive director of Fieldstone Farm TRC during their formative years, she provided instrumental leadership, aiding it in becoming one of the largest centers in the United States. KC is presently owner/president of Transitions Unlimited, providing specialty services of strategic planning, board development and project management for nonprofit businesses. To contact KC, please email her or call 440.543.8306.
|
 KC Henry
with Cloud
|
| “I am a believer - I know positively that horses facilitate an accelerated path to healing and personal progress. What a thrill to support research that encourages the world to make it more accessible." |
|
|
