Nicole Pallotta is the student programs coordinator for ALDF’s Animal Law Program. In this capacity, she works with law students who share ALDF’s mission to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal system, including members of over 190 Student Animal Legal Defense Fund (SALDF) chapters. Nicole helps law students form and maintain chapters and assists them with projects like getting animal law courses added to the curriculum at their schools. She also oversees ALDF’s animal law clerkship, scholarship, and project grant programs.
Prior to joining ALDF, Nicole completed her PhD in sociology at the University of Georgia, where she developed and taught the school’s first Animals and Society course. Her dissertation explored the process of becoming an animal rights activist, including key social factors and biographical experiences that led movement participants to resist the dominant cultural narrative regarding human-animal relations. Her writing has appeared in Sociological Perspectives, Society and Animals, The Journal for Critical Animal Studies, The Portland Tribune, and Animal Wellness Magazine. Nicole lives in the extremely vegan-friendly city of Portland, OR, with her friend Teagan, a sweet little one-eyed German shepherd. She blogs at www.alec-story.com.