Pet Therapy Online, In Person: Animals Can Support Older Adults

Stephanie Pilato is a 15+ year member of the NCOA Finance department and enjoys working on the annual budget, forecasting, and assisting project managers with proposal budgets.

Selina Ng, LMSW is the social worker for RSS - the Center for Ageless Living. Selina has more than 30 years of valuable, hands-on experience helping to improve the quality of life of older adults. Selina also leads a variety of support groups for the Center.  Before that, Selina worked for Visiting Nurse Services of New York, the Carter Burden Center for Aging, and was the Director of the Roosevelt Island Senior Center. Foo Foo has been the pet therapy dog at the Center for over 7 years.

Foo Foo is a seven-year-old Shih Tzu and a native New Yorker. He has been a certified pet therapy dog for 5 years.

Zenithson (Zenny) Ng is a clinical associate professor of small animal primary care at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine. He received his DVM from Cornell University; then completed an internship at the ASPCA, and an ABVP canine/feline residency combined with a master’s degree in human-animal bond studies at Virginia Tech. Zenny has over a decade of experience in human-animal interactions (HAI) and founded the first therapy animal program at Virginia Tech and is the veterinary adviser to the Human-Animal Bond in Tennessee, the therapy animal program at the University of Tennessee. He serves on the Human-Animal Bond Advisory Board of Pet Partners, the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) Working Dog Guidelines Task Force, the International Association of Human-Animal Interaction Organizations (IAHAIO)’s task force on best practices in HAI, and is chair of the American Veterinary Medical Association’s Steering Committee on Human-Animal Interactions. He lectures nationally and internationally and has published numerous scientific articles and book chapters on this wide range of topics.