Dr. Kate Drescher has been a licensed clinical psychologist for over 25 years and has spent the last nine studying the bond between non-human animals and their human counterparts. In January 2026, she was awarded a Master of Studies in Animal Law (with honors) from the Center for Animal Law Studies at the Lewis & Clark Law School. Since that time, she has coauthored an article on sentient-centered practice in animal-assisted services and serves on the Animal Law and Policy advisory committee for the international NGO, Voices for Animal Welfare. 

Kate is the Staff Psychologist at Vail Mountain School, located in the heart of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, where she is joined by her canine partner, Beignet, to support students’ social, emotional, and academic needs. Her desire to explore the field of animal law developed through her graduate studies at the Institute for Human-Animal Connection at the University of Denver (Graduate School of Social Work). Her coursework emphasized the ethics of interspecies collaboration, including the necessity of treating sentient animal partners as equals in the therapeutic relationship.

Since early childhood, Kate has felt a deep connection to animals (all species), and while she did not know what animal sentience was at the time, she intuitively knew animals were thinking, feeling, and sensing beings.