Gerri was born and raised in South Dakota in a big family of hunters and anglers. She was always sensitive to animals growing up, and hated having to help de-feather chickens and geese on the back porch.
As an adult, she moved to California after serving in the Air Force. Gerri first became interested in animal advocacy in the late 70’s at Griffith Park where she saw Bea Arthur speaking about the steel-jawed leghold trap and the necessity to end that barbaric form of trapping. After learning about pets in animal shelters being used in research labs, she became involved with different organizations to stop this practice via protests, arrests for non-violent civil disobedience, organizing the community, contacting political parties.
Over the years, Gerri has worked to establish relationships with different organizations and has set up events to teach, educate the community in collaboration with Cougar Conservancy on co-existing with Cougars. She is also involved with other organizations working on the new Marine Sanctuary that will be established along the California coast.
Gerri has a degree in Psychology and Biology, and just finished a climate stewardship class through UC Santa Barbara. She is very interested in climate issues and the interconnectedness of the natural world on health and biodiversity.
Gerri has always been about educating people, organizing events in her community and collaborating with other organizations on the plight of the gray wolf, cougars and other wildlife. For the past 10 years she has been volunteering with Center for Biological Diversity on gathering signatures for gray wolf protections. She also spent time around wolves in Colorado at a sanctuary and helped collect signatures to get the wolf reintroduced in Colorado.
