Healing Species founder and director, Cheri Brown Thompson with canine teacher, Lizzie.

Biography

Cheri Brown Thompson graduated from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1999.

In law school, Cheri became so moved by what she learned about the link between violence towards animals and violent crime in society, that in 2000, she gave up practicing law to write the first ever animal-assisted violence-prevention curriculum to be endorsed by a state board of education.

Since her program began, Mrs.Thompson has appeared in numerous SC magazine and newspaper articles highlighting the successes and groundbreaking work of the organization she created. In 2003, Thompson received the "Community of Character" Compassion award in Orangeburg, SC.

In 2004 formal research study of her 12-week education program found that upon completion, a dramatic 90% of the students that participated showed immediate improvement in behavior, including: improved standardized test scores, improved grades, reduced bullying, reduced classroom conflict, and better overall classroom concentration.

Currently, Thompson is an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. She is in demand as a local and national speaker regarding implementing character and violence prevention programs in communities across the nation.