Liana Moss

Liana Moss is a Research Associate with the Institute for Human-Animal Connection at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work. She earned a Master of Social Work and a Human-Animal-Environment Interactions in Social Work (HAEI-SW) Certificate from the University of Denver in 2022. Most recently, Liana was the Keeping Families Together Implementation Coordinator with Human Animal Support Services and American Pets Alive!. In this role, she helped animal welfare organizations and communities across the U.S. and Canada access the tools they need to keep pets with their families. Previously, Liana was the Community Outreach Specialist with Pima Animal Care Center in Tucson, Arizona, where she worked with people experiencing homelessness and those facing extreme poverty to keep and care for their pets. She developed and coordinated multiple community outreach programs, including those created in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The relationships with fellow Pima County community members and their pets, created through boots-on-the-ground engagement, are some of the most meaningful and transformative of her life. Liana seeks to elevate communities’ efforts to build and challenge power to make change, connect to existing networks of community care, and dismantle barriers to pet partnership. In her current role, she engages in social science research at the intersection of animal welfare and social justice issues. Liana works to contribute evidence-based findings that address historic, systemic inequities. She currently manages a portfolio of research focused on topics including animal control/humane law enforcement, cultural competence, and One Health/One Welfare. Prior to her career in social work, she was a student-athlete at Brandeis University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in both Health: Science, Society, & Policy, and Politics.