SAF-T Founder: Allie Phillips

Allie is an attorney, author, advocate and educator who has dedicated her career to helping vulnerable crime victims while assisting organizations and criminal justice agencies on innovative methods to protect animals and to promote more compassionate connections between animals and humans. Download Allie’s biography.

• Career:
  • An attorney licensed in Michigan and Maryland
  • Graduate of Michigan State University and received her Juris Doctorate cum laude from University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.
  • Founder & CEO, Sheltering Animals & Families Together (SAF-T)®
  • Assistant Prosecuting Attorney (Lansing, MI)
  • Founder/Director, National Center for Prosecution of Animal Abuse at the National District Attorneys Association (Alexandria, VA)
  • Deputy Director, National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse at the National District Attorneys Association (Alexandria, VA)
  • Vice President of Public Public and Human-Animal Strategies Initiatives, American Humane Association (Alexandria, VA)
  • Consultant, University of Denver’s Institute for Human-Animal Connection

• • 2018 Trailblazer Award
  • 2015  Top Defender of Animals from the Animal Legal Defense Fund
  • 2013 Cat Writer’s Association winner of Best Newsletter Article
  • 2012 Cat Writer’s Association winner of Best Video Award
  • 2011 Cat Writer’s Association winner of Muse Medallion Winner

• Trainings:
  • Over 500 trainings throughout the U.S. and internationally to prosecutors, judges, law enforcement, child, family violence, and animal protection professionals, and victim advocates.
• Program Creation:
  • Founder, Sheltering Animals & Families Together (SAF-T)®
  • Co-Founder, Therapy Animals Supporting Kids (TASK)
• Publications:
  • Authored 2 books, 4 federally-funded monographs, 10 book chapters and numerous professional articles
• Media Appearances:
  • Her work has also been featured in numerous media outlets, including The Today Show, the Associated Press, USA Today, The Washington Post, Cat Fancy Magazine and National Public Radio.
  • Her animal advocacy work has been featured in the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law’s Magazine  and as the cover story for her college sorority Alpha Xi Delta Quill Magazine.
• Organization Affiliations:
  • Association of Professional Humane Educators (Advisory Group)
  • Capital Area Humane Society (volunteer)
  • Denver Pet Partners (Advisory Council)
  • Michiganders for Shelter Pets (co-creator)
  • Michigan State Bar Animal Law Section (council member and chair-elect)
  • National Alliance of Victims Rights Attorneys and Advocates (member)
  • National Coalition on Violence Against Animals
  • National Law Enforcement Center on Animal Abuse
  • National Link Coalition (steering committee member)
  • White Coat Waste Project (Board member)

For most of her life, Allie has been an active volunteer and advocate for homeless animals. In 2000, she co-founded Friends of Ingham County Animal Shelter in Lansing, Michigan, an organization that increased the adoption/rescue rate of cats and dogs at the animal shelter by 400% in 2 years, and led the advocacy effort to successfully ban pound seizure at the shelter in 2003. With that successful result, all remaining shelters in Michigan banned the practice of pound seizure over the next decade. Since 2003 she has volunteered for King Street Cats in Alexandria, VA and organizes the cat transfer program with the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center. After visiting the island of St. Croix in January 2009 to train at an animal welfare conference, and seeing the pet overpopulation epidemic and the need for mainland transfers and adoptions, she has helped over 100 St. Croix cats travel to Virginia to be adopted through King Street Cats. That program continues to the present date.

Allie believes that animals, like humans, must be made whole after they experience abuse or neglect. In 2011, she started a business called Manifested Harmony where she teaches energy healing and essential oil classes and offers wellness consultations for for people and animals. Allie is a Certified Usui Reiki Master-Teacher, Certified Integrated Energy Therapy Master-Instructor, Advanced Crystal Master, and uses pet-safe Young Living essential oils. Because of her expertise in essential oils for shelter and rescue animals, Allie has been invited to speak at Young Living’s Animals & Oils Conference in Utah in 2017 and 2018.