Nicole Paquette

CHIEF U.S. PROGRAM AND POLICY OFFICER

Nicole Paquette is chief program and policy officer for the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International. She leads our programmatic work to advance protections for companion animals, farm animals, equine, wildlife and animals used in research across the United States. She also oversees our state and local policy efforts, including our state director program, and our outreach, education and training department.

Paquette has more than two decades of experience working in the animal protection movement. She joined the HSUS in 2010 as the senior policy advisor to the chief operating officer. She then went on to serve as our state director in Texas, where she worked to strengthen state cockfighting laws and pass landmark legislation regulating puppy mill breeding facilities. In 2013, she became vice president of wildlife protection, where she worked to end the worst forms of cruelty facing wild animals.

Prior to joining the HSUS, Paquette was senior vice president and general counsel for over a decade at the Animal Protection Institute/Born Free USA. Paquette received her J.D. from Vermont Law School and her B.A. in Political Science from San Francisco State University. She lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and their rescue pets, cat Tilly and dog Ruthie.