Nadya Vera is a PhD candidate in environmental sociology with research interests in animals & society, social movements, and critical theory. She earned a master’s degree in mass communications with an emphasis in public relations at the University of Florida and a bachelor’s degree in theater arts at Florida International University. 

Prior her 2017 return to academia to pursue sociology, she worked managing media relations for animal fighting issues at the Humane Society of the United States in Washington, D.C., as well as an environmental public health educator for the Washington County Department of Health & Human Services in Hillsboro, Oregon.