Ruthana Slob, originally from the Netherlands and currently living in B.C. – Canada, completed her Bachelor of Theatre at the Amsterdam University of the Arts and a Master of Education in Arts at the University of the Arts Utrecht. In the past eighteen years, Ruthana had the opportunity to work as a project manager and consultant with many (international) non-profit organisations, as well as in policy making with (local) governments and as a researcher with multiple research institutes. Ruthana also holds multiple degrees in life coaching and runs a practice for children, adults and professionals. In her practice she works with a wide variety of methods, including art-, nature- and animal-assisted interventions. Ruthana’s drive to support the space where the arts, animal studies and social change come together has led her to a doctorate program in Applied Theatre at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. With her (practice-based) research Ruthana explores how applied theatre can play a role in relational ecological identity building in adolescents, particularly in bringing awareness to the interconnectedness between humans and animals. The aim of her research is to develop an evidence-based intercultural applied theatre method that brings young people together; that facilitates a chance to build a relational ecological identity; that fosters an awareness for the interconnectedness between humans and animals and that stimulates dialogue in and throughout communities on this subject.

Ruthana has been a board member for the Instituut voor Antrozoölogie in the Netherlands; a committee member of the HRSO Animal Assisted Services Technical Committee in Canada; a research assistant for Dr. Linzi Williamson with her research on Supporting Canadian Veterans with Service Dogs (Department of Sociology, University of Saskatchewan) and she has been a guest writer for the book Naturgestützte Interventionen published by Schattauer (nov 2024). In close collaboration with the Ministery of Agriculture, she worked as head of the task force for improving animal welfare in animal assisted interventions in the Netherlands,; this led to a national association for professionals working in AAI as well as towards ethical guidelines for working with different animals in AAI. She worked with Dutch Cell Dogs in a youth detention centre and is currently a guest lecturer for Stichting AAT on working ethically in AAI (The Netherlands). Ruthana has followed training with several (international) organisations in AAI, e.g. Dreamcatcher Association (Alberta, Canada), the ‘Preparation and training of human and dog teams in Dog Assisted Education and Therapy’ (an Erasmus plus project between Poland/Norway/The Netherlands), together with her horses Aría and Paris with Tellington Touch (British Columbia, Canada) and in collaboration with her dogs Amber and Fern with Stichting SAAC (The Netherlands).