The Pet Chaplain leadership team
Diverse backgrounds. Shared compassion.
Pet Chaplain founders and co-authors Rob Gierka and Karen Duke are working collaboratively with a select group of subject-matter experts, most of whom served as advisors and beta-readers for the award-winning Pet Chaplain Learning Series.
Bringing together diverse backgrounds in professional chaplaincy, education, the creative arts, and veterinary medicine, our advisory team collaborates to provide robust, interfaith spiritual care resources that help heal hearts and honor the animals who change our lives.
Rob Gierka, EdD
Pet Chaplain Founder and Co-Director
Rob Gierka is a pioneer in the emerging field of pet and veterinary chaplaincy. With a background in hospital chaplaincy and a doctorate in adult education from North Carolina State University, he has devoted more than two decades to exploring the human–animal bond and providing compassionate spiritual care to people grieving the loss of beloved animal companions.
In 2004, Rob founded Pet Chaplain, bringing his research and chaplaincy experience together in a new approach to spiritual care. His work has since expanded to include veterinary hospital chaplaincy, pet loss support groups, online education, and the four-volume Pet Chaplain Learning Series, which he co-authored with his life partner, Karen Duke.
Rob holds a bachelor’s degree in rhetoric and communications from Albany State University, a master’s degree in technical writing from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a doctorate in professional and continuing adult education from North Carolina State University (NCSU), where his research focused on the human–animal bond and pet loss.
His chaplaincy journey began in the early 1990s and included Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at Rex Hospital in Raleigh, NC. During this period, he also served as a volunteer hospital chaplain, a Stephen Minister, and chair of the congregational care committee at Pullen Baptist Church in Raleigh.
Recognizing the need for greater understanding of pet loss and bereavement, Rob made a pivotal career decision in the early 2000s: he left his full-time position at NCSU to pursue doctoral research in this largely overlooked area. From 2004 to 2006, Rob served as the on-call chaplain at the NC State’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital, supporting pet keepers and veterinary staff. In 2006, he established a pet loss support group at the Raleigh SPCA, which he continues to facilitate.
From 2018 to 2022, Rob and Karen developed and taught an online program in veterinary chaplaincy. Their combined experience in research, teaching, and spiritual care ultimately inspired the Pet Chaplain Learning Series, published between December 2025 and March 2026. Today, Rob continues his commitment to community-based spiritual care through the Pet Chapel, conducting local blessing of the animal events, training facilitators for in-person pet loss support groups, and speaking to people in his community and across the country about the human-animal bond, the powerful impact our animals have on our lives, the unique challenges of pet loss, and the vital importance of spiritual care when we say goodbye to our animal friends.
Karen Duke
Pet Chaplain Co-Director
Karen Duke began writing and illustrating her own storybooks at four years of age, often featuring little girls who rescued animals. That early love of storytelling and animals eventually found a new expression in the Pet Chaplain Learning Series, which she co-authored with her life partner, Rob Gierka.
With a degree in English from the University of Florida and a 40-year career as a writer, graphic designer, and fine artist, Karen brings a lifetime of creative experience to Pet Chaplain. As lead writer, editor, and designer for the Pet Chaplain Learning Series, she helped transform years of research and teaching into four accessible, thought-provoking books exploring the human–animal bond, pet loss, and compassionate spiritual care.
Karen earned her bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Florida and spent four decades working in writing, graphic design, and the fine arts. Throughout her career, she developed a passion for communicating complex ideas through clear, engaging language and thoughtful visual design.
From 2018 to 2022, Karen and Rob taught pet chaplaincy studies online, drawing on their complementary backgrounds and learning from their interactions with students. After retiring from her professional career in 2021, Karen devoted her creative and organizational skills to developing the Pet Chaplain Learning Series.
As the series’ lead writer and editor, Karen undertook the extensive work of transforming years of teaching materials into a cohesive four-volume collection. She also directed the books’ organization, graphic design, and production, integrating scholarship, personal reflection, practical guidance, and creative exercises into an accessible learning experience.
Published between December 2025 and March 2026, the series reflects Karen’s lifelong commitment to storytelling and her belief that meaningful learning should be accessible to everyone. Together with Rob, she continues to develop resources that invite pet keepers to explore their relationships with animals and discover new ways of offering compassionate support to others. She recently began creating pet portraits, circling back to the stories about animals she created when she was very young.
Our Advisors
In alphabetical order by last name
Mary DeRosa
Communications Advisor
Mary and Captain Hook at the Better Piggies rescue in Phoenix, AZ
Mary DeRosa is a professional copywriter, screenwriter, and author based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Mary has been writing professionally for more than 25 years, with experience ranging from corporate video scripts and screenplays to marketing copy and website content. She has written and produced three short films, “Anniversary,” “Waiting for Goodbye,” and “On the Margins.” The films have screened at festivals in the U.S. and abroad. She is also the author of Waiting to Wake and Gratitude Adjustment, available on Amazon. You can connect with her at gratefulscribe.com.
A passionate advocate for animal welfare, Mary graduated from Rob and Karen’s Pet Chaplain course in 2022. She is a longtime volunteer with local organizations that rescue, rehabilitate, and adopt out abandoned and surrendered dogs, cats, and potbellied pigs. She lives with her sweet senior feline, Noche, who runs her life…and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Eileen Medeiros
Curriculum Advisor
Eileen and her heart dog Sarah
Eileen Medeiros holds a PhD in English with a specialization in rhetoric and composition. With more than 30 years of teaching experience, she has taught classes in basic and advanced composition, technical writing, food writing, as well as an undergraduate-level course she developed about the human-animal bond, which grew out of her experience in Rob and Karen’s pet chaplaincy course, which she completed in 2022.
An avid reader, Eileen grew up reading animal stories—The Incredible Journey, the Misty of Chincoteague series, Black Beauty, Sounder, Where the Red Fern Grows, and Follow My Leader, among others. In fact, the very first book she read on her own was Benji, and her first essay accepted for publication was about an encounter with a bird. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island with her husband, three dogs—Marcy, Sammy, and Sasha—
and a chinchilla named Millie.
Rev. Linda Moore
Curriculum Advisor
Linda and her heart dog Maggie
Rev. Linda Moore earned a Master of Divinity degree with distinction from the Montreal Diocesan Theological College in 2021 and was ordained as an Episcopal priest in 2022. She graduated from the Introduction to Pet Chaplaincy course in spring 2022 and was inspired to start an in-person pet loss support group called Abiding Ties in Vermont. After moving to Charlotte, NC, in 2024, she transitioned the Abiding Ties Pet Loss Support Group to an online format. In 2025 Linda completed an intensive hospital chaplaincy program at Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center in Charlotte. Linda currently works as an interfaith hospice chaplain for PruittHealth – Wilkes and as a supply priest in the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina.
Linda is a lifelong animal lover and pet keeper. She was inspired to study pet chaplaincy after losing her heart animal, a yellow Labrador named Maggie Mae, to cancer. After sharing her sorrow with her seminar classmates and mentors, she was encouraged to take action and find creative ways to attend to pet keepers who struggled with grief as she did.
Fran Prem
Chaplaincy Supervisor and Curriculum Advisor
Fran Prem has a private practice as a professional supervisor and clinical pastoral educator, training and supporting spiritual care practitioners, and others doing heart centred work. Fran graduated Rob and Karen’s Pet Chaplaincy course in 2020, has completed a Master’s in Professional Ethics, a Graduate Diploma in Professional Supervision, and has studied with the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies since 2016. Fran is also a writer, sharing stories through her website franprem.com.
Fran lives on the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne Australia. She has had no companion animals since her two beloved dogs died some ten years ago, but currently offers shelter from the storm to a tiny-semi-feral cat she calls Blossom. She brings her experience and training in spiritual care, supervision and education to the Pet Chaplain organization, valuing the opportunity to support the formation of “spiritual carers” (chaplains in US language), in service to those who know the love and sorrows of companion animals, the beings of the world, and the earth herself.
Christine Scott, DVM
Veterinary Curriculum Advisor
Christine and Niko, her Grecian rescue dog
Christine Scott, DVM, earned her doctoral degree in veterinary medicine from the University of Michigan. She ran a small veterinary clinic in Detroit, Michigan, for more than 30 years, then sold the practice to focus exclusively on in-home euthanasia. She now offers veterinary services pro bono to impoverished pet keepers in the Detroit metro area.
Christine graduated from Rob and Karen’s Pet Chaplain course in 2019. She is dedicated to exploring the depth of the human-animal bond and helping clients navigate end-of-life decisions with profound, nonjudgmental support. To replenish her own well-being, she enjoys spending time in nature, hiking and running in the woods