Team
Guy (Hagai) Avisar – Melbourne, Australia
Project Founder and Director
Guy (in Hebrew Hagai) is an Israeli born psychologist who currently live in Melbourne, Australia.
Guy founded Animama as an expression of his passion to help families and children at risk. Guy sees education of parents as most powerful tool for primary prevention in the field of children at risk. Over the past 20 years he has initiated and supported various programs that focus on primary prevention in this field.
Guy has been working as a psychologist and family therapist since 1988. During his career he has specialised in supporting families, empowering parents and strengthening relationships
Shayla Smith – New York City
Curriculum Coordinator
Shayla works as a Clinical Database Manager at the children hospital Lenox Hill in New York City.
Shayla holds a master degree in Public Health. Her studies concentrated on Epidemiology and Child Health.
Before moving to the area of Public Health, Shayla studied Environmental Engineering in Stanford University. Upon graduation, she spent two years working in Panama as a Program Manager in the Peace Corps. She facilitated health education workshops and oversaw the completion of programs in the fields of environmental health, maternal health and family planning. Through her involvement in that program she discovered her interest in public health and developed the passion to support mothers and families in the developing world.
She has over five years of experience in research, monitoring and evaluation, grant writing, program development and data analysis.