Helen Woodward Animal Center in Rancho Santa Fe welcomed Dr. Neelima Kamrah as the inaugural recipient of its brand-new Educator Fellowship this month, bringing the principal of a school outside New Delhi to the 12-acre campus to study how the shelter teaches humane education. Kamrah, who leads the KIIT campus in Gurugram, India, spent her visit observing the center's teaching methods and shadowing staff as part of a program designed to expand humane education worldwide.
The fellowship is meant to bring one exceptional educator each year to the humane education campus, according to Helen Woodward Animal Center CEO Mike Arms, as reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune. Applicants are evaluated on educational leadership, commitment to humane education, and their potential to create lasting change in their communities, per the same account. Arms said in a news release that humane education creates a more humane world. Kamrah, for her part, wrote in her fellowship application that she has dedicated more than 32 years to education as a service to society, adding that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
From Chandigarh Presentation to Four School Partnerships
Kamrah's visit builds on groundwork the center laid in India well before the fellowship existed. In October 2024, Helen Woodward staff members Haylee Senita and Jacqueline Kelleher presented at the Global Youth Peace Fest in Chandigarh, India, introducing the center's humane education philosophy to educators and students from Asia and Africa, according to a news release cited by the Union-Tribune. That workshop led four Indian institutions — The New Public School, GD Goenka Public School, Dev Samaj College of Education, and Kitabghar — to launch Animal Fan Clubs inspired by the center's model at the end of January 2025.
Those four schools have since adopted the center's humane education curriculum, and Helen Woodward has continued supporting them with educational resources, Animal Fan Club guidance, and ongoing virtual mentorship, the Union-Tribune reports. During her visit, Kamrah shadowed Humane Education Associate Director Haylee Senita to see the model firsthand. Kamrah also serves as a CBSE city coordinator and CBSE training coordinator, and previously spent 23 years as vice principal at KIIT World School Pitampura in North Delhi, according to SugerMint. She has received India's state award for best teacher and leads professional development programs promoting excellence in teaching and school leadership.
A Local Shelter With a Global Footprint
Helen Woodward Animal Center has spent decades turning San Diego-born programs into international efforts. The organization runs Home 4 the Holidays, Remember Me Thursday, and the Business of Saving Lives workshops, according to the Union-Tribune, and it has collaborated with animal welfare organizations in Argentina, Australia, Croatia, Estonia, Ethiopia, India, Ireland, Kenya, Puerto Rico, Romania, Scotland and Singapore. The center was founded in 1972 and, per its own account, serves more than 90,000 people and 10,000 animals annually without receiving government funding.
That global reach got a diplomatic boost in 2022, when the United Nations Economic and Social Council granted Helen Woodward Animal Center special consultative status, allowing it to take part in UN discussions on biodiversity and sustainable development. The recognition, detailed on the center's own site, gives the shelter a platform to push humane education internationally even as it continues to operate as a hyper-local nonprofit in Rancho Santa Fe.
Humane Education Rules Back Home Too
The center's educational mission isn't only an export product. California Education Code Section 233.5 already requires public schools statewide to teach kindness toward domestic pets and the humane treatment of living creatures, a mandate that nonprofit animal groups like Helen Woodward frequently help teachers satisfy through workshops. The Educator Fellowship, in that sense, extends a curriculum grounded in California law to educators half a world away.
The visit also comes as San Diego County's animal welfare system has faced real strain closer to home. Seven French bulldogs were dumped in Rancho Santa Fe in July, and county animal services carried out large-scale neglect seizures involving horses in the same community in June 2026 and August 2025. Those local pressures sit alongside the center's international education push, underscoring the dual scale at which Helen Woodward now operates — from a single dumped litter in its own backyard to a fellowship program reaching schools in Gurugram.
Readers with questions about the fellowship or the center's education programs can call (858) 756-4117 ext. 318, according to the Union-Tribune's report on the visit.
