hi, i'm kayla.
behaviorist. dog trainer. writer
From Army counterintelligence agent to behavioral scientist, I've spent my career studying what actually makes living things change - human and animal alike.Counterintelligence is behavioral science. So is dog training. I've been doing the same work my whole career — I just didn't always have a leash in my hand. Now I research, write, and train at the intersection of human and animal behavior, chasing one question: what does it actually take to change a life?
credentials.
A.S. Intelligence Studies · B.S. Physiology · M.S. Anthrozoology (in progress) · CPDT-KA (in progress) · AKC CGC Evaluator · U.S. Army Veteran
speaking.
I'm a U.S. Army veteran, behavioral scientist, and certified dog trainer. Those things sound unrelated until you realize they're all the same work: understanding how nervous systems respond to threat, build trust, and change.Whether I'm in a training session with a rescue dog working through fear, or on a stage with a room full of veterans, I'm applying the same science — polyvagal theory, neuroplasticity, antecedent-behavior frameworks — to the same fundamental question: what does it actually take to move from surviving to thriving?
Past Engagements
October 20, 2025
National Guard Bureau J1 Town Hall
Renegotiating Your Reality: What True Resilience Looks Like
Invited back as closing keynote for the NGB's national symposium after speaking to their J1 audience in 2025.Upcoming
May 20, 2026
Forum Foundation Awards — HR & Administrative Leadership
The Invisible Architecture: Why Your Best People Are Burning Out (And How to Fix It)June 3, 2026
National Guard Bureau Suicide Prevention & Resiliency Symposium — Closing Keynote
Reality Is Negotiable: The Behavioral Science of Rewriting the Story You're Living
Signature Keynotes
The Invisible Architecture
Why Your Best People Are Burning Out — And How to Fix It
For: HR leadership, organizational development, executive teams, government agencies.
Most burnout interventions target symptoms. This talk goes upstream — to the behavioral and environmental systems that produce burnout before anyone notices. Drawing on behavioral science, antecedent-behavior frameworks, and applied research on occupational stress, this keynote gives leaders a new way to see what's already happening in their organizations and a practical model for changing it. The problem isn't your people. It's the invisible architecture they're living inside.Reality Is Negotiable
The Behavioral Science of Rewriting the Story You're Living
For: Military and veteran organizations, mental health and resiliency conferences, first responder communities
The stories we tell about ourselves — about what happened, what it means, and what's possible — are behavioral patterns, not facts. And behavioral patterns can be changed. Grounded in neuroplasticity research, polyvagal theory, and the lived experience of a veteran who has done this work herself, this keynote reframes resilience not as toughness but as a skill. One that's built in community, practiced in the body, and available to anyone willing to negotiate with the story they've been living.On The Other End of the Leash
What Service Dogs Teach Us About Human Resilience
For: Mental health and behavioral health conferences, veteran and military support organizations, trauma-informed care communities, social work and clinical audiences
A nervous system doesn't care what species it belongs to. The same polyvagal science that explains why a shelter dog freezes at a loud noise explains why a veteran goes quiet in a crowded room. In this talk, behavioral scientist and Army veteran Kayla Pearson draws on research in the human-animal bond, psychiatric service dog candidacy, and co-regulation science to show how the work of training dogs to help humans with PTSD and hidden disabilities has changed how she understands human behavior — and her own. This is not a talk about dogs. It's a talk about what dogs make visible.
Kayla speaks to organizations, conferences, and military and veteran communities on behavioral science, resilience, and the human-animal bond. To inquire about availability, topics, and fees, use the contact button or email [email protected]
what i'm building.
Here to Stay (coming soon)
A documentary series following rescue dogs and the humans who adopt them — using behavioral science to understand what it actually takes to make a placement stick. No tricks. No quick fixes. Just the real story of what happens when two nervous systems try to build a life together.Same Same But Different (book in development)
A guide for everyone who has ever loved a dog they didn't fully understand. Same Same But Different is about what it actually takes to bring home a shelter dog with an unknown past — the science of how they decompress, why they do what they do, and what happens to us in the process of showing up for them. Practical, grounded, and honest about the fact that rescue dogs don't just need us... we kinda need them too.M.S. Anthrozoology (in progress)
Graduate research focused on shelter dogs as psychiatric service dog candidates — specifically whether the tools we use to predict working dog success were ever built to account for dogs we know nothing about. (Spoiler: they weren't.)
follow the breadcrumbs.
Wanna follow the work as it happens?I write about behavioral science, dogs, humans, and the places where those things get complicated. Research in progress. Honest field notes. Some dry humor included.
