Founder

Holly Nguyen spent most of her childhood in Washington State surrounded by llamas, alpacas, dogs, cats, and countless hamsters. She graduated from Washington State University with a BS in Zoology and has experience with small research animals since 2002. Currently, Holly is a Research Scientist III and has been researching prostate cancer at the University of Washington for the past 19 years. She is the co-chair to the University of Washington’s Dare 2 Care: Compassion in Science program which helps address compassion fatigue and build resiliency within the laboratory animal science community.

The Washington Adoption Center for Retired Research Animals (WACRRA) was created based on Holly’s many years in biomedical research and seeing the need for more opportunities to rehome small research animals so they can continue to receive the highest level of care and compassion in loving forever homes through adoption.