ASU grad champions animal welfare through psychology research

From an early age, Holly Molinaro was captivated by the animal world — glued to episodes of “Animal Planet” and “The Crocodile Hunter.” That childhood fascination grew into a lifelong passion for understanding animal behavior and ultimately led her to Arizona State University, where she is earning her PhD in psychology with a specialization in behavioral neuroscience and comparative psychology.

Molinaro graduates this May as the recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Award in natural sciences from The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Under the mentorship of Professor Clive Wynne in ASU’s Canine Science Collaboratory, she has spent her doctoral career exploring how dogs express emotion and how successful people are at identifying those emotions.

“If people could understand how cool and unique animals are,” Molinaro said, “they might be more inclined to save them, protect their environments and want to make their lives better.”

Throughout her time at ASU, Molinaro also made significant contributions to her graduate community. She served on the executive board for the Psychology Graduate Student Association, first as vice president, then president and finally as past president.

Molinaro’s research has been supported by the Blue Buffalo Graduate Minority Research Fellowship through General Mills, as well as several competitive university grants and awards, including the Graduate and Professional Student Association JumpStart Research Grant, the Graduate College University Grant, the Graduate College Travel Award Scholarship, the Graduate and Professional Student Association Travel Grant and the Research Excellence Award from ASU’s Department of Psychology.

Her next chapter? Launching her own animal welfare consulting company to help zookeepers, shelter staff and even pet parents apply behavioral science to improve animals’ lives.

Read on to learn more about Molinaro’s ASU journey.

Question: Why did you choose ASU?

Answer: This one is actually a funny story. I was about to graduate with my master’s and had a job lined up. Then COVID hit. My offer was revoked, I couldn’t find another opening anywhere and I ended up moving back home. I figured I might as well try applying for a PhD, but I didn’t get accepted into any programs because hardly anyone was accepting graduate students during COVID either. I thought it was hopeless until I saw a tweet about a fully funded program at ASU studying dog emotions. I emailed the author of the tweet, my current advisor Professor Clive Wynne, and now here we are.

Working with Professor Wynne and my lab has been incredibly rewarding. His mentorship and support have been invaluable, and I’m so grateful for my lab mates. The psychology community, especially the other graduate students, has helped shape the positive experiences I’ve had here.

Q: What’s one lesson from your time at ASU that continues to influence how you approach science and life?

A: Throughout my time at ASU, I learned how important it is to prioritize my own health and mental well-being. When I was studying emotions, albeit in dogs, I was reading and immersed in literature about how emotions are created, how they’re perceived by others and how they’re regulated.

Learning about emotions from an academic perspective was especially interesting because I was also working on my own mental health and emotional well-being. This experience really showed how important it is for research to go beyond the academic space.

While it’s exciting to conduct research and publish it in an academic journal, if your goal is to help a population — whether that’s dogs, their owners or people in general — it’s more important to share results in an understandable, applied way. What’s the point of doing amazing research with real-world implications if the findings just sit behind a paywall, waiting for another university professor to maybe read them one day? We, as scientists, are doing super cool work that can truly help people, and it’s important to find ways to share those findings and connect with others in a meaningful way.

Q: Can you share more about your dog research?

A: My dissertation looks at how dogs experience emotions and how people understand those emotions. It includes five experiments and one review across six chapters. I’m proposing a new theory: Emotions in animals should be studied from each species' unique perspective. For example, dogs might have emotional experiences that we, as humans, can’t fully understand. I also found that humans often make mistakes when trying to figure out how dogs feel — mainly by focusing too much on the situation the dog is in, or by letting their own mood affect how they see the dog’s emotions. Lastly, I created a new way to measure both positive and negative emotions in dogs.

Professor Wynne has been a great mentor. He’s given me the freedom to develop my own ideas while also supporting me in designing and writing my experiments. He also helped get my work noticed, which led to being covered in “The New York Times!”

Q: Your work has certainly been making waves — how does it feel to have your research getting so much attention?

A: This experience has truly been the highlight of my career and an amazing way to end my PhD journey. I’m still in awe that journalists and the press continue to reach out about this paper. I feel so lucky to have the chance to share the exciting results from this study, as it could have a real, positive impact for dogs and pet owners!

Oliver, the dog from the study, passed away in 2023 after being part of our family for 15 years. It’s been incredibly special to see him all over the internet and to know his memory lives on. I’m just so grateful for the chance to make the world a better place for animals. It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I was 3 years old!

Q: Graduate school can be demanding. How did you manage to stay balanced both academically and personally at ASU?

A: I made it a priority from the start to keep school as just one part of my life. I joined extracurricular activities like a hiking group, which allowed me to form lifelong friendships that have been a great source of support throughout my PhD. I also volunteered as a mentor for a foster child and currently coach youth soccer. These experiences have not only helped me connect with the community but also allowed me to give back to younger generations.

Additionally, I’ve been truly inspired by the graduate students I’ve met at ASU, especially in the Department of Psychology. Their commitment to improving not only their own lives but also the experience for future students is incredible.

Q: What’s the best advice you’d give to other students?

A: My biggest piece of advice for current students, especially graduate students, is to not make school the only part of your life. It’s easy to get wrapped up in research, classes and work, but there’s so much more to life than just school. Academia can make it feel like you're expected to work nonstop, and taking breaks or sticking to a normal workweek can sometimes feel frowned upon. But without balance, you’ll burn out.

Remember why you started school in the first place, and let that passion continue to drive you. Join clubs, volunteer and share your passions with others. There’s more to life than school, but you have to actively choose that for your mental health and well-being.

Q: If given $40 million to solve one global problem, what would you tackle and why?

A: Climate change and biodiversity loss are global problems with far-reaching effects. It’s not just about rising temperatures or melting ice caps — though those are critical concerns — it’s also about collapsing ecosystems, species extinction, food insecurity, health crises, community displacement and the disruption of natural cycles that sustain life. Everything is interconnected. When a pollinator disappears, it affects our crops. When forests are cleared, carbon is released into the atmosphere, Indigenous communities lose their homes and wildlife loses their habitats.

With $40 million, I wouldn’t be able to solve the entire problem, but I would focus on preserving and restoring biodiverse ecosystems, supporting local conservation efforts, empowering Indigenous land stewards and promoting sustainable land-use practices.

Part of the funds would also go toward environmental education and grassroots advocacy. Real change requires both systemic and cultural shifts. If people, especially in high-consumption societies, better understand the value of biodiversity and how climate change affects them personally, they’re more likely to support sustainable policies and lifestyles.

We can’t teach people about how cool dogs are or what they may or may not be feeling if there’s no place left for them or us!