Editorial Team

Director, NavigateWelfare, New Zealand

Professor Natalie (Nat) Waran OBE is an animal behaviour and welfare scientist and educator, and Director of NavigateWelfare, an international consultancy working with commercial organisations, NGOs and governments to develop, implement and evaluate strategies for advancing animal welfare globally. She has led the development of influential animal welfare postgraduate, degree and vocational programmes in the UK and New Zealand and has supported similar developments internationally, including two free online courses (MOOCS) that have reached more than half a million learners in 165 countries. In 2011 she was appointed the Jeanne Marchig Professor of Animal Welfare Education, inaugural Director of the Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education, and International Dean at the University of Edinburgh's Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, before returning to New Zealand in 2016 as Professor of One Welfare and Executive Dean at the Eastern Institute of Technology, and more recently as inaugural Director of a new companion animal welfare science, education and research NGO centre. She holds honorary and adjunct chairs at the Universities of Edinburgh, Hartpury, Nottingham Trent and Charles Sturt. Nat chairs New Zealand's National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee and is an appointed member of the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee; she chaired the FEI Equine Ethics and Wellbeing Commission, which produced the "A Good Life for Horses" report, and co-authored the Eurogroup for Animal Welfare white paper on good welfare for equids. She is a co-founder and Honorary Fellow of the International Society for Equitation Science, and has served as a trustee or director for various animal charities including; The Brooke, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, Companion Animals NZ, Auckland SPCA and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. In 2025 she was awarded an Order of the British Empire for services to equine welfare, research and education. Her research interests include human behaviour change to improve animal welfare, equine behaviour and welfare, and the assessment of positive emotional states in animals.

Main Research Areas

• Equine behaviour and welfare
• Positive welfare and the assessment of emotional states
• Human behaviour change for animal welfare
• One Welfare
• Companion animal behaviour and welfare