Nicole Paquette

Nicole Paquette is HSUS's Texas state director, overseeing all legislative and lobbying activities there. (Click here for HSUS's Texas-specific Facebook page.) 

Previously, Paquette was the director of legal and government affairs for the Animal Protection Institute (API), where she led legislative campaigns to force zoos and circuses to release their captive wild animals. Before that, she was an attorney with Born Free USA. (That group later merged with API.)

Paquette started work at HSUS in October 2010 and soon after announced her intention to pursue a state bill tightening restrictions on dog breeding. 

She graduated from Vermont Law School in 1998 and received her bachelor's degree in political science from San Francisco State University in 1994.