R.A. Conroy

A graduate of New York Universityʼs Tisch School of the Arts, R.A. Conroy grew up both in in Pennsylvania dairy country and urban New Jersey, juggling artistic pursuits with her love of nature and animals.

Performing in regional and Off-Broadway productions by night with the likes of Nathan Lane and Ralph Bellamy, Ms. Conroy also worked as a nurse in animal hospitals, an animal control officer in an animal shelter, and a popular lecturer at Turtle Back Zoo in New Jersey and The Bronx Zoo in New York, promoting ecology and wildlife conservation, by day.

Presenting educational out-reach programs took Ms. Conroy into nursing homes, prisons, and camps for the physically and mentally disabled, where she began documenting her experiences and the healing power of the human/animal bond.

On a mission to use art and education to promote animal welfare and social change, Ms Conroy enrolled in NYUʼs film program, writing and directing ten short films featuring animal issues. Ms. Conroyʼs thesis film, SHELTER, won multiple awards: Best Film & First Place Narrative - NJ Film Festival, Best in Festival - the Thomas A. Edison Film Festival, The IAC Gold Seal - London, and the Arthur B. Chisholm Humanitarian Award.

An NEA/AFI National Writing Competition winner, Ms. Conroy wrote and directed DADDYʼS GIRL, a short film starring a 12 year-old, main-streamed student with Down Syndrome, winning: a CINE Gold Eagle, a Gold Medal - New York Festival International, Best Short Film - Santa Clarita International Family Film Festival, and a second Humanitarian Award - from ARC of Livingston, NJ.

Recruited by top film studios like The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros., Ms. Conroy worked as an assistant animator and story artist. In 2006 she wrote the short film THE BALLAD OF NESSIE with directors Stevie Wermers-Skelton and Kevin Deters; a heartfelt message of hope for sensitive souls of every age! It is also a Golden Book, under the collective pseudonym: Kieran Lachlan.

With the publication of her novel SHELTER--Lost and Found, Ms. Conroy returns to her roots, hoping to help animal shelters and child abuse centers in need, with donations made from percentages of sales of her own works.

*photo copyright GizaraArts