Founder's Story

Dr. Katogiritis officially resigned from Animal Welfare Karpathos in July 2026 due to her demanding professional schedule. She no longer serves on the organization's board and has fully withdrawn from AWK, holding no role or affiliation with the organization in any capacity. She remains a lifelong advocate for the animals of Karpathos, and continues her global animal welfare work as an emergency relief veterinarian and through Veterinary Global Aid, the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit she founded to bring veterinary care, environmental health support, and education to communities worldwide.

Dr. Anna Katogiritis ( Άννα Κατωγυρίτη) is a Greek-American veterinarian, born in Athens, Greece, and raised on the island of Karpathos, where her earliest years were spent among the island's stray animals. It was there — observing the lives of Karpathos' strays, that she made a childhood promise to return one day as a veterinarian and care for them. She went on to earn her bachelor's degree in Molecular Biology at the University of Crete (Greece) and her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine (USA), followed by an intensive rotating internship in emergency medicine and surgery.

She has since volunteered in numerous countries, including Greece, Sierra Leone, the Republic of Congo, and Indonesia, providing care to both domestic and wild animals. Anna is the only Greek veterinarian to have collaborated with the renowned primatologist and UN Messenger of Peace, Dr. Jane Goodall. As part of that collaboration with the Jane Goodall Institute, she founded Dr. Goodall's official office in Greece in 2016, directed Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots Greece on a pro bono basis, and led Dr. Goodall's successful tours of the country in 2016 and 2018.

Her work has earned international recognition, including the "30 Under 30 Young Philanthropists" award (2017) and the Greek America Foundation's "40 Under 40" award (2021), and has been featured by CNN and other international media.

In 2018, Anna initiated the process of creating Animal Welfare Karpathos, and in 2020 she led the organization's official founding, securing endorsements from Dr. Jane Goodall and the support of prominent friends of the island. She served on AWK's executive board from 2020 to 2024. While leading the organization's efforts, she designed its core animal welfare programs , free mobile spay/neuter and wellness clinics across the island's villages, international adoption pathways, and humane education initiatives in local schools. All were built on her core belief that every animal, including every stray, deserves elevated veterinary care. Under her leadership, hundreds of animals were sterilized, treated, and placed in loving homes across Greece and Europe and the US, and a new generation of Karpathian children was introduced to the ethical treatment of animals.

You can find out more about her work here: www.doctorannak.com