Speakers

Lisa Leady is a third generation groomer with 40 years of grooming experience. She is a nationally certified master groomer and a certified for NDGAA (National Dog Groomers Association of America). She began her competition career in 1995 shortly after opening her first salon, Chez Paws.       She has multiple best in shows and best all around groomer awards to her credit. Lisa ranked in the top ten from 2000-2007 to become a GroomTeam USA member during those seven years. In 2006 she was ranked #2 in the US. She was honored to compete in the World competition on multiple occasions with the US traveling team.   Years later after selling her business, she became Head Instructor at two grooming academies, the Academy of Dog Grooming Arts, and Windy City Grooming Academy.        After years of sharing her passion she missed daily grooming and decided to open a mobile salon. This allowed more time to dedicate to hands on workshops and judging assignments. These continue to this day and she has become a popular domestic, and international judge and speaker.   Lisa has been a member of Wahl clipper corporation’s Extreme Team for 15 years. She has a multitude of Barkleigh Honors and Cardinal Crystal Awards to her credit for her substantial contributions to the grooming industry.  She appeared on Animal Planets “Groomer Has It 2” series where she placed as runner up. Lisa is proud to be a regular contributor to the online instructional video platform, “Learn to Groom.com” where her videos are some of the most watched.   Lisa currently owns Primp My Pooch Salon with her husband Eric, and shows and breeds AKC Champion Smooth Fox Terriers in her leisure time. 

Misty Gieczys has competed internationally for Creative Grooming and in breed profile competitions. She has multiple international best in shows. Was on the US model dog team that won gold in Taiwan. She has been featured on American and French news broadcasts. She has also been on Inside Edition, Animal Planet, The List, the front page of the Wall Street Journal online, Orlando Sentinel, Out n About Columbus, and featured in documentaries. Misty and her colored dogs have been in a few local commercials for the Pet EXPO and Pet Palace. She also teaches at the Columbus Pet Expo. She is also the face of the Sav-Ur-Fur ad campaign in Groomer To Groomer. She is featured in an ad for Double K in Groomer to Groomer and Grooming Business for winning 2nd in their Rags to Riches contest in 2013.  Black Dog Marketing has done a webinar series that featured Misty as their expert in the pet grooming industry.

Misty started at Petsmart as a dog trainer and after 2 years started grooming in 2005. She then went to run the grooming program at Pet Palace where she worked at all 3 locations and established their grooming business.

She has attended Nash Academy for specialized dog grooming training and continues to take continuing education classes throughout the year. 

She is a Pet Tech CPR & First Aid Instructor. 

She owns one standard show poodle, Zeus, two show Kerry Blue Terriers, Ateryu and Anubis.

Alyssa Kasiba is an international award winning creative groomer. She has 12 years grooming experience, and she began competitive grooming in 2016. Over the past 5 year she has pushed herself to attend as many classes, shows and competitions as possible to continue her education and growth. Her hard work has paid off having placed in the Open Level at most of the Barkleigh trade shows, WPA's Superzoo, and an International model dog competition in Taiwan. Alyssa was also nominated creative groomer of the year in 2020 and currently works with Foxy Roxy's Supply Co. as a brand ambassador as well as Scissor of the Month Club. She has been featured on the Night Line News, and was a contestant on ABC's Pooch Perfect.

Angela Kumpe has made a career out of creative styling. Some of her accomplishments include over 70 creative placements since 2002, 5 covers of Groomer to Groomer magazine, 3 Barkleigh Honors Awards for Creative Stylist of the year and Book of The Year with her new book The Ultimate Guide to Creative Styling. Angela’s work has been seen on Animal Planet, TLC, Good Morning America, The Queen Latifah Show, Fox and Friends and in The New York Times.

GM of Sales and Operations at Whitman’s Sharpening, Nick Sklar was raised at the sharpening wheel. With more than twenty years of experience working with grooming equipment and the people who use it, Nick is an expert in proper equipment selection and care. He has done extensive research with top scissor companies and assisted with product design for several brands including Chris Christensen and Whitman’s products.

Whitman’s Pro Team Captain Lis Johnston has been grooming since 2004 and showing dogs since she was 12 years old. Competing since 2012, Lis is a Top 10 Ranked GroomTeam USA competitive groomer. Lis is a Nationally Certified Master Groomer, International Award-winning Stylist, and conducts seminars nationwide. Lis is the owner of Serenity Pet Spa which opened in 2014 and celebrated the opening of her second location in 2017. She has a passion for hand scissoring large breeds such as Standard Poodles, Black Russian Terriers, and Irish Water Spaniels. In her free time, she enjoys showing and breeding Collies.

 Tiana Walters came in to grooming from the veterinary field with experience showing animals from childhood. She and her mule were quite the team on at the national level in both junior and open gymkhana events for multiple years as a child. While still in highschool her first dabbling in dog grooming was learning to handstrip her personal JRT.  As an adult she traded the mules for giant dogs, started showing Great Danes, and was the president of her regional breed club for 5 years. She went on to college getting an associate degree in business and bachelors in animal science. She worked as a tech for nearly a decade including 4 years emergency at ISU Veterinary Teaching Hospital. She also spent some time at the racing chemistry lab drug testing dogs and horses. After switching to grooming full time she began competing in 2014 in order to certify. That year she earned her master's with both   

Owner and professional pet stylist Cassandra is certified in pet CPR and first aid. She frequently attends trade shows, seminars and classes to improve her grooming skills and knowledge. She has been grooming for 10 years. She is passionate about her successful mobile grooming business and helping others achieve their goals in understanding the business side of grooming.

 She has 4 dogs; a Newfoundland, two Great Danes, and a Boston Terrier. She also has two cats, two parrots, and a lot of fish!

 Jessica Uzzetta is a Nationally Certified Master Groomer with a passion for continuing education and bringing groomers together to better the industry as a whole. Building strong family relationships with her fellow groomers and growing the grooming industry family. She has been competing in grooming competitions since 2012 and earned multiple 1st place and a Best in Show award quickly reaching the highest level in 3 short years. She is a single mother of 2 beautiful girls who owns and operates an upscale salon and Mobile grooming business in Wentzville, MO. She is passionate about her poodles in showing, breeding, rescue and education. She started rescuing dogs when she was just 10 years old. In addition to grooming Jessica has also been an active Veterinary Technician for almost 20 years. Her passion for animals and education to her clients, peers and the public are shown everyday.
 

Owner and operator of Ash & Oak canine massage therapy. Instructor for Canis body works and an overall amazing human. She connects with animals and helps others find their journey in animal healing and wellness.