Jennifer Toussaint is the Chief of Animal Control in Arlington County, Virginia, at the Animal Welfare League of Arlington. Jennifer has been serving Arlington County for over 11 years and accepted the Chief position in 2016. Since becoming Chief, Jennifer has implemented a local ordinance in relation to exotic animal care and ownership. She has also expanded the animal control department’s outreach efforts in providing additional support to pet owners to enable high owner-pet retention in her community. She specializes nationally in humane urban wildlife management practices and has been published multiple times on the topic. Jennifer is a Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)-trained officer and has trained animal control and welfare professionals on a variety of topics: active listening, emergency preparedness, emotional support and service animals, animal neglect/cruelty investigations, and wildlife intake and triage. She is the incident commander for the Community Animal Response Team (CART) in Arlington.
Jennifer is the 2017 recipient of the Virginia Animal Control Association Dr. Kent Roberts Animal Control Officer of the Year award, and she also received a commendation from the Virginia General Assembly for her service. In 2020, her department won the Outstanding Agency of the Year award from the Virginia Animal Control Association. In 2021, Jennifer was awarded a COVID-19 Heroes Outstanding Individual Service award by Arlington County. In 2023, Jennifer was selected as an honoree for the Northern Virginia Leadership Center for Excellence 40 under 40 leadership award. She is a graduate of Moravian College with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Spanish. Jennifer shares her home with her rescue dogs Rheagan and Ducky.
