Dr. Maria Puig spent 18 years at Colorado State University as an associate professor and assistant director, where she flourished under the mentorship of Dr. Brad Sheafor and the leadership of former director of the School of Social Work, Dr. Ben Granger. It was Dr. Granger’s guiding hand that encouraged Dr. Puig to first join the CSU faculty, and the invaluable mentorship of Dr. Brad Sheafor that helped her grow as an educator.  

To honor Dr. Granger’s memory, and because of her love of animals, particularly dogs,  Dr. Puig has chosen Human Animal Bond in Colorado as her fund of choice to help the program grow and thrive into the future. Founded by Dr. Granger and his wife, Georgia Granger, HABIC trains and coordinates human-animal teams, which provide animal-assisted intervention services and programs in the Northern Colorado community, education to students and professionals on the human-animal bond, and research to help improve the lives of those they serve.

In addition, Dr. Puig has also chosen the Brad Sheafor Lecture Series in Social Work Endowment, which was created in Dr. Sheafor’s honor to help address issues experienced by the most vulnerable members of the community, by regularly bringing to campus a person doing cutting-edge work in social work and other helping professions.