Diane Balkin received her J.D. in 1977 from the University of Denver and began working at the Denver District Attorney's Office in 1979. She has served as the director of the Complex Prosecution Division where she was the legal advisor to the Denver County Statutory Grand Jury and she supervised the investigation and prosecution of the elderly and employee embezzlement. She has also served as the director of the Juvenile Division and the Domestic Violence Unit. She was appointed as on of the public members of the Colorado State Board of Veterinary Medicine in June 2001 and served on the Board for 8 years. She has lectured on the local and national level on a variety of topics related to the criminal justice system. At the present time she spends a gread deal of time training veterinarians, law enforcement officials, attorneys, students,treatment and service providers, and citizens on the link between cruelty to animals and violence towards humans and other topics related to crimes involving animals.