Elise "Ledy" VanKavage began her legal career as a judicial law clerk for the Illinois Appellate Court and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. After working at the St. Louis environmental law firm, Green, Hennings, and Henry, she served as an attorney advisor for the U.S. Health and Human Services. Ledy joined the ASPCA in 1999 as a Midwest Government Affairs and Public Policy Associate, and eventually became their Senior Director of Legislation and Legal Training. Best Friends recruited Ledy and she joined them in 2009 as Senior Legislative Attorney for Best Friends Animal Society.

Ledy has worked extensively in the humane movement. In 1985 she organized the Madison County Coalition Against Pound Seizure, successfully stopping the sale of animals for research from her county animal control facility. She then cofounded the Madison County Humane Society( now the Metro East Humane Society) and served as its president for eight years. In 1992 she co-founded the Illinois Federation of Humane Societies and served on its board for ten years.

She was also a cofounder of Operation SPOT (Stop Pet Overpopulation Today) in the St. Louis Metropolitan area and served as a board member for eight years.  She was a former Chair for the American Bar Association’s Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section Animal Law Committee and the ISBA’s animal law subcommittee. Ledy also serves on the Animal Farm Foundation Board.

Ledy is the recipient of the ABA’s Excellence in Animal Law award for 2014, the 2018 Wallace Award from the Wallace the Pitbull Foundation, and Excellence in a State Campaign award from the Women in Government Relation’s Association. She is a co-author of the USDOJ publication, “The Problem of Dog Related Incidents and Encounters. She has been interviewed by the New York Times, MSNBC, NPR’s Justice Talking, the Chicago Tribune, and the St. Louis Post Dispatch. She is a co-author of a chapter on dangerous dog ordinances in the American Bar Association's Book, Dangerous Dog Laws published in 2009.

Ledy graduated from Eastern Illinois University with a BS in Zoology and attended graduate school at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville in environmental studies before going to St. Louis University and earning her JD. Ledy is from the heartland; she currently resides in Collinsville, Illinois with her husband Cliff Froehlich who is the retired Executive Director of Cinema St. Louis. Ledy and her husband share their lives with two adopted pit bull terriers, Maizie Pie and Stevie, and care for 12 community and companion cats. 40 Years of Commitment to Community - Metro East Humane Society's 40th Anniversary Gala