Richard Massa is a founding member of Friends of Humane Services in Tijuana (formerly Friends of Humane Society de Tijuana) and also serves as its president. He is a professional educator and retired from his last position as executive dean and vice president of San Diego City College in 1996. Prior to that he served as dean of the School of Math and Science at San Diego Mesa College where he administered the development of the first Animal Health Technology program south of Los Angeles.

During the Vietnam conflict, he was a commissioned officer in the United States Army and assigned to a team of educators who developed the first Clinical Specialist Course at William Beaumont Army Hospital in Texas and where he taught Surgical Nursing and Field Medicine to corpsmen and nurses. Prior to that he was a professor of nursing at Miami Valley Hospital School of Nursing; now known as Wright State University School of Nursing.