My earliest memories growing up include two things: bread and falling asleep on my dog. While I never felt the strong urge to become a baker, being around animals was something that felt absolutely essential in a job growing up. As I continued to curiously explore the world around me, I met so many different critters, and the two things I knew were that 1) I loved them and 2) I wanted to help them and their people. Fixing things came naturally, as many mechanics and builders are in my bloodline, and so becoming a veterinarian sounded like the key method to combine my talents and achieve my goals of being a proper helper.
As all veterinarians do, I began my time preparing for vet school getting a feel for both small animal and large animal practice. Anyone I shadowed can tell you that I used to follow along, absorb like a sponge, and then come back with far too many questions after processing what all I had seen. I grew up on the East Coast and got to shadow a variety of practices, eventually working my way through a degree in Animal Sciences and then my veterinary degree at Cornell University.
I have been incredibly grateful to have had multiple excellent mentors throughout veterinary medicine, which is how I came to work at my first practice as a farm animal veterinarian. During my time in farm animal practice, I loved both the medicine and being able to help the community, both on the road and in the clinic. The crew at Maplewood Veterinary Associates were tremendous support during my time as a shadowing student, associate veterinarian, and even when I decided I had some more, and different, questions to ask and went to UC Davis and got a PhD in Integrative Pathobiology studying host-parasite interactions. My continued questions then took me to the University of Calgary for a postdoctoral fellow position and while I will always love science, life and veterinary medicine called me back here to California.
I knew I wanted to come to Los Angeles as it’s a place near and dear to my heart. When I started looking for a position, I was recommended to check out Best Friends, with the specific impetus that it was a really special place. In getting to know everyone here and the excellent medicine and compassion they practice, I can honestly say that was an absolutely precise estimation. Starting here at Best Friends gives me the opportunity to practice small animal medicine and help out the community here in Los Angeles while pursuing the challenge of shifting gears from cows to cats!
While I love a bit of everything in veterinary medicine, I have a particular enjoyment of parasitology, toxicology, public health, and helping our older patients live the best lives they possibly can. And most importantly, I have a strong passion for educating and making really complex topics into something more understandable for everyone on the patient’s team, both in and out of our doors here at Best Friends.
When I’m not working, I enjoy a wide variety of hobbies including: trying new recipes, travel, birdwatching, museums, knitting, exploring local gardens, a fine cup of tea, and playing Dungeons and Dragons. I also grow a decent number of succulents, and am currently waiting on the cat distribution system to work its magic.
