My Veterinary Life

“Asking myself a simple question. And so that simple question for me was what job would I commit to even if I didn’t get compensated for it? And for me it was contributing to vet med and working towards becoming a veterinarian.” Our guest on this episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast is CiAsha Hickerson. CiAsha is a veterinary student at the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. We talk about what...

“I definitely do look for ways to be more inclusive with clients specifically going back to when I was a vet tech. I had this moment where an elderly, deaf couple walk into the clinic, and they start signing and I don’t know sign language. It’s definitely ASL and definitely something I wanted to learn for the longest time.” Our guest on this episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast is Michelle Mounie...

“So servant leadership for me, was kind of like a lifestyle change that I took on in college and had no idea that it would develop to be something that is woven into every single decision that I made in vet school and hopefully pretty soon as a new vet. That really pushed me to take on some pretty big initiatives at Auburn as well.” Our guest on this episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast is Dr. In...

“And that your career doesn’t necessarily just look like a straight up ladder. It can be like a jungle gym, where there are lateral moves and sometimes you go down and sometimes you are hanging upside down in the middle. And that’s ok.” Our guest on this episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast is Dr. Sarah Wooten. Dr. Wooten has had a very exciting career. She started in clinical practice, moved on...

“I started realizing that as veterinarians, all we’ve ever focused on is professional development and CE and how to be a better doctor, and there’s this whole other world of working on yourself. I just didn’t even consider that personal development was a thing.” Our guest on this episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast is Dr. Stacey Cordivano. Dr. Cordivano wears many hats including, equine practiti...

“I think like you said, I had this little box of how I felt a practice should look and it wasn’t looking like that and once I realized we’re very versatile in what we can do. There’s no reason why I have to create this little box for myself. Then it really started to expand and grow from there.” Our guest on this episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast is Dr. Hannah Rodriguez. Dr. Rodriguez is a mix...

We are so excited to bring you a special episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast. We are calling these drop-in episodes the Vet Debt Sessions. Throughout the year, we will talk to veterinary colleagues about how they are managing their educational debt. Our guest today is Dr. Anne Budzinski. She shares with us her strategy for paying off her educational debt. We discuss what guided her decisions and...

“I have a team that I work with. I work with a team of sale or territory managers, and so I’m not their direct manager, but I work with a team of them. So I try to use some of those skills with them when I’m trying to figure out how, each one of them approaches their work differently so I try to use that with them.” Our guest on this episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast is Dr. Jamie Pribyl. Dr. P...

On this episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast, we chat with newly elected AVMA Vice President Dr. Jennifer Quammen. Hear some of the highlights from the 2022 AVMA Convention AND tips to get the most out of your convention experience. It is a whirlwind conversation full of fun memories and great advice. We can’t wait to share this journey with you! Remember we want to hear from you! Please be sure...

“We all, and I heard it from others in a group too, come with this expectation of what we think people are expecting us to be, which is really an inside out way of thinking about things, but it causes us to hold back in some of our areas of difference. And I think that our areas of difference are really what makes our team strong, when we can show up fully for each other in that way. So I think by...

We are so excited to bring you a special episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast. We are calling these drop-in episodes the Vet Debt Sessions. Throughout the year, we will talk to veterinary colleagues about how they are managing their educational debt. Our guest today is Dr. Annah Windsor. She shares with us how and her family tackled their educational debt. We discuss what guided her decisions and...

“It’s not about the coffee. We will walk early in the morning to a Starbucks which is an hour long walk to and from and that comradery that you establish on that walk is priceless.” Thanks for joining us on this episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast. Our guest today is Dr. Chuck Wiedmeyer. Dr. Wiedmeyer is one of the facilitators for the Veterinary Leadership Institute Trek and Veterinary Leadersh...

“If you feel like you’re not improving yourself, if you fell like you’re not learning anymore, if your growth curve has tapered off, I would say get up and do something different. Because life’s too short and you’re in high demand as a veterinarian and so take advantage of this time to learn more, to expand your knowledge base, expand your network.” Thanks for joining us on this episode of My Vete...

We are so excited to bring you this special episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast. We are talking to Dr. Kara Escutia. Dr. Escutia is a Trust Veterinarian with AVMA’s PLIT and our focus today is on delivering bad news. This is a continuation of our conversations with Dr. Escutia which we will be sharing throughout the year to help you understand some of the most common claims seen and how to preve...

“Showing up and showing up as my best self and saying, ‘Hey, you know this is what I can do and this is what I cannot.’ I want to inspire my team with that and I said ‘Hey what a better thing than to get off on the right foot with my career with this under my belt’ rather than ‘Oh, I’ll do it in five years’ when I’m feeling burned out.” Welcome to this episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast. Our gu...

“She developed this amazing program, which just walked us through the idea of trauma, the idea of trying to cope with trauma and defining what we experienced as trauma. And I think the most powerful thing that she did for us is she validated our experience.” Welcome to this episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast. We have two guests on this episode! Dr. Charles Hurty and Helen Beaman join us to shar...

“Getting into vet school, there were a lot of people that were really interested in small animal, and I wasn’t super interested in small animal, which made me feel a little bit like an outsider sometimes. But, I super enjoyed what I was doing so I was hopeful the people around me were picking up on that.” Welcome to this episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast. Our guest today is Dr. Corinne Bromfie...

Welcome to this episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast. Our guest today is Dr. Bertice Berry. Dr. Berry is the keynote speaker at the 2022 AVMA Convention. She has an incredible career and tremendous stories to share. Our focus today was on conversations in DEI and the role we can each play. It was such a great conversation and has only enhanced our excitement for the keynote session. We cannot wai...

“It didn’t make you intimidated to, ‘you have to go back, you have to do everything.’ It really made me feel like taking these little things and they will blossom into something bigger, and if it doesn’t work, hey it’s not going to work for you, but there’s all these other things that possibly could and will work for you. Definitely, once again, you nailed it. It’s those small things, those small...

Welcome to this episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast. Our guest today is Dr. Jen Brandt. Dr. Brandt is the Director of Member Wellbeing Initiatives at the AVMA and she is going to share with us updated resources and data on suicide prevention. We discuss how research in suicide prevention is relatively young compared to other areas of mental health and how the words we use truly matter. Dr. Brand...

We are so excited to bring you a special episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast. We are calling these drop-in episodes the Vet Debt Sessions. Throughout the year, we will talk to veterinary colleagues about how they are managing their educational debt. Our guest today is Dr. Emily Schaefer. She shares with us how she went from being overwhelmed with her debt management to educating herself to commi...

We are so excited to bring you this special episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast. Today our guest is also one of our co-hosts. Dr. Marci Kirk shares her experience with the Veterinary Leadership Institute Trek program, which took place in Post Falls, Idaho the first week in April. We talk about why smaller group retreats like this are worth considering for your continuing education budget and wha...

We are so excited to bring you this special episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast. We are talking to Dr. Kara Escutia. Dr. Escutia is a Trust Veterinarian with AVMA’s PLIT and our focus today is on informed owner consent. This will be the first of many conversations with Dr. Escutia throughout the year to help you understand some of the most common claims seen and how to prevent them. Informed own...

We are so excited to bring you this special episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast. Today we are talking to Heather Jarvis. Heather is a lawyer who specializes in public interest law, and this includes becoming an expert in student loans and advocating for borrowers. She brings her own experience with student loans to the conversation too! It’s a great conversation that shares some things to consid...

We are so excited to bring you this special episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast We have two extraordinary guests today. Dr. Joseph Hahn from Merck Animal Health and Dr. Jen Brandt from the AVMA. We discuss the findings from the most recent Merck Wellbeing Study and what tangible steps we can take to improve the culture in our workplace. It’s a informative and inspiring conversation and we can’t...