Introducing your SAVMA President Elect Bridget Heilsberg

Greetings from the AVMA Convention! Next officer up is your President Elect Bridget Heilsberg:

Name, Position on EB:  Bridget Heilsberg, President-Elect

School and Year:  Colorado State University, Second Year

Hometown:  Ravena, NY

Your area of interest within veterinary medicine:  Equine Orthopedic Surgery and Sports Medicine

Description of what your office entails:  I am training to be the President of SAVMA, which means preparing to represent all 12,000 of you and being your voice at the national level.  I attend AVMA HOD and Executive Board meetings to meet people and get a feeling of how things are run, and I work closely with Joe regarding the future of SAVMA and the meeting-to-meeting business of a national organization.  I pay attention to the AVMA Newsletters, SAVMA Newsletters, SAVMA President's Forum, and SAVMA Delegate's Forum to keep myself in tune with current events and issues in veterinary medicine.

Your favorite thing about holding that office:  The chance to make a real difference for veterinary students everywhere!

Something exciting that your office is doing/has done for vet students this past year:  Reworked the SAVMA Governance Documents to make them more streamlined, modern, and efficient for the House of Delegates.  Our meetings are now more focused on enacting change in Veterinary Medical Education, not just following procedure.

Your favorite SCAVMA related experience thus far:  Definitely working extremely hard on the Duty Hours Proposal and then having the House of Delegates pass the motion for endorsement!  I think we are going to do such great things for the profession, and I'm very excited to see what we do next.

Something fun about yourself:  I drove a 34' combat patrol boat in the Persian Gulf, with four machine guns on it, in both Kuwait and Iraqi national waters.  I was the first of four qualified female Coxswains for the boat crews, and the only qualified female Patrol Leader in the unit.  I also have a hidden addiction for cute shoes!