If it's raining women, why are all the men reigning veterinary medicine?!?!

Editor's note: This is a guest blog by Karen Bradley, founder of the Women's Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative. The Vet Gazette is expanding content beyond the structured categories, and we are starting with a post from the founder of this important organizatin. Read on for more!

By now you have seen our press release for the Women's Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative (WVLDI).  I am writing this post to try and provide some of the answers to "what is it" and "how does it relate to me?"

First of all, I will confess that I impulsively launched a closed Facebook group and Linked In group by these names a few weeks ago when it became painfully clear to me that the time to try and be proactive about getting more women veterinarians involved in organized veterinary medicine leadership was now.  I was fortunate to have teamed up with Dr. Stacy Pritt who coordinated a website for the initiative.  We are thrilled to have almost 300 members in the Facebook group and the website and Linked In groups are rapidly expanding as well. These groups have become a place for sharing articles about women in leadership, polling folks about issues women face in these leadership positions, and basically setting up a way to network together and support each other in pursuing leadership opportunities.

We would love for veterinary students to participate and bring their voice to these platforms!  Please don't hesitate to join us!  We are only just beginning to realize the full potential of this initiative and in the next few weeks will have a pilot group exploring the formal next steps of creating a non-profit or similar to provide a formal structure that can be even more effective at engaging, empowering, and motivating more women to be leaders in our profession--in all levels and areas. So stay tuned!  

If you have a request for a speaker to present at your school for a forum or symposium, please feel free to contact myself or Stacy Pritt and we will do our best to make it happen! 

(Karen Bradley, DVM karenbdvm@yahoo.com or 802-272-6442. Stacy Pritt, DVM, MS, MBA at stacy_pritt@yahoo.com or 858.790.9208)

Thank you in advance for your awesome enthusiasm,and support for this effort!

Karen Bradley, DVM

Press Release: Women’s Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative

First released August 5th

Founded during the 2013 AVMA Convention, the Women’s Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative is announcing today that it has a solid online presence with the launch of its new web site and logo at www.womenveterinarians.com. With a strong social media presence on Facebook and LinkedIn, the Initiative has created the new web site to further its reach through Twitter, blogs, links, and other resources.

Formed as a response to the disproportionate amount of women in leadership positions in organized veterinary medicine, most notably with the AVMA, compared to the number of women in the profession, the Initiative provides a support network for the promotion of women veterinarians as leaders. The mission of the organization is to gather veterinarians and friends to help “develop, encourage, and mentor female leaders for our profession.”

Karen Bradley, DVM, Founder of the Initiative, is excited about this next step. As she states, “my goal is to empower more women veterinarians to be active, appointed, and elected to leadership positions at all levels of organized veterinary medicine. I see a growing disconnect between the demographics of those in veterinary leadership and those populating the profession. Too many people think this will self- correct with time but that has not been the case in other areas—for example, the US population is greater than 50% women yet our US Congress only has 20% women.”

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If She Only Had a Brain

Entry, Experiences
Becky Zaremba, Ross University

During my undergraduate time at Purdue University I took a summer volunteer position at the large animal teaching hospital which allowed me to shadow clinicians as well as become familiar with basic veterinary skills. Since I was interested in pursuing a career in equine practice this is what was referred to as “a good life choice”! The poor life choice that followed was that I hadn’t invested in a Dorland’s Medical Dictionary sooner and, like most vet students, I had a hyperactive baby animal gene.

During one of my rotations, a four day old American Mini filly presented with a fist sized mass on the dorsal aspect of her skull. After further evaluation the mass was identified as a meningocele. A neurologic exam indicated that she had ataxia of all four limbs and that her vision was incomplete. Otherwise, she acted as if she was a normal healthy foal, but was not sufficiently nursing from a bottle as she was donated to the university as an orphan. A nasogastric tube was placed and a CT scan was scheduled in order to more closely examine the meningocele. The CT scan is when I truly became involved in the case as it was, hands down, the most interesting thing I had yet to encounter in veterinary medicine.

The CT scan had revealed that the meningocele contained brain tissue and fluid. The clinicians on the case had started discussing options for the filly and at that point they were unsure if there was anything that they would be able to do.

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Press Release: Partners for Healthy Pets

Partners for Healthy Pets is an alliance of more than 20 leading veterinary associations and animal health companies committed to a vision of improved overall health for pets. As SAVMA is an associate member, The Vet Gazette will be regularly posting updates. Visit thier website to learn more!

AVMA, AAHA & MORE THAN 90 VETERINARY HEALTH ORGANIZATIONS PARTNER TO LAUNCH DIRECT TO CONSUMER CAMPAIGN URGING ANNUAL CHECKUPS FOR FAMILY PETS

CHICAGO (July 18, 2013) – With reports of pet obesity, diabetes and cancer on the rise, officials of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) and more than 90 organizations across all levels of the veterinary profession have joined together to form Partners for Healthy Pets (PHP), a group that today previewed a public information campaign urging pet owners to schedule annual checkups for their cats and dogs.

“This is an unprecedented opportunity for the veterinary care community,” said Ron DeHaven, DVM, Chief Executive Officer of the AVMA and chairman of the partnership. “It’s a platform for all of us to communicate the importance of preventive care to pet owners, to enhance the relationships we share with them, and ultimately to deliver even higher quality preventive care.”

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Cats at Peace

Entry, Creative Corner
Cynthia Xue, Cornell

"Cats at Peace" pencil and paper