Dr. Jeanette O’Quin graduated from the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 1993. She has practiced in small animal clinics, but has spent most of her career working in animal shelters. In addition to teaching veterinary students and providing medical and surgical care for shelter animals, she has been active in the investigation and prosecution of animal abuse. Currently, Dr. O’Quin is employed as a Public Health Veterinarian with the Ohio Department of Health and as a contract veterinarian with the Franklin County Dog Shelter. She is a member of the Ohio Veterinary Medical Association’s Disaster Preparedness and Shelter Animal Committees and also serves on Ohio Homeland Security’s Animal Health Emergency Tactical Advisory Committee. As a board member for the Association of Shelter Veterinarians, Dr. O’Quin has been involved in planning continuing education, developing shelter standards, creating a shelter medicine board specialty, and moderating the ASV list-serve. Married for 17 years, she and her husband, 3 children, 7 cats, 2 snakes, and 3 horses live near a small town in central Ohio. She enjoys hiking, camping, horseback riding, and sterilizing animals.

Dr. Martha Smith is a graduate of Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. Following veterinary school, she completed an intensive internship at Angell Memorial Animal Hospital in small animal medicine. After a short stint in private practice, Dr. Smith began her career in shelter medicine. She has worked in multiple shelters and in multiple areas of shelter medicine as a staff veterinarian for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Her current position is as Director of Veterinary Medical Services for the Animal Rescue League of Boston. In addition, Dr. Smith has been active in teaching veterinary students through problem based learning modules since her graduation. She has traveled internationally promoting population control through establishment of spay and neuter facilities and training, and been an advocate for the humane treatment of racing greyhounds. Dr. Smith joined the board of the Association of Shelter Veterinarians in January of 2007.

Dr. Cynthia Cox has been a shelter veterinarian for 8 years, for 2 years at a large open-admission shelter in South Carolina, and then at the MSPCA's Boston Animal Care and Adoption Center, where she manages the Shalit-Glazer Clinic. Prior to studying veterinary medicine at Washington State University, she attended Northwestern University as an undergraduate and PhD student specializing in Sri Lankan history. While living in Sri Lanka as a Fulbright Scholar, she had many encounters with the homeless animals so visible there that made her take a closer look at the problem at home. This eventually led to her decision to study veterinary medicine and a commitment to spay-neuter programs and shelter medicine. She has been a member of the Association of Shelter Veterinarians since 2002. She lives with 4 cats and 2 humans.

Natalie Isaza is a Florida native who grew up in Orlando, Florida. She completed her undergraduate degree in Zoology from Auburn University, and her DVM from the University of Florida in 1994. Following graduation from veterinary school, she completed a rotating internship in small animal medicine and surgery at Cornell University, College of Veterinary Medicine. After completing her internship, Natalie moved to Los Angeles, California where her husband Ramiro (a zoo veterinarian) was working at the Los Angeles Zoo. She practiced in southern California (small animal with some exotics) for two years. In 1998, Natalie and her family moved to Manhattan, Kansas, where she and her husband accepted positions at the veterinary college at Kansas State University. Natalie worked in Community Practice and soft tissue surgery at KSU, where she supervised senior veterinary students performing elective spays and neuters. In 2003, Natalie accepted the newly formed shelter medicine clinician position at the University of Florida. She has been the program chief for this elective clinical rotation since August, 2003. Since its inception, the students on this clerkship have spayed and neutered over 10,000 dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens. She and her husband have two children; Erin, who is 15, and Ben, who is 12. They also share their home with 4 cats, a dog, a goldfish, and a boa constrictor.

Dr. Miranda Spindel first began volunteering at a humane society veterinary clinic when she was twelve years old. She graduated in 1999 from Colorado State University’s Professional Veterinary Medical program, completed a rotating small animal internship, and spent several years in small animal practice before returning to work in her true passion - shelter medicine. Dr. Spindel has a strong interest in merging shelter medicine with the veterinary curriculum, believing that the world within an animal shelter is rich in opportunity for veterinary education integrated with improving the lives of animals. Dr. Spindel developed and taught a junior shelter medicine course for five years at Colorado State University. She initiated the first residency in shelter medicine offered though Colorado State University and serves as a founder and advisor to the CSU Student Chapter of the Association of Shelter Veterinarians. Additionally, Dr. Spindel is an active volunteer with Rural Area Veterinary Services, and continues to work on a local and regional level with area shelters. Her current position is as Director of Veterinary Outreach with the ASPCA.

Dr. Griffin is a 1990 graduate of the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine. After completing an internship at the MSPCA’s Angell Memorial Animal Hospital in 1991, she spent time working in general small animal practice as well as in animal shelters before pursuing a residency in small animal internal medicine at Auburn University. She became board certified in this specialty in 2000. 

For the last decade, Dr. Griffin has served as an assistant professor directing clinical programs in shelter medicine first at the veterinary college at Auburn University and later at Cornell. Dr. Griffin consults with shelters throughout the United States while providing both clinical and classroom instruction to veterinary students and post-graduate residents. Last summer, she joined the faculty at the University of Florida to support their new residency-training program. In addition, she joined forces with the National Spay Neuter Response Team of Humane Alliance to develop educational tools for veterinarians in state-of-the- art techniques for spaying and neutering cats and dogs. 

Dr. Griffin was a founding member of the Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dogs in 2000, the recipient of the AVMA’s Bustad Companion Animal Veterinarian of the Year Award in 2003 and was named by PetSmart Charities as a national spay-neuter mentor in 2006. Dr. Griffin has served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Shelter Veterinarians since 2004 and the Veterinary Task Force to Advance Spay Neuter since 2006. She is a regular columnist for Animal Sheltering Magazine. She and her husband share their home with 6 dogs, 5 cats and 2 goats. Her lifelong hobby is dog training.

Dr. Newbury is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine with a special interest in infectious disease and population management as it relates to group health. Her graduate work has focused on clinical studies in immunology and population medicine to improve understanding of shelter animal health, disease response and animal welfare. Dr. Newbury joined the Koret Shelter Medicine Program at the University of California, Davis in 2006 where she works as the National Shelter Medicine Extension Veterinarian. Dr. Newbury focuses on partnerships between shelters, veterinarians and the community to improve health for homeless animals. Two such programs, The Dermatophyte Monitoring and Treatment Program and an ongoing study of Feline Infectious Respiratory Disease Complex, are four-year long clinical study partnerships. Dr. Newbury shares her home in Madison with several, minimally compliant beloved pets and her savage first grader son.

Phil Bushby is a 1972 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine. He is a Board Certified Veterinary Surgeon and holds the Marcia Lane Endowed Professorship of Humane Ethics and Animal Welfare at Mississippi State University where he has been on the faculty for 32 years. For the past 17 years, his primary focus has been spay/neuter and taking veterinary students to shelters across north Mississippi. His interest in shelter medicine and spay neuter dates back to his internship and surgical residency at the Henry Bergh Memorial Hospital of the ASPCA in New York City. Dr. Bushby’s primary goal is to make sure that the next generation of veterinarians understands the problem of overpopulation of unwanted dogs and cats and recognizes their role in assisting in addressing this problem.

Dr. Karter Neal received her DVM degree at Colorado State University in 2000. After graduation, Dr. Neal completed an internship in equine medicine and surgery at Cortaro Equine Hospital in Tucson before accepting the position as Medical Director of Santa Cruz Humane Society in Nogales, AZ; operating a non-profit shelter, spay/neuter clinic, and full service rural practice for the next three and a half years on the border of Mexico. Dr. Neal then worked for about a year at a private emergency hospital and a local high volume spay/neuter clinic before becoming the Medical Director at the Humane Society of Southern Arizona in October of 2005.

Dr. Neal’s professional interests are in indigent care and shelter medicine. She has extensive volunteer experience in international relief and spay/neuter work in rural areas of Mexico, the Caribbean, and the Galapagos Islands. Dr. Neal is currently serving as Vice-President of the Arizona Veterinary Medical Association and is chair of the Rural Affairs Task Force, a group created to address the need for basic veterinary services in rural and underserved areas in Arizona. Dr. Neal recently was honored with the AzVMA’s 2008 Young Practitioner of the Year Award, Compass Behavioral Health’s Dynamic Duo Award (2008), and was a YMCA 2008 Women on the Move Honoree. Dr. Neal enjoys camping and hiking with her husband and two small children, Madalaine, 6, and William, 4, and spending time with their eight shelter cats, her three-legged shelter dog, Lucky, and her four-legged shelter dog, Skittles

Dr. Stephanie Janeczko received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Biotechnology from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2000 and her DVM from Cornell University in 2004. Following graduation, Dr. Janeczko spent time in general small animal practice, where she worked with cats, dogs, and small mammals. Her experiences dealing with the animals from shelters and rescue groups strengthened her interest in the field of shelter medicine, and in 2006 Dr. Janeczko became the first resident in Shelter Medicine at Cornell University. During her three year residency, Dr. Janeczko gained experience working with a wide range of shelters through regular site visits and consultations. She also spent a
significant amount of time seeing cases in the Cornell University Hospital for Animals and working with clinical faculty to train veterinary students through the Community Practice Service and on ambulatory shelter medicine trips.

Dr. Janeczko has a particular interest in infectious disease as well as in the welfare of cats While a resident, she earned a Master's degree in Epidemiology for her thesis research on the prevalence and zoonotic potential of Giardia infections in shelter cats and has worked closely with shelters investigating outbreaks of canine influenza virus and Streptococcus equi subsp zooepidemicus. Dr. Janeczko completed her shelter medicine residency in July 2009 and recently attained her board certification in canine and feline practice through the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners. She currently works as the Medical Director for Animal Care & Control of New York City and also serves as a consultant to the Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program at Cornell University.
 

Dr. Sara White graduated from North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 1998. After spending a year and a half in mixed practice in Vermont, she began volunteering for her local shelter and has been working in shelter medicine and spay/neuter ever since. Dr. White is the founder, director, and veterinarian for Spay ASAP Inc., a MASH-style mobile spay and neuter clinic founded in 2006. Spay ASAP provides high quality, high volume spay and neuter at low cost through working with approximately 15 shelters and other humane organizations in Vermont and New Hampshire, providing over 4000 spay and neuter surgeries annually.

Dr. White is a founding board member of the Vermont Companion Animal Neutering (VT-CAN!) spay neuter clinic, as well as a board member of the Vermont Humane Federation and a board resource to the New Hampshire Federation of Humane Organizations. She is also a member of the Vermont Veterinary Medical Association’s Animal Welfare Committee, a role that bridges the gap between shelters and the veterinary community in a region with few shelter veterinarians.

Dr. White has been a member of the Veterinary Task Force to Advance Spay Neuter since 2006. Dr. White’s research interests include small animal (especially feline) population dynamics within communities, the population effects of spay/neuter programs, spay/neuter client demographics, and spay/neuter surgeon retention. In her spare time, she has enjoyed learning winter sports such as cross country skiing, Nordic ice skating, and snowboarding.

Dr. Tyson has worked in a variety of shelters since 1994. She graduated from the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine in 2003. Since 2004 she has been with the City of San Jose Animal Care and Services where she established a shelter medicine program and spay/neuter clinic for the city’s newly built shelter. In the spring of 2006 she contributed to the shelter’s launch of a high volume spay/neuter clinic serving the public. She is a member of the Veterinary Task Force to Advance Spay-Neuter.

Dr. Dinnage received her DVM degree from University of Wisconsin in 1992. She started her career working in private small animal practice where she had a strong interest in preventive medicine and behavior. In 1995, Dr. Dinnage established a referral behavior and house call practice serving north shore MA and coastal NH. From 1998 to 2007, she served as Director of Animal Protection Medicine for the MSPCA-Angell in Boston, MA. During her career with the MSPCA-Angell, Dr. Dinnage oversaw the medical and behavior programs at 7 animal care and adoption centers. She also consulted with the MSPCA law enforcement department on cruelty and neglect cases.

Dr. Dinnage is co-founder, first president and 3 term president of the Association of Shelter Veterinarians. She led the organization in its formation and subsequent expansion to a membership of nearly 600 and secured the introduction of shelter medicine into mainstream national conferences. She has been a frequent speaker on shelter related topics at regional and national veterinary conferences and has been a guest lecturer at the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and Cornell University School of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Dinnage serves on the AVMA Animal Welfare Committee and sits on its management subcommittee. She is a member of the board of the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy as well as the board of the American Association of Feline Practitioners. Dr. Dinnage is currently a technical veterinary consultant for Eli Lilly Companion Animal Health and continues to serve the ASV as its Executive Director.