Veterinarian of the Year

Just over a week ago, I had the honor of receiving the Association of Shelter Veterinarians 2018 Veterinarian of the Year Award. I’d learned that I would be receiving the award a couple months before, and at the time had been pretty stunned. Me? Seriously?

As you know from this blog, I do research and writing projects, some with other people, and more on my own. Since I work on my own, outside of any institution or organization, I don’t have committees, approval, or funding (except on a few projects I’ve worked on with others, for which I have written grants), I don’t have an institutional mission telling me which research topics are of interest to the university, a big donor, or the board of directors, and which topics may be too uncomfortable, difficult, or controversial. For me and my interests and tendencies (i.e., doesn’t always play well with others; has trouble recognizing the preeminence of authority figures), this has mostly been convenient. It has allowed me to follow my interests of the moment, to ask and then try to answer awkward or thorny questions, and to wander.

But it has also meant that I often don’t know how many people have even noticed what I’ve written, if they have read it, and what they think of it. It also means that I have learned to become my own publicist. Thus, I’m writing this braggy blog post in the same way that I worked on press releases for my last two papers– putting it out there because if I don’t announce my own accomplishments, who will? (OK, probably ASV will later, beyond their post in a closed Facebook group, but I want to show off now!).

The Award

Here is a description of the award– this is its first year, so I’m the first recipient:

2018 ASV Veterinarian of the Year Award

Established in 2018, this award recognizes remarkable members of the Association who have been outstanding in their role as a veterinarian to improve community animal health and wellbeing. The ASV’s intent in conferring this award is to bring attention to excellence in shelter medicine by recognizing those who serve as exceptional role models of the profession. Veterinarians serving in municipal, private, and/or non-profit shelters and other community animal endeavors are eligible; current ASV Board Members are ineligible. The award designee will receive a plaque, a shelter medicine textbook, and a $250.00 donation to an organization of his/her choice.

The award was presented at the ASV annual reception in Tampa on October 11, in conjunction with the ABVP (American Board of Veterinary Practitioners) conference and the ASV annual meeting.

Elizabeth Berliner submitted the nomination and described some of the my work– from pot bellied pigs to Shelter Animals Count to ergonomics and of course spay neuter.

I gave a bit of an acceptance speech, the main gist of which was, “The research that I do is all about you– the shelter and spay neuter vet– because I want to support what you do, and who you are, because you are super cool.”

Later in the evening, the ASV presented this year’s Meritorious Achievement Award posthumously to my friend Kelly Farrell, who died last year but had been one of the most forward-thinking spay neuter vets I’ve ever met. Her family came to accept the award and it was sad, touching, sentimental, lovely, and heart-wrenching.

How do I have time for research?

I think sometimes people with “regular” jobs (meaning, 5 days a week working for someone else) assume I must do the same, and that any research or other work that I do is on top of this standard work schedule. That’s not really the case– here’s how my work schedule actually works.

My Spay Neuter Work

I love my spay-neuter work, and also, it keeps me “honest” (meaning, grounded in the reality of daily practice) in my research. But because of the model of spay-neuter that I do, I only actually do surgery about 110 days a year.

When I was starting my clinic in 2006 and being mentored by Leslie Appel of SOS in Ithaca, NY, Leslie recommended that I do MASH spay neuter just 2 days a week. She had started her MASH clinic working 5 days a week, then 4, and it was too much, even for her energetic, extroverted self, with the long work days in addition to the lifting, packing, unpacking, driving, etc. I have found that for me, three days of surgery in a week is do-able, but is also enough. With holidays, vacations, conferences, and odd weeks containing Saturday clinics (Saturdays, of course, count both for the week before and the week after), this works out to my 110-120 annual clinic days.

I’m also inventory, boss, budget-master, and book-keeper/accountant, making it a legitimately full-time job, but as time has gone on, these tasks get easier since the clinic schedule, budget, and mission barely change. What this means is that often, I have time on my hands to think, listen, explore, and learn.

My Research

It never would have occurred to me that I could do research and write scientific journal articles on my own without being part of a university or other institution. But back in 2007, when I was a part of the first Spay Neuter Task Force, I got involved with a project to analyze and publish shelter intake and euthanasia data from New Hampshire and Austin TX (since I already had years of NH data). Julie Levy, the experienced but overcommitted researcher in the group, recognized a potential time-management boon and offered that I could be first author if I wrote the paper. I jumped at the opportunity, and thus with her guidance and that of Jan Scarlett, I learned the ins and outs of writing and revising, peer review and eventual publication. Once I had been through the whole process with one journal, it was suddenly conceivable that I could do it again, and on my own. So when I found a question that kept coming up in the spay neuter community, and when I could figure out a way to find (or at least get closer to, and explore) an answer, I did so.

But Why?

During lunch at the SAWA/ National Council on Pet Population research day in 2016, a university researcher asked me why I did research if I didn’t have to. As we talked it was clear to me that what she resented about her own work was the impositions of the university structure, rules, and systems on her research. Whether it was funding or approvals or imposed timelines, the system made research a hassle rather than fun. By doing research outside of such a system, I’ve avoided a lot of that hassle (also, by doing survey-based research outside of an institution, I’ve been able to avoid needing to find an independent human subjects committee to evaluate and approve my research). So I get to learn deeply about a subject and ask interesting questions. What’s not to like?

But Library Access…

How do I get access to journal articles without being part of a university? At home, I have the same limitations as any other internet user. But like many people, I live just a few towns away from a university. And like many universities, it has a library that allows everyone access. When my list of otherwise inaccessible articles on Google Scholar gets long enough, I head on over to the university library and download to my heart’s content. It’s not as easy as having access at home, but it works, and it’s sometimes fun to have an excuse to spend a few hours hanging out in the fancy university town, drinking soy lattes and eating ciabatta.

Life outside

And of course I have a life outside of veterinary medicine: family, pets, walks in the woods, video games, novels, binge-watching Netflix.

So anyway, thanks to those who chose me for this award, and thanks to all of you who have participated in or read or shared my research. I hope you’ve gotten as much out of it as I have ♥