Meet Our Team

There was a bit of a twisted path to my starting FVM.  Because of my love for functional design, I pursued architecture until my first year of college. Then I realized while I love design, drafting did not excite me at all. So I quit school because I didn’t see a point in taking classes without a clear goal. All I knew is that I wanted to do something with plants or something with animals. Yeah, I know, not very specific. Life has a way of clarifying things….

Then my first iguana, Lee-Zard, got sick.  Like, REALLY sick, as in emergency surgery or death sick.  I had a heck of a time finding an exotics animal veterinarian who could do the surgery she needed.  And the one I did find was horrible.  First, she told me that she “didn’t cut lizards.”  OK, no pet owner wants to envision someone CUTTING their family member.  Surgery is scary enough!  Then she told me it would be better to let her die and just get a new iguana.  WTF.  Seriously.  A person who had sworn to alleviate animal suffering just told me to let my iguana continue to suffer and die.

Well, that made me REALLY mad.  Mad enough to decide right then and there to be an exotics animal veterinarian and help owners of weird pets take great care of them.  Oh, Lee-Zard had surgery with a different vet and lived for several years, so happy ending there!

I got a job as a veterinary assistant and started night school to get my prerequisites for veterinary school. I was definitely hooked on veterinary medicine. After what seemed like forever, I finally graduated NC State College of Veterinary Medicine in 2008 with a concentration in Zoological medicine.

My first associate position was with Animal Hospital of Fayetteville, a high-volume, low-cost clinic that challenged me to hone my skills- FAST! Then I started Family Veterinary Hospital in Sanford. But that didn’t give me the relationships I wanted. In order to make ends meet, I was working 70+ hours per week as a veterinarian, and bringing home all my management work. Instead of joy and freedom, I was miserable and enslaved to the business. Not seeing any other way out, I closed down the hospital.

I was frustrated with the veterinary industry at that point. So many other veterinary practice owners and associates reached out to me with tales of the same woe. There had to be a better way.

I decided to prove that veterinary medicine can be a fun, fulfilling, and financially rewarding profession with a great work-life balance.  So I started Family Veterinary Mobile Clinic for that purpose, and am working on replicating it so that other veterinarians and technicians experience the same joy I do.

I live in downtown Sanford with my husband, Dave, and two huskies.  Favorite activities are grilling and chilling, hiking, hanging out with friends, gardening, and anything on, in, around, or under water.  You can usually find me, my husband Dave, and one or both huskies at Kiwanis Park, Endor Trail, White Pines Nature Preserve, San-Lee Park, Local Joe’s, Hugger Mugger, The Beer Den, Camelback, or Wild Dogs.