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Career Advisors for Veterinary Students

Find a veterinarian who is working in your area of interest within the public or corporate domain!

Career Advisors

Are you interested in learning more about pursuing veterinary career paths that are outside of private clinical practice?  Veterinarians with a wide variety of educational and work experience have volunteered to be advisors to veterinary students like you. By using the embedded custom search engine (the oval search bar further down on this page) and selecting from the master list of tags (in BOLD below), you can determine if there are any veterinarians with a background in your areas of interest.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

- We have committed to our career advisors that we will try to limit the public availability of their biographies. Therefore ... please do not share this web page or any biographies with others.

- The custom search engine will examine both biography-specific tags as well as text.  For convenience, the tags below are listed in categories, and designed to get you the results you seek. Note that you are not required to select a tag from each grouping. As with any search engine, using a few thoughtful terms will yield the best results.

- To make this a valuable experience for both the advisor and the student, each advisor set a personal limit on the number of students they are able to accomodate at a given time. Some advisors may already be fully booked working with other students. Always use the AVAILABLE tag in your search to identify those advisors ready to provide career perspective and guidance.

- To respect the capacity of our advisors, please pass the name and link of those you wish to contact to CareerA@vt.edu - we'll confirm their availablity, as well as arrange an email introduction. Please do not reach out directly to the advisor until after the introductory email.

- You may request up to 4 potential advisors initially. Please prioritize your selections, and we'll try to match you with an advisor in the order of your preference.

- If you decide not to contact, or have finished working with an advisor, please let us know so that we may offer the connection to other students. You may then request a new prioritized list of advisors if you wish.

  • AVAILABLE (always use this tag to identify advisors who are tentatively available)
  • VMCVM (advisors with an academic degree of any type from Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine)
  • OTHER (an academic degree of any type from schools other than VMCVM)
  • PC (advisors who graduated from Virginia Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine in the Public and Corporate track)
  • AHP (animal health policy)
  • AHBOND (animal - human bond)
  • AQUATIC
  • AVIAN
  • DEVICE (medical devices)
  • DIAG (diagnostic laboratory)
  • ECON (veterinary economics)
  • EPI (epidemology) 
  • ER (emergency preparation and response)
  • FOOD (human food safety, security, and defense)
  • INFECT (disease / infection surveillance, prevention, and control)
  • LAB (lab animal medicine)
  • NUTRI (pet food / nutrition)
  • ONE (One Health - positions in which the work involves the relationship between the health of people, animals, and our shared environment. Don't use "OH" ... that's the tag for Ohio)
  • PHARM (veterinary pharmaceuticals and vaccines)
  • PUB (public health). Don't use "PUBLIC" ... that will likely find everyone in the PC track, as well as the word "public" in the page footer
  • REGIE (regulatory - import / export)
  • REGPET (regulatory - pet food)
  • RESCLIN (clinical research)
  • SHELTER (shelter medicine)
  • TEACH (teaching)
  • WELL (animal welfare)
  • WILD (wildlife health and conservation)
  • ZOO (exotic, zoo medicine)
  • ACAD (faculty / researcher in an academic institution)
  • AVMA (employed by the American Veterinary Medical Association)
  • CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Includes Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer (EIS Program) participants
  • CORP (corporation - positions in which the work is performed for a single business entity, regardless of its  legal structure (i.e. includes for-profit, non-profit, sole proprietor, partnership, LLC, S-corp, C-corp, etc) . Examples include veterinary medical conglomerates / partnerships / consolidators .See also "industry")
  • FDA (Food and Drug Administration)
  • INDUST (industry - positions in which the work involves a general group of companies that operate in a similar business sphere. Example: "the pork industry" or "the dairy industry". See also "corporation")
  • NIH (National Institutes of Health)
  • USDA (United States Dept of Agriculture, including Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)
  • MILITARY
  • FED (employed by a federal government agency not specifically listed here)
  • STATE (employed by state government agency)
  • SELF (self-employed)
  • NGO (employed by non-governmental organization)
  • INTLORG (employed by an international organization)

There are many certifications available in veterinary medicine. We created tags for those certifications that are AVMA-Recognized Veterinary Specialities (TM). Check out  https://www.avma.org/education/veterinary-specialties to learn more about these specialities.

Additional certifications not listed here will still be noted on individual biographies.

  • ABVT (American Board of Veterinary Toxicology)
  • AVDC (American Veterinary Dental College)

American College certifications:

  • DACVIM (diplomate of the American College of Internal Medicine (ACVIM)
  • DACZM (diplomate of the American College of Zoological Medicine (ACZM)
  • DACPV (diplomate of the American College of Poultry Veterinarians (ACPV)
  • DACLAM (diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Laboratory Animal Medicine (ACVLAM)
  • DACVPM (diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine (ACVPM) 
  • DACAW (diplomate of the American College of Animal Welfare)
  • DACT (diplomate of the American College of Theriogenologists)
  • DACVAA (diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Anesthesia and Analgesia)
  • DACVB (diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists)
  • DACVCP (diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology)
  • DACVD (diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Dermatology)
  • DACVM (diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists)
  • DACVNU (diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Nephrology-Urology)
  • DACVO (diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists)
  • DACVP (diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists)
  • DACVR (diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Radiology)
  • DACVSMR (diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation)
  • DACVS (diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons)
  • DACVECC (diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care)

American Board of Veterinary Practitioners certifications:

 
  • ABVPAP (ABVP diplomate - Avian Practice) 
  • ABVPBCP (ABVP diplomate - Beef Cattle Practice) 
  • ABVPCFP (ABVP diplomate - Canine and Feline Practice) 
  • ABVPDP (ABVP diplomate - Dairy Practice) 
  • ABVPEP (ABVP diplomate - Equine Practice) 
  • ABVPECMP (ABVP diplomate - Exotic Companion Mammal Practice) 
  • ABVPFP (ABVP diplomate - Feline Practice) 
  • ABVPFAP (ABVP diplomate - Food Animal Practice) 
  • ABVPRAP (ABVP diplomate - Reptile and Amphibian Practice) 
  • ABVPSMP (ABVP diplomate - Shelter Medicine Practice) 
  • ABVPSHP (ABVP diplomate - Swine Health Practice) 
  • MPH (master of public health)
  • MASTERS (master of science degree in a subject other than public health. Don't use "MS" ... that's the tag for Mississippi)
  • MPHIL (master of philosophy)
  • PhD
  • For the location of an advisor, try any of the 50 state abbreviations (i.e., NY, CA, IA ...).  Be aware that these short state abbreviations will very often find undesired bios due to their common presence in text or in the page footer (i.e., a search for "NY" will find the word "many" as well). As an option, try the full state's name, or use both in your search. 
  • State names containing 2 words require a dash connector (i.e., New-York, South-Dakota ...).
  • Use VAMD to identify advisors living in either Virginia or Maryland (using Virginia or Maryland alone will return all bios due to the page footer)
  • Use DC to identify those living in (or near) Washington DC.
  • Use INTL for advisors who are working overseas (or have extensive overseas experience).