Current Month

April 2025

03aprAll Day06Spring Symposium 2025 Monte Carlo

09apr11:00 am12:00 pmMonthly Meetup – April 2025VECCS Monthly Mingle

17apr9:00 am10:00 amNew Member Orientation – April 2025Welcome! We’re so excited to have you!

21apr8:00 pm9:00 pmThe Secret Life of Vets: Embracing the Human-Animal BondVECCS x VIN Webinar

Event Details

By: Zenithson Ng DVM MS DABVP (Canine/Feline)

Description: Veterinarians are arguably the professionals who are most attuned to the human-animal bond and all that it has to offer. If the universally touted benefits of human-animal interactions hold true, then why do veterinarians who interact with animals everyday, suffer from mental health conditions that even the human-animal bond cannot cure? Practical strategies and future research directions for utilizing the human-animal bond to improve the lives and welfare of both veterinarians and animals alike will be explored.

By the end of the session, attendees will be able to:

To examine the current statistics on the mental health and wellbeing of veterinarians.

To describe the difference in perspectives and benefits of the human animal bond between veterinarians and the general population.

To identify effective tools and resources leveraging the human-animal bond to yield
benefits for veterinarians.

Speaker Info: Zenithson Ng is a clinical associate professor of small animal primary care at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine and associate director of human-animal interaction research for the Center for Veterinary Social Work. He received his DVM from Cornell University; then completed an internship at the ASPCA, and an ABVP canine/feline residency combined with a master’s degree in human-animal bond studies at Virginia Tech. His clinical interests include behavior, dentistry, preventive medicine, and management of chronic disease. His research and teaching interests span all aspects of the human-animal bond, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and stress reduction in both veterinary and animal-assisted intervention settings.

Time

April 21, 2025 8:00 pm – 9:00 pm(GMT-04:00)

Calendar GoogleCal

May 2025

14may11:00 am12:00 pmLeadership Connection – May 2025VECCS Monthly Mingle

15may9:00 am10:00 amNew Member Orientation – May 2025Welcome! We’re so excited to have you!

19may8:00 pm9:00 pmNaturalistic Decision Making as a Tool to Understand How Experts Know What They Know And How to Transfer Knowledge to Novice LearnersVECCS x VIN Webinar

Event Details

By: Annie Wayne DVM, MPH, DACVECC

Description: Mentorship is defined as experienced team members guiding and supporting colleagues in both personal and professional development. Healthy mentorship relationships are reciprocal with mentees taking initiative to seek input to improve their competency. Although the cultivation of growth is focused on the mentee, growth, engagement, and connection enrich the lives of mentors as well. Mentorship improves mental health, connection, engagement, and retention, for both mentors and mentees. Mentoring is a different skillset than being a good clinician, and these skills come more naturally to some, being a good mentor requires learning and honing specific knowledge. This talk will be focused on how experts know what they know, introducing the ideas detailed in the social science of naturalistic decision making, and providing some specific skills that can be used in a clinical teaching setting. These concepts are useful for both mentors and mentees to maximize the effectiveness of their mentorship relationship.

By the end of the session, attendees will be able to:

To examine he current statistics on the mental health and wellbeing of veterinarians.

To describe he difference in perspectives and benefits of the human animal bond between veterinarians and the general population.

To identify effective tools and resources leveraging the human-animal bond to yield
benefits for veterinarians.

Speaker Info: Annie Wayne is a veterinary criticalist who currently supports entry level emergency training programs for the Ethos Veterinary Health network. She attended the Cummings Veterinary School and completed a dual degree program to earn her Masters in Public Health and Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Wayne went on to complete a small animal rotating internship and residency in Emergency and Critical Care at Angell Animal Medical Center. Following training, Dr. Wayne joined the faculty at Tufts. In her time there, her research embraced the One Health concept and focused on antimicrobial stewardship. She also published on the intersection of family planning and veterinary professionalism. Her research and work on the Women’s Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative (WVLDI) board worked to promote equity and inclusion in veterinary medicine. In 2021, she joined Massachusetts Veterinary Referral Hospital with Ethos Veterinary Health and was charged with starting an ER training program. In 2023, she moved into her current role supporting ER training programs nationally for Ethos Veterinary Health. Outside of veterinary medicine, she loves being active outdoors and stays busy raising 3 young children and 2 dogs, with her husband in Needham, MA.