Calling all veterinarians with shelter medicine and HQHVSN expertise looking to scale your impact!
If you’re a veterinarian who has dedicated your life’s work to helping animals and people in the shelter environment and believe that your vision for improving those conditions could be realized if only ____________, this very well may be the day the opportunity you’ve been dreaming about becomes your next chapter–and a new chapter for shelter medicine.
The Koret Shelter Medicine Program (KSMP) has been a leader in advancing animal shelter wellness for over twenty years. Founded as the first such program in the world, the KSMP has grown to be an umbrella organization that unites the three main prongs of our program: veterinary student training; outreach and online training for veterinarians, shelter leaders and staff; and California state-funded grant support for shelters.
We’re thrilled to be hiring our first-ever associate director-level position to help shape the future of our program and expand our current work focused on solving the crisis in access to veterinary care in shelters.
Who you are
You’re ready to work collaboratively to tackle an ambitious goal: Build a robust and engaged community of veterinarians working together to provide excellent care to animals, grow the programs that meet the needs of their shelters and communities, and thrive in a work culture that sustains physical and emotional wellbeing. You appreciate a balance of theory and practice, sometimes dreaming big and other times consulting directly with shelters to put ideas to work. You’re excited to broaden participation in the field we love by engaging with diverse students early in their training and adding a shelter medicine perspective to larger discussions on unraveling racial and social inequities in veterinary medicine.
How you’ll advance the field of shelter medicine
At the most fundamental level, Shelter Medicine needs Shelter Veterinarians, in sufficient numbers and able to be effective in their roles. A lack of access to veterinary care in shelters has been identified as a leading factor crippling North American animal shelters today. This crisis is fueled by a combination of burnout and exhaustion driving veterinarians from the profession and impacting those who are struggling to stay, and the vast gulf between supply of veterinarians graduating and demand to fill positions in shelters. There’s no time to wait for outside solutions that could take years to enact. If you’re energized by the prospect of finding near as well as longer term solutions to this challenge, this role is for you. You’ll be an integral part of the movement to turn the tides and facilitate systemic changes that bring shelter veterinarians support, autonomy, and deep satisfaction in the ability to achieve their mission – so they stay in their roles and attract new members to our field.
Where we’ll start:
- Together, we’ll identify the most pressing challenges and promising solutions in shelter medicine and work to shrink and expand accordingly. We’ve done this before and we know it can work.
- We’ll imagine and build a community that attracts and retains shelter veterinarians from diverse backgrounds and lived experiences, who enter this field ready to make a positive impact.
- We will also help build the pipeline of students graduating from veterinary school with a passion for shelter medicine and the skills to get to work.
- We will help veterinary teams in shelters increase their efficiency and effectiveness in shelter medicine and high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter through consultations, training, and mentorship.
- We will partner with the newly expanded Access to Care program at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine to align and leverage our mutual work to increase the veterinary services available for all animals, in and out of shelters.
- We will join national conversations and engage with efforts to increase access to veterinary care across the board.
- We will identify future directions for strategic growth of the KSMP and associated revenue streams as two of our major grant initiatives reach completion in the coming years.
How you’ll be supported
- You’ll lead a team of outreach veterinarians with extensive shelter medicine experience, a willingness to learn and grow, and a sense of humor and fun.
- You’ll be in thought partnership with our current director, co-founder of the Maddie’s Million Cat Challenge, and co-author of the first edition of the ASV Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters, Dr. Kate Hurley.
- You’ll work in concert with other strategic programs under the KSMP umbrella that, together, make for a comprehensive shelter-solution powerhouse.
- You’ll have access to the innovations and advancements of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine – trust us, for all the bureaucracy, this is sometimes really fun and empowering!
- You’ll be powered by the sun, sea, and mountains in the unparalleled lands of Northern California (we’re not biased, this is just fact).
- You’ll be in the environment that YOU thrive in. Most days of the month, that’s wherever you choose to be productive, whether that’s an office on campus, your living room at home, or really anywhere with internet access. Up to a few times a month, you’ll get to be on campus to engage with other faculty, school leadership and/or veterinary students.
- You’ll have excellent work/life balance and you’ll be further supported by a comprehensive benefits package.
Intrigued? Head over to the UC Davis jobs site and look for the Veterinarian 3 (Associate Director) listing. Don’t be fooled that the category is listed as clinical laboratory services, you will see the UC Davis KSMP listed in the first sentence of the description. Yep, we know it’s a little clunky but that’s how the University of California does it! If you have any questions about the role, feel free to reach out to sheltermedicine@ucdavis.edu or program director Kate Hurley at kfhurley@ucdavis.edu.
Deadline to apply is June 30th, but if you need a little more time to consider this amazing option feel free to reach out and let us know.