When veterinary schools shut down for COVID, Gary Marshall called on friends and colleagues around the world to create more than 50 hours of educational content on Zoom, sparking a spontaneous online community on six continents.

As a front desk manager for 70 people at a busy Minnesota ER and specialty clinic, Maggie Christensen jumped into action to change protocols for curbside, including getting warm-weather gear for staff and adding technology into workflows.

As a mom herself, Jamie Kennedy sympathized with parents struggling to entertain and educate homebound children. She also missed interacting with the kids in her own practice, so she launched a series of educational Facebook Live events that became a huge hit—not only with kids, but with many adults as well.

When demand for her hospice and palliative care services tripled during COVID, Cheri Buisson was forced into more flexibility, leading to a transformation in her business and renewed love for her clients.

Veterinary technicians must be everything from pharmacists to radiology techs to dental hygienists—and the pandemic created even more new roles to fill, including curbside attendant. Working with seven hospitals during COVID, Leilani Way led her teams to react quickly as they piloted brand new protocols and responded to double-digit growth. Now the question is how to recover and help technicians feel engaged and happy in their work.

Michael Shirley embodies his role as Chief Empowerment Officer at the North Carolina small-animal practice he owns with his wife, a veterinarian. Their innovative opportunities for staff, thoughtful implementation of new protocols during COVID, and passion for continuous improvement have created a powerfully positive culture.

By moving conversations from landlines to a tech platform, Shlomo Freiman says the client can get attention from the whole team in a more engaged and comprehensive way, allowing the DVM to become more like the “conductor of the orchestra, instead of the first violinist.

Mike Tokiwa’s practice was already down two of its top veterinary technicians at the beginning of 2020—then COVID hit. What followed was an overhaul of the way Tokiwa been doing business for 20 years, resulting in a more robust team-centered approach that has increased efficiency and everyone’s wellbeing.

As a mother of six, with five children suddenly sent home for school, Ashlee Andrews had a decision to make: Stay home and Zoom with her kids, or continue working at the three veterinary clinics she owns in New Mexico. About half of her 65 employees also had school-age kids, so Andrews created two offsite schools near her clinics for Kindergarten through fifth grade with an in-person teacher, before and aftercare, and curriculum that included things like music and physical education.

What started out as an Instagram page to highlight Black professionals in veterinary medicine has evolved into an inspiring community that works to solve challenges facing not only Black professionals, but the entire industry as it works to improve diversity and connectivity. BlackDVM Network supports members through events, social media, advocacy, and much more.

Alexis de Gale loves her job, and she wanted to help others have long, happy veterinary careers, so she joined the admissions team at the University of Florida, where she hopes to help find students with a good balance of wellness, drive, and passion for the profession. She says learning about bias and diversity and inclusion during this process opened her eyes even more about what makes a good veterinarian and what our future looks like.

Valerie Marcano is not only a poultry veterinarian, but along with her husband, she co-founded Pawsibilities to match veterinary mentors with mentees from underrepresented backgrounds. She says the response from the veterinary community has been amazing—which leaves her biggest challenge: Finding the time.