I am a native New Mexican born and raised in Gallup.
Around the age of eight or nine, I expressed an interest in animals and told my father that I wanted to run a pet store. He took my curiosity to a new level by introducing me to the local veterinarian, who educated me about what his job entailed. I was enthralled from that moment on, and have never wanted to be anything else.

I went to New Mexico State University for my undergraduate degree, primarily studying biology. After three years, I was granted early acceptance to the Colorado State University Veterinary Program.

After veterinary school, I got married and had a beautiful daughter. I worked at four different veterinary practices with a full variety of animals and expanded my education firsthand under the tutelage of some wonderful doctors. I still appreciate the vets that mentored me. Most of the practices were mixed animal, but one was specialized around exotics. Finally, after working for other vets for nine years, I went into practice for myself. While embarking on a new business adventure, I also went back to school to study alternative therapies to better serve my clients, including chiropractic and acupuncture.

I have always had a fascination with rhinoceros and, when I was a senior in veterinary school, I had the opportunity to work with a baby rhino from the Denver Zoo that had a fatal disease. This was the beginning of my undying passion for helping rhinos.

In 2016, I started looking at my life as a whole and decided it was time to follow my passion for rhino conservation. I scheduled my first trip to South Africa in 2017 to work at the world’s largest rhino orphanage sanctuary, which turned out to be a life-changing adventure. The following year, the sanctuary offered me a position to come back as their in-house veterinarian during the winter months. I returned to South Africa at the end of May 2019 and stayed until the end of August. During my time in 2019, I met the founder of Council of Contributors, a non-profit that raises funds for the most critical needs in rhino conservation, and asked how I could help. As a member of the council, I do public speaking engagements and educational seminars on the precarious survival of a species dangerously poised for extinction. I also started the Rhino Veterinarian Fund, where your donations go directly to medical and veterinary needs of injured rhinos as a result of poaching to give them the best chance of survival.

I am always looking for fundraising possibilities for the rhino and hope to return to South Africa in 2021. (Source)

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