Leadership

Pekin Animal Hospital

221 Margaret St. Pekin, IL 61554-2508

309-347-6674 herpdvm@yahoo.com

Dr. Nicole Johnson (known to her staff and clients as Dr. Nikki) is a 2003 graduate of the University of Illinois. She is co-owner of Pekin Animal Hospital in her hometown of Pekin, IL. In the past, she has done some consulting on small mammal, reptile and bird cases for the Peoria Zoo. She is currently one of the Medical Directors of the Friends of Scales Reptile Rescue based out of the Chicago area.  She is a contracted veterinarian for Tazewell County Animal Control. She has been a member of ARAV since 2000 (even as a student!!). She has enjoyed serving ARAV in the past as a Member-at-Large and Head of the Development Committee prior to entering the climb to the Presidency. She is excited to be able to continue serving on the Executive Board and to help the organization grow.

She is also an avid runner and in 2012 she joined the St. Jude Memphis to Peoria runners, and has run with them every summer since, if you do not know what these runners do…..you should ask her!! She shares her life with her son-Logan, her boyfriend-Aaron, their 2 Akitas-Holly and Saint, their cats-Autumn, Sophie and Bruno and a house full of reptiles(don’t we all?!)…..and an office full of them as well. She enjoys an active life style and tries to keep busy working, exercising, singing playing sports or attending her son’s sporting and musical events.(Although, she doesn’t mind occasionally taking it easy and curling up on the couch with her critters and enjoying a good book!)

Texas Sealife Center

14220 SPID, Corpus Christi, TX 78418

361-589-4023 exoticvet@yahoo.com

Tim Tristan attended Texas A&M University, where he completed his DVM followed by completion of an internship at Gulf Coast Veterinary Specialists in Houston. He is board certified by the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners in Reptile and Amphibian Medicine and currently works in Corpus Christi, Texas. He is the director of the Texas Sealife Center, a wildlife hospital treating sea turtles, shorebirds and raptors and has been a member of ARAV since 1998. Currently, in addition to his role as director of the Texas Sealife Center, he is the contract veterinarian for Downtown Aquarium in Houston and President of the Horned Lizard Conservation Society.

His publications have included the first identification of Mycoplasmosis in Texas Tortoises (Gopherus berlanderi) and first identification of fibropapillomatosis in green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) on the Texas coast. He was also the primary amphibian and reptile veterinarian for an animal rescue operation lead by the ASPCA in Dallas, Texas that resulted in the confiscation and rescue of over 20,000 reptiles in 2009. Additional experience includes involvement in cold stunned sea turtle events that occur annually in Texas and result in the rescue of 200-1400 sea turtles every winter.

New England Aquarium

1 Central Wharf, Boston MA, 02110

617-973-0227 exoticsvetmike@gmail.com

Dr. Mike Corcoran is a 2008 graduate of the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine. He started working in emergency medicine in the Pacific Northwest before pursuing his real passion of working with exotic animals, initially as a part time mobile practice in the Portland, Oregon region. In exotic animal medicine he has worked as an associate veterinarian at Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital and at VCA Wakefield Animal Hospital in the Boston area. He is now an associate veterinarian at The New England Aquarium in Boston.

Mike has been a member of ARAV for several years and has served on the Membership and PR committee. He is proud to be serving the membership on the Executive Board and looks forward to giving back to ARAV.

In addition to professional interests, Mike is a SCUBA instructor and enjoys spending as much time as possible underwater.

Roger Williams Park Zoo

1000 Elmwood Ave. Providence, RI 02907

401-785-3510, x344 kwojick@rwpzoo.org

Kim has been actively involved in the ARAV since becoming a student member in 2006. She has previously served two terms as a member-at-large, and as the co-chair of the Legislative and Animal Welfare Committee. In 2015 she received the ARAV Presidential Service Award for her contributions to the organization. She graduated from Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, followed by internships in both small animal medicine and surgery and zoological medicine. She completed the Chicago Zoological and Aquatic Animal Residency Program and is currently employed as the associate veterinarian at the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, Rhode Island. She shares her home with a variety of furred and scaled pets including a rosy boa, ball python, blue-tongued skink, red-eared slider, and red-footed tortoise.

Avian and Exotic Animal Hospital of Georgia

118 Pipemakers Circle Suite 110 Pooler, GA 31322

912-348-3924 yecats_2@hotmail.com

Stacey Leonatti Wilkinson is a 2006 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine. Since that time she has been an associate veterinarian at Avian and Exotic Animal Care in Raleigh, NC, a practice devoted exclusively to the care of exotic animals. She recently left that position to start her own practice, Avian and Exotic Animal Hospital of Georgia, in the Savannah, GA area, continuing to treat only exotics. Stacey became an ABVP Diplomate of Reptile and Amphibian medicine in 2013. She has been a member of ARAV since 2006, and has been the chair or co-chair of the In Depth Session at the annual conference every year since 2011. She has also spoken at the conference and served as a lab instructor, and is a member of the Legislative and Animal Welfare Committee.

She is very excited about the position of treasurer and the opportunity it provides to become more involved in ARAV. The ARAV does an excellent job of serving and representing exotic animal veterinarians. She believes her experience as a private practitioner in the trenches would be a great fit for this. She and her husband have a collection of over 50 reptiles, and her favorite reptile is the Grand Cayman blue iguana, which she finally got a chance to see in their native habitat this past year.

Chicago Exotics Animal Hospital

3757 Dempster Rd. Skokie, IL 60076

847-329-8709 chicagoexoticspc@gmail.com www.EXOTICPETVET.com

Dr. Susan Horton is a University of Illinois graduate (class of 1995). She is the founding owner of Chicago Exotics Animal Hospital, which was established in 2000. She has been the Chief of Staff there since 2000, along with consulting veterinarian in exotic and avian medicine to the emergency hospital Blue Pearl Skokie. Chicago Exotics is a 5 doctor, 100 % avian and exotic animal hospital. Dr. Horton is also on the board for several avian, small mammal, and reptile rescue organizations and acts as their medical director. She hosts many veterinary students each year who are interested in this field.

She enjoys teaching current and future veterinarians the interesting art of avian and exotic veterinary medicine, especially when it comes to reptiles. She also attends and participates in several of the yearly veterinary conferences on avian, reptilian, and exotic animal medicine. Through these venues she has continued her education in medicine, surgery, cytology, radiology, and all other aspects of avian, reptilian, and exotic animal medicine.Dr. Horton has lectured to the many of the local Chicago avian and exotic clubs, the University of Illinois, and has been published in the Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery, Journal of Herpetological Medicine and Surgery, and “Invertebrate Biology“.

She is a member of the Association of Reptile and Amphibian Veterinarians (has been since its inception) where she is currently the Immediate Past – President and is also on the Public Relations, Social Media, and Membership Committee since 2007 (for which she had been the Chair). The membership plaque, the ARAV Facebook pages and Twitter pages, the outreach programs, the welcome packets, and many more projects have been accomplished during this tenure on this committee. She is also a member of the Association of Avian Veterinarians where she has held various committee positions, the Association of Exotic Mammal Veterinarians, AAZV, and AVMA. She has been an associate editor for the Journal of Reptilian and Amphibian Medicine and the Exotic DVM Magazine. Avian and exotic animal medicine and surgery have always been her passion. She has always sought out the unique venues for education and experience in this area. She keeps Cockatiels as well as Dendrobates tinctorius, Rhacodactylus ciliatus, Ambystoma mexicanum, and Ceratophrys ornata currently, though has housed many species at one time or another. The freedom to keep, enjoy and breed reptile and amphibian species is also very important to her. She hopes to be able to contribute more in the future.

Oasis Veterinary Hospital

6635 Alhambra Ave. Ste. #100 Martinez, CA 94553

925-954-8087 lmasseodvm@gmail.com

Louisa Asseo is the proud owner of Oasis Veterinary Hospital in Martinez, CA. She just opened this small animal and exotic animal medicine full service hospital in the East Bay of San Francisco, CA in April 2016.

She has been an active member of the Association of Amphibian and Reptilian Veterinarians since graduating from UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine in 2002.

She has been serving on the ARAV committee for membership and PR since 2011 and has since served as the co-chair of this committee since 2013.

Gentle Care Animal Hospital

100 Kumar Court Raleigh, NC 27606

919-852-4386 bwaffa@petrepair.com www.petrepair.com

I am humbled to be a Member-at-Large position on ARAV’s 2017-2018 Executive Committee. I am a relatively new veterinarian, having only just graduated from NC State in 2014, however I have been a lifelong keeper and breeder of reptiles and an outspoken advocate for their health, welfare, captive husbandry and conservation. Although my membership in ARAV didn’t become official until I graduated, I have been working with ARAV members all along the way — members who taught me as a summer undergraduate intern, as a veterinary extern on every distance rotation, and whose writings in both the academic and popular literature inspired me as a student and keeper. I’ve also worked alongside ARAV members on important legislative issues, having been a longtime volunteer with USARK and former board member with the Louisiana Gulf Coast Herp Society, both of whom have been vocal in consulting with legislators on high-profile herp topics. I relish the opportunity to continue advancing reptile and amphibian medicine, as well as our place as leaders in the field.

University of Illinois, College of Veterinary Medicine

2001 S Lincoln Ave Urbana, Illinois 61802-6178

(217) 265-0320 mcallend@illinois.edu

I received a Bachelor of Science in Ecology, Ethology, and Evolution in 2000 and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 2004 from the University of Illinois. I received a Master of Science focused on the Health and Disease Assessments in Reptiles from the University of Illinois. I completed a clinical residency in Zoological Medicine at the University of Tennessee/Knoxville Zoological Gardens in 2009 and became a Diplomat of the American College of Zoological Medicine in 2011. I received a PhD for my Dissertation, Characterizing the epidemiology of ranaviruses in North American chelonians:  Diagnosis, Surveillance, Pathogenesis, and Treatment, from the University of Illinois in 2012. In 2012, I first reported on Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola, the causative agent of Snake Fungal Disease, in free-ranging massasaugas. I am currently an Assistant Professor and Director of the Wildlife Epidemiology Lab in the Departments of Veterinary Clinical Medicine and Comparative Biosciences at the University of Illinois. My research interests focus on the health epidemiology of diseases of free-ranging wildlife, specifically ranavirus and SFD in reptiles. ARAV was the first professional organization I joined as a first-year veterinary student in 2001. My work crosses the captive and free-ranging boundary for the benefit of all reptiles, a core mission of ARAV. I aim to bring that perspective to this position in hopes to improve reptile and amphibian care.

Louisiana State University

Boschring 8 Egelsbach 63329 Germany

(49) 61 03 2 45 83 anke.stoehr@freenet.de

Anke Stöhr studied veterinary medicine at the University of Leipzig, Germany (2002-2008). After graduation, she worked in various small animal veterinary hospitals with a focus on reptile medicine.
From 2010-2014, she worked on her doctoral thesis, “Diagnosis and characterization of ranaviruses in reptiles and amphibians in Germany”, under the supervision of Rachel Marschang at the Institute for Environmental and Animal Hygiene at the University of Hohenheim, Germany. In 2012, Dr. Stöhr became a certified specialist for reptile medicine (ZB Reptilien) in Germany. She has published various articles in international peer-reviewed journals and presented her work at international conferences. She has been a member of the Association of Reptilian and Amphibian Veterinarians since 2011 and has been elected as ARAV German representative in 2015.

From 2015- 2017, she was the head of the exotic department in a small animal hospital in Germany. Currently, Dr. Stöhr is the Zoological Medicine Resident and MS student at the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine with a focus in herpetological medicine.

North American Veterinary Community

5003 SW 41st Blvd Gainesville FL 32608-4930

480-703-4941 dvarble@navc.com

Dana Varble received her B.S. in Zoology from Southern Illinois University in 1999, and a veterinary degree from University of Illinois in 2003. She previously worked in clinical exotic and emergency medicine. She has spoken locally, nationally, and internationally at conferences and seminars on herpetological and exotic animal medicine and surgery.

She joined the Association of Reptilian and Amphibian Veterinarians in 2003, served on the board of directors from 2008 to 2014, and was the president of ARAV from 2012 to 2013. In January 2015, she began to serve as the Executive Director of ARAV and Moderator coordinator for North American Veterinarian Community.

She shares her home with a certified trailing bloodhound named Calhoun, a Lab mix – Hannah, a cat – Abe, and four ball pythons.

721 Inverness DriveWest Chester, PA 19380-6888

Wbamand@aol.com

Dr. Wilbur Amand is a 1966 graduate of the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Following an internship and residency at Penn, he joined the junior faculty during which time he developed an interest in exotic companion animal medicine and zoo/wildlife medicine. Dr. Amand joined the Philadelphia Zoological Garden in 1974 as Senior Veterinarian while also returning to the faculty at Penn as an Adjunct Professor of Zoological Medicine. He developed a number of courses in avian, reptile and zoo mammal medicine. He retired from the Philadelphia Zoo in 1992 as Emeritus Vice President for Animal Health.

Dr. Amand served as the Executive Director of the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians for nearly 20 years and was the Editor of the Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine for 10 years. He joined the Association of Reptilian and Amphibian Veterinarians as the Executive Director in 1994. In addition, he serves as the Executive Director of the American Academy of Veterinary Nutrition and is a member of the Animal Policy Committee for the National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD, and the Board of Elephant Care International.