Leadership

Texas Sealife Center

14220 SPID, Corpus Christi, TX 78418

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.

Bulger Veterinary Hospital

247 Chickering Rd, N. Andover, MA 01845

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, VCA Wakefield Animal Hospital in the Boston area and 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

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.

Oasis Veterinary Hospital

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

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.

Avian and Exotic Animal Hospital of Georgia

118 Pipemakers Circle Suite 110 Pooler, GA 31322

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.

Pekin Animal Hospital

221 Margaret St. Pekin, IL 61554-2508

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!)

University of Illinois, College of Veterinary Medicine

2001 S Lincoln Ave Urbana, Illinois 61802-6178

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.

Department of Veterinary Clinical Science, Louisiana State University

Skip Bertman Drive, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803

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.

University of Pennsylvania Veterinary Teaching Hospital

3900 Delancey St Office 3109 Philadelphia, PA 19104

Dr. La’Toya Latney is an Assistant Professor and Service Head for Clinical Zoo and Exotic Animal Medicine Services at PennVet. As Cornell undergrad alum and Ross Veterinary school alum, Dr. Latney then finished her last year at Louisiana State University, home of raptors and reptiles, under the tutelage of Mark Mitchell DVM, PhD, DECZM (Herp), Thomas Tully, DVM, MS, DABVP-Avian, ECZM (Avian), David Sanchez Migallon Guzman, LSV, MS, DECZM (Small Mammal, Avian), DACZM (Avian), and Javier Nevarez, DVM, MS, PhD, DECZM (Herp), DACZM (Herp). Latney then completed an all exotics internship under Heidi Hoefer, DVM DABVP (Avian), at Island Exotics Veterinary Care in Long Island, NY. After completing the Exotics Residency at PennVet, Latney has remained at PennVet for 9.5 years and serves as a consulting veterinarian for Brandywine Zoo and Elmwood Park Zoo. At PennVet, she teaches 4 courses, including a 16-hour course on reptile medicine and surgery. In addition to serving as a clinical instructor on service at PennVet for fourth year students, Latney serves turtle rehabilitation laboratory instructor for the National Wildlife Rehabilitation Association (NWRA), and lectures regularly on reptile medicine and surgery at NWRA, CVC, PVMA, NYSWRC, FWRA, and NAVC. For students, Dr. Latney hosts reptile handling laboratories biannually for the Special Species Symposium at PennVet and most recently at the national SAVMA symposium, in which 40 students were in attendance for two 2 hour laboratories. She serves as a proud mentor who has trained 8 specialty interns, one of whom co-chairs the Education Committee for ARAV.

She is a diplomat of the European College of Zoo Medicine (Zoo Health management) and the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners Reptile and Amphibian specialty. She is credentialed to sit for the American College of Zoological Medicine specialty exam 2018. Most of her publications review reptile and amphibian nutrition and novel treatment approaches, and a brief overview can be found at http://www.vet.upenn.edu/people/faculty-clinician-search/LA'TOYALATNEY. Her special interests include adaptive critical care, reptile nutrition, comparative anatomy, novel development of surgical techniques, evidence based medicine, infectious diseases, and classical Indian dance.

Hermitage Veterinary Hospital

1500 N Hermitage Rd. Hermitage, PA 16148

North American Veterinary Community

5003 SW 41st Blvd Gainesville FL 32608-4930

Wendy received her B.S. in Business Administration from Nazareth College in Rochester, NY in 2003.  She previously worked in marketing for 8 years at an Orlando theme park where she transitioned into another marketing role in an Orlando human healthcare system for 2 years.

She joined the Association of Reptilian and Amphibian Veterinarians (ARAV) in October 2018 where she began to serve as their Executive Director but has worked as a Marketing Manager for the North American Veterinary Community (NAVC) since September 2016.

721 Inverness DriveWest Chester, PA 19380-6888

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.