MMPC Learniverse - Shelter Med LIVE - The Relief Life: Surgery, Shelters, & Spaces Beyond (On Demand)

Jennifer Bennett joined the Koret Shelter Medicine Program as the new Director of Shelter Medicine Access to Care in late 2024. She is a 2008 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine and soon after she began practicing in her hometown regions of rural Northern California. She spent 5 years in small animal, emergency and farm animal medicine before joining Lake County Animal Care & Control as its first Medical Director in 2013. After realizing the life-saving impact that a shelter veterinarian can have on a community, she has remained dedicated to the field of shelter medicine. She has worked with a wide variety of municipal and private organizations, developing shelter medicine and surgery programs, consulting with humane organizations, participating in community outreach clinics, and working with large-scale humane law enforcement seizures and legal cases. Dr. Bennett most recently served as the Medical Director for the City of Seattle from 2017-2022 and the Chief Veterinary Officer for the Humane Society of Tacoma & Pierce County from 2022-2024. She served on the California HOD, the Washington State VMA, and was WSVMA President from 2021-2022, and has been serving on the AVMA Animal Welfare Committee since 2023. Dr. Bennett is passionate about supporting and mentoring shelter veterinarians and students, creating low barrier access to care programs, and identifying and removing bottlenecks in shelter programs to improve capacity for care.

I am a small animal veterinarian with interests and skillsets in HQHVSN surgery, HQHVSN training/consulting, general soft tissue surgeries, urgent care medicine, shelter medicine, field/outreach and international medicine, behavioral health, preventive care, One Health, and veterinary student education. My passion and expectation for wherever I work is offering high quality contextualized care for every patient; ensuring the client is understanding and supporting proposed care plans. A co-passion is learning from and helping educate the next waves of veterinarians both in the US and abroad. I enjoy networking with others in this line of work. Together everyone achieves more.

Hi! I’m Eli Butler, I grew up in Kenai Alaska, commercial salmon fishing and raising steers in 4H. From an early age I had an appreciation for the wide range of roles animals play in our lives and how critical their health is to ours. I have always had an interest in mixed practice, particularly herd/group health for both small and large animals.

After graduating vet school in 2022 from Colorado State, I moved to Washington to work at a mixed animal practice. I had great mentorship there and learned a ton of clinical skills as well as how to manage lots of variety and volume of cases including on-call emergencies. As of one year ago I am on my own doing strictly relief work both in Washington and Alaska. This is allowing me to build additional skills such as high volume spay neuter experience (in shelters and on volunteer trips such as RAVS) along with taking some time to just be a person and not be a vet. Over my career so far my eyes have been opened to how many barriers exist to access to care, and I try to help bridge that gap no matter where I’m practicing. I enjoy traveling, cooking, hiking and watching movies.