Dr. Niccole Bruno joins Dr. Andy Roark to talk about an outstanding event she put on at the VMX conference, A Day in Veterinary Medicine, and her company Blend.Vet.
Niccole discusses the “pipeline problem” in veterinary medicine, and the lack of progress we have made (compared to the aspirations of our schools and profession, at least). She talks about what representation and inclusion look like in our education process and also in our practices.
Andy and Niccole talk about the intersection of DEI and hospital culture, and the opportunities for growth commonly found in veterinary clinics.
Finally, Niccole lays out some clear action steps that practices can make to improve their culture and support equity and inclusion in our profession.
You can also listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Soundcloud, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts!
LINKS
Blend – DEIB Certifications: https://www.blend.vet/
Pawsibilities – https://www.pawsibilitiesvetmed.com/
PRIDE VMC – https://pridevmc.org/
Dr. Andy Roark Exam Room Communication Tool Box Team Training Course: https://drandyroark.com/on-demand-staff-training/
Dr. Andy Roark Charming the Angry Client Team Training Course: https://drandyroark.com/charming-the-angry-client/
Dr. Andy Roark Swag: drandyroark.com/shop
All Links: linktr.ee/DrAndyRoark
ABOUT OUR GUEST
Dr. Niccole Bruno is the CEO & Founder of blendvet, a veterinary hospital certification program in diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB). She became interested in veterinary medicine as a child but lacked mentorship until she attended Tuskegee University for her undergraduate studies. Seeing representation and receiving support from her professors and classmates made the dream of pursuing veterinary medicine a reality. She attended Cornell University for veterinary school and along with her classmates became the founders of VOICE, a student organization to promote and celebrate diversity and inclusion. VOICE is now a national veterinary student organization and has since changed its name to Veterinary Students as One Inclusive Community for Empowerment. Dr Bruno graduated from Cornell University School of Veterinary Medicine in 2006.
Dr Bruno has practiced in small animal medicine and surgery for over 16 years, both in NYC/Long Island and Houston, TX. She has served in hospital leadership roles for over eight years. Dr Bruno realized the value leadership has in creating a diverse and inclusive hospital culture. As Medical Director, she became intentional in recruitment and retention of diverse individuals while creating a space for them to thrive. She continues to pay it forward by dedicating much of her time to speaking and mentoring students from all stages of the pipeline to increase representation for Black, Indigenous and People Of Color (BIPOC) students into the profession.
Following completion of the Purdue University Diversity and Inclusion certificate program in 2020, her awareness, continual exploration, and study into the diversity deficiencies of our profession, ignited her vision to create blendvet. Dr Bruno hopes that blendvet can be transformational, creating a space for collaborative learning for individuals and teams in diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB). Through blendvet, Dr. Bruno will be executing pipeline programs at veterinary conferences to help promote and advance veterinary medicine for underrepresented students.
Dr. Bruno currently remains a member of the Cornell University Advisory Council, serves as an Advisory Board member for Pawsibillities, a mentorship platform and is a facilitator for MentorVet. In her spare time, she enjoys activities with her husband and two children, Cole and Addison. She loves traveling, her Peloton, football and binge-watching her favorite shows. She has a 15-year-old Shihpoo named Jimmy Choo and a Siamese mix cat named Sushi Roll.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
This podcast transcript is made possible thanks to a generous gift from Banfield Pet Hospital, which is striving to increase accessibility and inclusivity across the veterinary profession. Click here to learn more about Equity, Inclusion & Diversity at Banfield.
Dr. Andy Roark:
Welcome everybody, The Cone of Shame Veterinary Podcast. I am your host, Dr. Andy Roark. Guys, I got a great one today with Dr. Niccole Bruno. She is the founder and CEO at blend.vet. We are talking about a really fascinating program that she did at VMX this year. We are talking about what Blend’s DEI certification for veterinary practices look like, and we talk about how our profession is moving forward and increasing the diversity that we have. Guys, super thought provoking episode. Niccole is amazing. You guys are going to love meeting her. Gang, let’s get into this episode.
Kelsey Beth Carpenter:
(Singing) This is your show. We’re glad you’re here. We want to help you in your veterinary career. Welcome to The Cone of Shame with Dr. Andy Roark.
Dr. Andy Roark:
Welcome to the podcast. Dr. Niccole Bruno, thanks for being here.
Dr. Niccole Bruno:
Thank you for having me. I’m really excited to be here.
Dr. Andy Roark:
It is my pleasure to have you. Every year I go to the big conferences, so VMX and Western, and I meet somebody there who blows my mind. And at least one person, sometimes multiple people, but you are that person for me this year. I was so glad to meet you in person. I am so interested in what you’re doing and the energy that you have. And just I’m so happy to talk to you and so I appreciate you making time. I’ll tell people the story of how we met. We met at VMX and we were at a reception and there were a bunch of people there, and I had been there for a while. And someone was like, “Oh, you have to meet Dr. Bruno. You have to meet Dr. Bruno.” And I said, “Oh yeah, okay, absolutely, I’d like that.”
And so I met you and you were amazing and you were telling me about, it’s called A Day in Veterinary Medicine, which is a program that you ran at VMX, which is phenomenal and interesting and we’re going to talk about it a second. But you were telling me about that and we were talking. And while we were talking, these other people came over and they stood off to the side, which is not unusual and I’m just going to be…
False modesty aside, it’s not unusual for me because people will… especially at receptions of that conferences. People will come up and they’ll stand there and they generally like to say hi, or I’ve met them at places before and things like that. So you and I are talking and we come to this natural pause point and so then I turn to them and I say, “Hey.” And they’re like, “Hey.” And then they step between us with their back to me and they’re like, “Dr. Bruno, you’re amazing. I was in your lectures today and you are incredible.” And I didn’t catch my face in time, so I think I made that what just happened face.
Dr. Niccole Bruno:
I probably had the same face because I am… I’m not used to that. I’m like, of course they’re waiting for you. Why would they be waiting for me? I didn’t even see them because they were standing behind me. But yeah, that was… I was like, “Wow, what a way to meet Andy today.”
Dr. Andy Roark:
It was awesome. It was awesome because I was like, “Oh my God, she’s amazing. And other people recognize that she’s…” I’m clearly late to the game on the Niccole Bruno train. And it’s just like… It was awesome. But the enthusiasm they had coming up to you and the energy and the questions they had, and I was just like, “Oh man.” You’re doing stuff Niccole. You’re doing stuff that matters that people are getting really excited about. And so I left that conversation with such a full heart going, “This is awesome. She’s doing great things and people are seeing this.” And I felt so good talking to you. So that just made me so, so happy. And so anyway, I really wanted to have you on the podcast and I really appreciate you being here.
Dr. Niccole Bruno:
Well, thank you. And like I said, I think I’m trying to get used to that because it’s been two years of me really pushing this agenda in diversity, equity, inclusion in med. And so it’s surreal when those moments like that happen. But VMX was definitely… I know we just started 2023, but it was a fave so far. It was a really good conference.
Dr. Andy Roark:
Well, you got to hold onto that. You worked so hard. It’s so obvious. And we’re going to talk about what you’re doing at Blendvet and your other initiatives that you do. You work so hard. Hold onto that. When people come up and say, “Ma’am, what you said was really impressive, and really important to me and it mattered to me.” We call it holding the trophy at Uncharted. We hold the trophy. So you got to hold that trophy because you’re doing work that’s impacting people. So let’s start off. Before we start talking Blendvet, talk to me about a day in veterinary medicine. So I went there and I hadn’t heard much about this program and then in retrospect I look back and I was just fascinated. Can you just lay out… First of all, lay out the idea where it came from and then how the event went down?
Dr. Niccole Bruno:
Yeah, sure. So last year 2022, I was at VMX and it was the first time that I had been there for a while, so I forgot how large that conference was. And then especially post-Covid, it looked a lot larger because we had been hibernating for two years. But I went there and I realized that this pivot that I was making in my career meant that I was going to be in the speaker circuit a lot more. And VMX is held on MLK weekend every year. And historically, I’ve done community service during MLK Day because I feel it’s important. And I realized that I was never going to be home if I was going to be stepping into this speaker circuit and thought about the fact that we were sitting in Orlando during MLK Day and there was an opportunity to give back to the community of Orlando.
And for me, pipeline events or programs have always been very important to me. I’ve wanted to be a vet since I was 12 years old. And even growing up in New York City, there weren’t a lot of opportunities for me to pursue or get that exposure representation in veterinary medicine in those young age. And so I thought it was definitely an age group that we needed to target. And I thought about how it would be great if we could bring the students to the conference and let them get a chance to see us in our realm, so to speak, as opposed to me historically going to schools with all of these props for career day.
So I just pitched the idea to NABC and I said, “Let’s do a believe and belong in veterinary medicine and let students in underrepresented areas in Orlando come to the conference, and I will put together a faculty of amazing veterinarians and technicians throughout all of the diversity that we offer as veterinary professionals, dermatology, surgery, emergency medicine, and general practice. And let the students rotate through these workstations. Let them hear from us and how our journey was into vet med. Let them know that no two journeys are alike.”
And my younger sister’s also a vet. And even growing up in the same household, we have two completely different journeys in vet med. So I leveraged the team that I have as friends and colleagues and we put together this program. And then another important part for me was also allowing the parents to see what their role is in supporting students. I don’t think I could have made it in this profession without my mom who really found opportunities for myself and my sister when there were none. And so wanted her and give her trophy, so to speak. And she spoke with the parents and let them know this is how we as parents can support students into vet med.
Dr. Andy Roark:
What does your sister do?
Dr. Niccole Bruno:
So my sister is a veterinarian. She works for the ASPCA, she does forensics.
Dr. Andy Roark:
That’s amazing. That’s so great. Let’s start to unpack this a little bit. So I’m really interested in the profession as a whole. Diversity pipeline for our profession is something I’m really interested in. I think representation is really important. I think one of my positions is if we want to be the trusted voice of pet owners, then we need to represent pet owners and they need to see themselves at us. And that’s just a big part of us being approachable and building those relationships that we need to have. And so representation, I think it really matters even if you zoom all the way into just getting care for pets, there’s a big piece of that there. Can you give me your perspective on what the pipeline looks like in vet medicine right now, and just start to unpack where we are in terms of representation in the profession and how we’re doing as far as trying to increase our diversity?
Dr. Niccole Bruno:
Yes, I could definitely can. So over… I’ll start where we are currently. Right now as a whole is according to the US labor and statistics. In 2021, we were 93.3% White. Less than 2% are Black veterinarians. Less than 5% are Latinx, and less than 6% are Asian. So overall, less than 10% of veterinarians are diverse as far as racial ethnicity. So when we think about how does that go backwards into the veterinary schools currently, we’re still not seeing… although we’ve had an increase of applicants of… I’ll say the word BIPOC, but it’s Black, Indigenous, People of Color. We’ve seen an increase in those applicants, but we are still not seeing overall an increase in the representation of veterinary students. So according to the AAVMC in 2024, we were still about 75% White as far as veterinary students. So then we go back further into the pipeline where we’re going into colleges. And at a time… And again, these numbers are not new.
This has been going on since I was in vet school. But currently we are going to see a dip from the pandemic. We’ve seen a lot of students that have had to drop out of school, especially for due to socioeconomics or there has been an increase in BIPOC students that haven’t been able to remain in undergraduate enrollment and men. So again, in a profession that’s predominantly women, that’s another factor that hits us from a level of diversity. So we’re seeing this in real time happening. And of course if these students are not in the undergraduate pipeline, they certainly aren’t going to be applying to vet school, which is going to further widen that gap. So pretty much pipeline development is understanding that we need to find the source of where the problem is. And it’s really in all the stages of the pipeline, because when you go backwards even to high school or even into junior high school age years, there’s a problem with students may not be able to get at jobs or get opportunities to get exposure in junior high school to stay in the pathway into vet med.
Their high schools may not have support in as far as programming for them to be exposed to agricultural programs or veterinary medicine in high school. So then when they get to college, they have no idea about what it takes to be a veterinarian and how to start. And although we know that you can major in anything and get into veterinary school, we’re asking these students to dig deeper and see that they can be a psychology major and then go to vet school too. So the opportunities to support students in every stage of the pipeline is critical if we’re really going to be intentional about seeing our demographics change. And historically we haven’t been. And that’s why I’m really trying to shift the conversation to what can we do, and take advantage of the things that we already do well at. We have conferences every year, multiple conferences.
There’s an opportunity for us, especially when we are in the same city every year, to really start a program that allows students to grow with us and see how they develop into our profession. Even if they decide vet med isn’t for them, that’s a win too, right? Because we want people to really know and want to join this profession. But the hope is that by not only exposing them and then showing them what support can look like, because there’s so many people doing amazing work for pipeline that I’m still learning to this day. And it’s a great way to highlight where those places are to be able to guide these students to find them and continue their journey into vet med.
Dr. Andy Roark:
Yeah. I love your focus on pipeline and it makes a lot of sense to me. Can you go ahead, and let’s step to the side for a moment. When I sort of brought you on, I introduced you as amazing. But I didn’t lay down the fact that you’re practicing veterinarian, you’ve been a veterinarian for 16 years, you graduated pretty much when I did from school. And gosh, you’re a person. So you practice. You are a member of the Cornell University Advisory Council. You serve on the advisory board for Pawsibilities, which is a mentorship platform.
You’re a facilitator for MentorVet, which is the company that Dr. Addie Reinhardt runs and I’m a huge fan of hers. You just do all of these things. And you’re also the CEO and founder of Blendvet. And I want to start to talk about Blendvet a little bit. And so these are all the things you’re doing and you have this emphasis on pipeline, which I think is amazing. I want to come back to in a moment. Can you step over just to the side for a second and talk to me a little bit Blendvet and what your company does, what you do over there?
Dr. Niccole Bruno:
So a lot of what… My goal with starting Blendvet was to create a veterinary hospital certification program in diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. That stemmed from being a veterinary leader, because I used to manage veterinary hospitals, and seeing the values that leadership can display to create environments of inclusion in vet med, and realizing that if we are good as a hospital culture, that just mirrors into how we interact with community. So I felt like that was a way for me to really bring in and emphasize that training in DEI needs to be for all roles in a hospital because we all contribute to culture.
When I started to talk more about the reasons why we needed to improve our culture, why we needed to focus on all the roles in the hospital getting this training and creating a certification so that not only can our clients see that, “Hey, that’s a Blendvet certified hospital. I know that I could be welcome there.” But also our future colleagues as they’re joining, or even people that are looking for jobs as we speak, know that they can find a place or a workplace that they can thrive in.
And that was very important to me because I had been seeing so much of burnout from my colleagues, and I remembered times in my career where I was burnt out and it was usually when I didn’t feel included, when I didn’t feel like I belonged or I fit into places. And a lot of this stemmed from usually being the only person of color in that practice. I’m biracial, my mom is black, and my father’s Colombian. So I used to struggle on both sides when I would see our inability to engage with our clients because we didn’t speak the language. And I would try my best to speak as fluent in Spanish as I can, but also just seeing the disconnect in how we engage with our clients of color and wanting to do more. And so my goal with Blendvet was to create that opportunity so that we could learn how to be better together, but also be better for our clients.
And when I started talking about Blendvet more and more and more, my door opened more in veterinary students. Academia asked me to come and talk more about it, and I started to hear more from the vet students that these were topics that weren’t discussed in vet school, and this was information they wanted. These were experiences that they had already witnessed, either from their experience hours getting into vet school or as they were navigating clinical years. And in my mind, when I created Blendvet, I knew that I wanted to go backwards into vet school, but I needed to stay in the lane that I had been in for 17 years, which was practicing medicine.
And so I started there, but when the vet school doors opened, I jumped in there. And now we’ve started to do training within certain veterinary schools, whether it be their faculty training or the veterinary students themselves through lectures. And we are also still proceeding with our hospital certification program as well, which is what we’re starting this quarter. We’re going to be working with Rarebreed Veterinary Partners, and I’m really excited. We start next month. So when you say I’m busy, I’m like, “Ugh, that’s an understatement,” because it’s like I am… it’s surreal because this is what I’ve wanted and it’s happening in real time. And I’m excited. I’m excited for what it can bring. And then the pipeline was just literally the cherry on top. That pipeline event was everything.
Dr. Andy Roark:
Yeah, so you just get me so excited but also tired. You get me excited and tired. Because-
Dr. Niccole Bruno:
I’m tired. Yes.
Dr. Andy Roark:
Well, of course you are. You’re working across… It’s a massive problem. It’s a massive problem. And you have integrated yourself into all these different places and just in our short conversation, you can already see how you’re putting the pieces together, which is… this is why I think you’re so fascinating and I’m such a big fan of what you’re doing. But you’re like, “Okay, well obviously we start at the pipeline, and we talk about bringing people in. And then we need to attract these people, and we need to retain these people, and we need to make sure these people succeed and grow. So we’re starting to figure out how do we adapt culture that we have, which is a White culture. How do we adapt that so that it is inclusive and people can feel comfortable and they want to be a part of the culture that we have.”
And so you’re laying down all of these pieces and it’s really this ecosystem of how the individual pieces clicked together and work. But you’re clearly thought about this a lot as far as where are the biggest priorities and what needs to happen in order to build long-term success. And so I love how you think. I love how strategic you are about this and I love the fact that you’re very action oriented. And so it doesn’t surprise me at all that you’re working with students and that they really want to hear what you have to have to say.
Dr. Niccole Bruno:
Yeah, it’s been very, very rewarding working with the students. They’re a reminder, right? Of what we want.
Dr. Andy Roark:
Aren’t they wonderful?
Dr. Niccole Bruno:
Yeah. Yeah, they are.
Dr. Andy Roark:
Hey guys, I just want to hop in really quick and give a quick plug. The Uncharted Veterinary Conferences coming in April. Guys, I founded the Uncharted Veterinary Conference in 2017. It is one of a kind conference. It is all about business. It is about internal communications working effectively inside your practice if you’re a leader, that means you can be a medical director. It means you can be an associate vet who really wants to work well with your technicians. It means you can be a head technician, a head CSR. You can be a practice owner, practice manager, multi-site manager, multi-site medical director. We work with a lot of those people. This is all about building systems, setting expectations to work effectively with your people. Guys, Uncharted is a pure mentorship conference. That means that we come together and there is a lot of discussion. We create a significant percentage of the schedule, the agenda at the event, which means we are going to talk about the things that you are interested in.
It is, as I said, business communication focused, but a lot of freedom inside that to make sure that you get to talk about what you want to talk about. We really prioritize people being able to have one-on-one conversations to pick people’s brains, to get advice from people who have wrestled with the problems that they are currently wrestled with. We make all that stuff happen. If you want to come to a conference where you do not sit and get lectured at, but you work on your own practice, your own challenges, your own growth and development, that’s what Uncharted is. Take a chance, give us a look, come and check it out. It is in April. I’ll put a link in the show notes for registration, ask anybody who’s been, it’s something special. All right, let’s get back into this episode.
The vet students are always… I get so energized when I work with vet students because they’re excited about the profession. They see these endless possibilities and they’re ready to go and they want to change the world and change their profession. And I always leave the vet school so fired up because they’re inspiring in a fresh eyed look at what we’re doing, and they just remind you how awesome our profession is. So can you talk a little bit about this? I want to hear more about the certification. So you said, we talk about having all rules in the hospital trained in DEI. Talk to me about what that looks like. So if a practice owner said to you, “Hey, you know what? I’m interested in this. Help me understand what my people would learn.” What is valuable knowledge for them even look like? Because most of us, we’ve never had anything like this. We don’t really know what that is. So can you start to help me see that picture?
Dr. Niccole Bruno:
Sure can. So first thing that I felt was really, really important was having it on an LMS where we had an opportunity to take it at our own pace because we’re busy, and so we can’t really… it’s really hard to collaborate, get everybody in the hospital together at the same time, it’s like… I remember having luncheon learns and right when the rep is about to start, you have that emergency come in or the phone call. So it’s really hard to have that timed learning opportunity. So they will be asynchronous modules through our LMS. But before that, we have our hospitals take our Blendvet culture assessment and we have developed an art to what we think would be the right way to assess culture and from a hospital’s perspective, but any workplace actually. And then once we get the culture assessment, then we meet with the leadership team and we present the results and we create a workshop of like, “This is some areas that we feel need to be focused on.”
We really need to emphasize training. And it might be we need to be better at knowing what our biases are. We may need to look at allyship a little bit better. So that’s a way that we can get live training, right? And then just get that connection with them, understand maybe stories or situations that have happened to really feel like they’re not in this alone. And then afterwards we introduce the staff, and with now the leadership knowing their role in supporting their staff through their LMS, and they will go through modules under each element or value of blend. So I didn’t really mention what Blend stood for, it’s not an acronym, but the Blend itself stands for the values of what I feel create a great hospital culture and that’s one of the inclusivity. So B, stands for building relationships. So how do we build these relationships with our team, realizing communication looks different, how do we lead?
So leading with empathy, with vulnerability, which I felt was very, very important, especially during the pandemic. It was a skill that not every leader had and it definitely drove the difference in how cultures responded or how our staff responded. Education and equity are the ease. So understanding that we need to create equitable environments, but also we need to constantly seek education. It’s not a one and done. DEI is constantly evolving. And so understanding that this is an opportunity to take that first step into the journey of DEI. N, stands for navigating the unknown. So those are the things that everybody just wants to avoid. And unfortunately those are the things that really start the toxicity in a hospital culture, the things that we avoid. So how do we handle difficult conversations? How do we handle when current events are going on and they’re affecting groups of people that we don’t even know how to start having those conversations.
But if there’s a foundation of trust, if we’ve had that relationship, it’s easier to have those conversations. And then D stands for diversity, inclusion and belonging. It’s understanding that all of those pieces is what helps not only create an environment where we feel safe to come to work, but we perform better, we thrive better, we get things done faster together. And so all of those elements have modules. So all the values have modules underneath them. And what I’ve been doing over the last two years is really identifying people in the industry that are passionate about DEI, but speak to a certain topic related to those modules. So we have the great Mia Carey that talks about allyship and she’s the CEO of PrideVMC. So she really lays the foundation of what that looks like as an ally. But we also have people of the LGBTQ plus community talking about what it’s been like to be in their shoes.
One of a module that went really well in our academic launch was our module with Christina Wetzel. And she spoke about what it’s been like to be deaf in our profession, and not only as a technician, but now as a veterinary student and ultimately what it will be like as a veterinarian. And so what I’ve found is that when we need to learn about DEI. Yes, the definitions matter but how they make people feel, the application part, the lived experiences, that’s what you don’t get from reading in a textbook, or how does this apply to my life and how can we make it better so that we don’t have others in our hospitals or as our clients feel this way? And so when I speak, I usually lean on experiences that I’ve had happen to me where I’ve been marginalized or a client didn’t want me to do surgery and what that felt like, but also put it back on what should leadership have done in this moment?
What should we as a hospital have done or had in place so that our colleague didn’t feel marginalized, or that we wouldn’t allow this client to come back through our door again? Or what do we have in place so these clients know this is not the way to behave because we are not going to tolerate it. These are all the things that my hope is Blend will have people start thinking about. My goal is not to tell you how to run your hospital, but it’s to give you that framework, those bones, so that you create your blueprint of like, “This is the communities that we work with. This is what we don’t have. We need to hire to fill in that gap so that there are no language barriers.” So that’s the purpose of Blend. So they go through these modules. There’s reflective activities, there’s opportunities for the hospital to partner with Blend to have a facilitated conversation to really tie in the module together.
And then to become certified, we ask hospitals to do some community service, which is why the pipeline events really are helpful for me to let them see how we can do that very easily. But also internally, what are you going to do in your hospital to make it better for your staff, for your clients that come into your doors? And that can be what they deem is the next best step for them, by putting that all together and really making a commitment to that educational process and that evolution and then actually creating the actionable step, because… You’re correct in that, I’m very action oriented. Doing-
Dr. Andy Roark:
Yeah, I love it.
Dr. Niccole Bruno:
… that is what makes you a more of a Blend certified hospital and because you’re taking the next step.
Dr. Andy Roark:
Well, as you lay this out, the commitment to service. And you and I talked about that when we first met, and you had mentioned about service and how it fit into your dream for Blend as well. And we start with this conversation in the pipeline and then we go with it, and we talked about service and then how that feeds back into this pipeline and go, “God, Niccole, you’ve built this beautiful thing.” It makes sense and it works. And I’m just… Anyway, I keep saying how impressed I am. Well, it’s-
Dr. Niccole Bruno:
Thank you. I appreciate it.
Dr. Andy Roark:
So let me ask you this. So we’ve already sprawled across every aspect of practice from recruiting at the undergraduate and pre undergraduate levels all the way up to practice leadership. And it’s like, this is a broad swath here. So it’s clear that you think it at a high level and you think about the profession as a whole. If you were queen of veterinary medicine for a day, what would you be your worst, the profession? So like a magic wand and say, what would you like to see? How… Again, magic wand in hand, how would you love to see our profession mobilize in order to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion? Are there specific steps or areas that you say, I would love for us to focus on these areas or to see these types of actions? What would that look like?
Dr. Niccole Bruno:
I think it’s a combination of the training part of wanting to be better for who we are serving right now. But I also think it’s a part of understanding that you have to give back. And I know that it’s hard for us sometimes because we are very… we’re pet centric, right? We are veterinarians, we want to take care of the animals, but the animals belong to the people. And if the people aren’t on board in connecting with us or understanding the health concerns of the patient, we’re not getting the compliance and the pet is not getting better. So it’s a whole circle of life, so to speak. For me, I want my colleagues to, again, like I said, I’m not trying to tell them what to do, but I want to give them opportunities to fit in with what makes sense.
What’s your niche? Some people are really great with working with younger kids. There are programs that exist for K through four. There’s programs for junior high school age. There’s programs for high school. Challenge your veterinary schools of what are we doing to improve pipeline? Do we have a program in place? How can I help? Pawsibilities. You mentioned I’m on the advisory board. It’s a great opportunity for people that may not have the time to show up during the day, but it’s a way to virtually support a student that might want to enter it. I think that if could wave my magic wand, it would be to ignite in all of my colleagues an opportunity to do bee of service, not just for what we do daily, but to think about the pipeline and think about the future of our profession.
And I know… And it’s like I said, it looks differently for different people depending on their skillset. Mine is definitely pipeline development. My sister, just to throw her out there, she is very passionate about access to care. That’s been her pathway into vet med with the ASPCA. And so I tell her all the time, “When you’re finished with your master’s program, come on down and let’s create an access to care event for…” But the point is that we all have an opportunity to step into that service mindset and give back. And I think that that’s ultimately what I would do if I was queen of vet med for the day.
Dr. Andy Roark:
I love it. Yeah. Tell me a little bit more about Pawsibilities. It’s not a group I know a whole a lot about.
Dr. Niccole Bruno:
Oh, yeah. Well you should totally have Dr. Marcano on. But Valerie Marcano is someone that I feel like we probably are sisters on vet. But we have a lot of… She actually knows my sisters, so we call ourselves sisters. But she went to Cornell for undergrad and went to Georgia and during the… they had a hackathon at Georgia and her husband, who was the co-founder for Pawsibilities, they pitched a virtual platform opportunity for underrepresented students to learn about veterinary medicine and all of the ways to support them through pipeline development. So it’s an opportunity, if you wanted to join Pawsibilities, you could go to pawsibilitiesvetmed.com, and there’s a way that you can sign up as a mentor or you can be a mentee. But either way, you would be having to take a… about an hour and a half, course in what is the role of a mentor, what is the role of a mentee, what are barriers that students that are underrepresented may encounter?
So you have a little bit more knowledge base about it. And then once you’ve passed the test and you’re in, it’s almost like another social media group where you can see what other students… they can ask questions. There might be somebody in Alaska saying, “I really want to do marine biology. How do I start?” And somebody that is in that industry can come in and counsel them offline, on an email or they can connect with that person and really start a relationship that consists of a mentoring mentee type of relationship. So it’s allowed me… sometimes I’ve had students reach out to me to ask me about things knowing that I’m from New York, what opportunities or what hospitals did you shadow at? And sometimes I’m like, “Well, you know what? I have a sister who’s a vet that lives in New York, so I can connect you with her.”
So sometimes I am a connector and sometimes I’m giving the advice. But especially during the pandemic where people couldn’t get experience hours at hospitals, it was a way to support students that really didn’t know where to start. They were isolated from school, they didn’t know what to do. So it was a way for us. And Pawsibilities does sometimes monthly workshops to help students with the application of vet school, or just scholarship opportunities. So either way, it’s just a way for us to give back if we don’t have the time as far as showing up at an event. But we can do it off hours because you can always answer an email at any time.
Dr. Andy Roark:
Oh yeah, that’s great. Where can people find more about you? Where can they more learn more about BlendVet?
Dr. Niccole Bruno:
So definitely head to my website, www.blend.vet. We have so many opportunities for you to learn more about the program, but also just the resources that I have held during my journey into this DEI space of what’s helped me, certain books, certain podcasts. So it’s a way that we’ve just tried to condense that information. And if anyone is interested in learning more about the hospital certification program or just outside speaking events, we can always sign up on our wait list and then somebody will get back to you. But we are hoping to continue our work showing up at conferences and providing some DEI content there. So that’s another way to meet us as well.
Dr. Andy Roark:
That’s fantastic. Dr. Niccole Bruno, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for all the work that you are doing in our profession. I am so glad I got to meet you and talked with you. I can’t wait to get to talk with you more in the future. Guys, thanks for tuning in today.
Dr. Niccole Bruno:
Thank you so much for having me.
Dr. Andy Roark:
And that is what I got for you guys. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you got something out of it. Thanks a lot to Dr. Bruno for being here. I’ll put a link to blend.vet down in the show notes. You guys can check that out. As always, if you liked it, if you got something out of this episode, please leave me an honest review wherever you get podcasts or share it with your friends, or you just want to try to get the word out and help people find the work that we’re doing here on The Cone of Shame. Anyway, guys, take care of yourselves. Be well. I’ll talk to you later on.
