The Chief Veterinarian serves as a clinical veterinarian and leader of our community and shelter medicine programs. The LASPCA’s Community Clinic serves as a fee for service and donor subsidized primary care facility, seeking to increase access to high quality veterinary care for underserved communities through incremental medicine, a high quality/high volume spay neuter clinic and a shelter clinic for animals in both the New Orleans and Belle Chase locations. Services include primary and preventative care, high-quality high-volume spay/neuter (HQHV SN) services, community vaccine clinics and well as herd health in the companion animal shelters. 

The Chief Veterinarian is responsible for working in partnership with the LASPCA’s leadership team in implementing and maximizing the impact of the clinic program, providing mentorship to the veterinarians and managers, creating a unified set of practices, cultivating a culture of learning, and promoting a positive and healthy environment for team members, animals and community members that we serve.  

The Chief Veterinarian is expected to demonstrate the organization’s core values in the following ways:

Showing compassion for people and pets, the Chief Veterinarian:

• Leads and manages the work of the veterinarians in providing exceptional and accessible community medicine, surgery and shelter medical care. 
• Monitors and supports the wellbeing of the veterinary team.   
• Effectively and compassionately communicates and models active listening with clients, volunteers, community partners, and LASPCA team members. 
• Serves as a member of the LASPCA leadership team integrating the veterinary medical goals and needs with those of the other equally important teams.   
• Serves as a veterinary ambassador, promoting the LASPCA’s mission, goals and strategic initiatives to veterinarians, vendors, the public, veterinary schools and other animal welfare related organizations. 

As a creative problem solver, the Chief Veterinarian:

• Drives the strategy for delivery of veterinary care by community data and the organization’s resources. 
• Empowers veterinarians to provide an incremental approach and spectrum of care in the delivery of community and shelter medical services. 
• Assists in case review for complaints that are medical in nature and works towards resolution in a timely manner. 
• Develops and refines new and existing medical protocols. 
• Forecasts and collaborates with finance, fundraising and marketing to align resources for continued service delivery and operational growth 
• Proactively shares the clinic’s opportunities and challenges with LASPCA’s Leadership as well as proposes a variety of ways to optimize solutions. 

Demonstrating humble confidence, the Chief Veterinarian:

• Develops KPI’s, aligns all medical practices and monitors clinic’s performance.  
• Documents, updates, and maintains thorough and accurate medical record and SOPs regarding veterinary medical recordkeeping. 
• Coaches, provides training and skill development, and assesses the performance of their direct reports including the Veterinarians.   
• Leads training sessions for LASPCA team members on current issues, trends and specific veterinary topics. 
• Directly supervises, teaches, mentors and provides feedback to veterinary interns and externs, particularly in meeting their curriculum requirements and personal learning goals. 
• Seeks feedback from direct reports to better understand their own performance.  

Flexible and adaptable, the Chief Veterinarian:

• Guides the clinic managers in developing contingency plans for unexpected disruptions to the planned clinic services. 
• Ensures the medical team is prepared to respond to non-medical emergencies and disasters, 
• Steps in to deliver veterinary services when necessary. 
• Seizes opportunities that present and are within the Clinic team’s capacity to deliver. 

Focusing on equity and accessibility for our diverse organization, the Chief Veterinarian: 

• Seeks input from diverse voices and perspectives throughout the organization as well as the community. 
• Creates an open environment where team members feel safe being their authentic selves and leverages individual and team strengths for greater impact. 

Demonstrating emotional intelligence: 

• Maintains a culture of collaboration and teamwork within Clinic team and LASPCA broadly.  
• Maintains a positive and professional attitude even when difficult issues present. 
• Gives and receives open and honest feedback. 

Additionally, the Chief Veterinarian is responsible for:  

• Ensuring that they and all veterinarians appropriate State, DEA or other required licensing and adhere to all applicable regulations, including the State Veterinary Practice Act, and all LASPCA policies & protocols. 
• Supports the maintenance of drug and supply inventory while meeting and maintaining DEA requirements. 
• Works collaboratively with the CFO in the development of the annual budget and ensures the medical purchasing recommendations meet both the medical needs and financial parameters set by the CFO in the budgeting process.  
• Partners with HR to recruit veterinarians and actively supports the orientation and onboarding of veterinarians new to the department. 

Requirements:

• Doctoral degree in veterinary medicine 
• Five years of clinical experience post-graduation focusing on practicing companion animal veterinary medicine and/or shelter medicine 
• 3 or more years of managing 3 or more reports 
• Current or able to obtain a Louisiana Veterinary License and CDS License  
• Current or able to obtain DEA license 
• Ability to work at more than one LASPCA facilities or offsite event locations  
• Some weekend or evening hours  
• Growth mindset 

Preferred Skills/Experience:

• Experience practicing incremental veterinary medicine  
• Experience providing community veterinary medicine for underserved/under resourced communities 
• Experience or training in shelter medicine or emergency medicine  
• Interest in data analytics, financial management or business management 
• Current USDA License 
• Surgical skills: HVHQ SN, surgical dentals, mass removals, enucleations, amputations 
• Bilingual skills  

Physical Requirements: 

• Should not be allergic to animals or have nut allergies; must be able to work with all animals. 
• Must be able to work with industrial strength cleaners and disinfectants. 
• Must be able to lift at least 50 pounds; push and pull heavy objects; bend, twist, reach; perform strenuous physical activities including frequent walking and running, standing, bending and stooping.  

Working Conditions: 

• Potentially subject to animal bites and scratches 
• Works in an area with high noise levels 

About Louisiana SPCA

The Louisiana SPCA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to promote, protect and advance the well-being of Louisiana’s companion animals. As the oldest and most comprehensive animal welfare organization in the state, we impact more than 73,000 homeless and companion animals each year. For more than 130 years we have been committed to service the needs of the people and animals in the Greater New Orleans community and across the region as a 4-star Charity Navigator rated nonprofit ranking in the top 1% nationally.

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