My Story

In 1995, I founded Compassionate Veterinary Care in Chicago, bringing in-home medical care and consultation directly to companion animals. Driven by a desire to deepen my knowledge, I immersed myself in the world of human hospice and palliative care — completing volunteer training, coursework, and board exam preparation designed for physicians — and brought those hard-won insights back to the animals and families I served.

As the need for dedicated hospice services became clear, I launched Compassionate Veterinary Hospice in 2012 — a practice devoted entirely to geriatric, palliative, and hospice care for seriously ill animals and the families who love them. Over decades spent at the bedsides of beloved pets in their final chapter, I feel I have become known as something rare: someone equally at home in veterinary medicine and the humanity of it.

Over 15 long years, from 1992 to 2007, I explored existing veterinary organizations, seeing recognition of the importance of hospice and palliative care for animals, but found only lip service to the concept. I knew hospice and palliative care deserved recognition as a specialty within the veterinary profession, and to create a place for others to work with me on my vision, I founded the International Association for Animal Hospice and Palliative Care (IAAHPC). Under my leadership, the new association developed the first guidelines for how hospice and palliative care for animals should be practiced. I then recruited the best minds in the field to co-create and teach the first advanced education program in hospice and palliative care for Veterinarians and Veterinary Technicians.

The next item on my bucket list was a textbook for the new field. I invited two brilliant colleagues and friends to join me in the effort to find a publisher, recruit contributors, and edit Hospice and Palliative Care for Companion Animals — the first and definitive textbook in the field, now in its second edition.

I first crossed paths with Michelle Nichols in 2011 when she spoke at the inaugural IAAHPC Annual Conference. She went on to join the board, and during her presidential year, I served as her leadership mentor. That bond, built on shared values and a common vision, led us to co-found Animal Hospice Group, co-author the Animal Hospice Practitioner Certification curriculum, and teach the next generation of practitioners. It’s a joy to now be working together clinically, and AHELP Project’s Comfort Care Coaching is the natural evolution of that shared mission.