Blue Buffalo honors extraordinary veterinarians

Michael Blackwell, DVM, MPH; Stephanie Jones, DVM; Jane Brunt, DVM; and Alex Miller, VMD, MS, at the awards ceremony during WVC (Image courtesy of Caitlin McCafferty)

During the 2025 WVC Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, Blue Buffalo honored 4 veterinarians during its Together For Pets awards event. This year’s winners are Michael Blackwell, DVM, MPH; Jane Brunt, DVM; Stephanie Jones, DVM; and Philip Richmond, DVM, CAPP, CPHSA, CCFO. Each winner received a $10,000 grant to support their mission and continue their efforts to improve the lives of patients and clients.

“We’re thrilled to support veterinary professionals and advance their contributions to the profession,” Alex Miller, VMD, MS, manager of veterinary services at General Mills, said in an organizational release.¹ “Veterinarians are extraordinary people in so many ways. Through our Together for Pets program, we have been honored to showcase how so many go above and beyond to make the world and our industry a better place.”

Blackwell

Blackwell founded the Program for Pet Health Equity (PPHE), which strives to advance pet family health equity through a Health Approach. PPHE is also working to transform communities in a way that ensures access to essential care and integrated services. The organization works to ensure that every pet family, no matter their circumstances, can access the care and services they need to thrive.

During his address at the award ceremony, Blackwell highlighted the fact that the family model in the United States has changed over time because families now include both human and nonhuman members. Nearly 70% of households in the US have pets, and 97% say their pets are real family members who deserve the care they need regardless of circumstances.²

Closing out his speech, Blackwell recalled a time as a child when he was exposed to economic euthanasia, and what that sparked in him.

“So it was the veterinarian that ended up in a horrible situation with the dog being euthanized or a treatable medical problem, and it was on that day that my childhood ended about these things happen that seemed all wrong. Why? Because they're known better, another expression of serving our collective good in a serious way. I think of our teachers. I think of public servants in general. These people deserve access to health care for all of their family members, and that is how the program for public equity got started and ultimately aligned care as a system to subsidize that care,” Blackwell shared.

Brunt

Brunt serves as the executive director for the CATalyst Council, an organization working to improve healthcare for feline patients in the US through increasing responsible cat ownership, enhancing the stature of cats, and enriching lives.

“If you think about why we're all here, it's the human-animal bond, and that's what brings us together for pets. So with the people that are coming in next to me, I am feeling not worthy, because they do so many things with people and pets, and all I do is promote the power of purr.It's fun, but I am so proud to be a veterinarian. Our profession continues to evolve, adapt and grow in the ever-changing environment, because we're all veterinarians, and yes, we like animals,” Brunt expressed.

Through the CATalyst Council’s efforts, pet owners are connected to and gain an understanding of the importance of taking their cats to the veterinary regularly, veterinarians provide a positive experience for cats and clients as well as believe that caring for cats is a crucial part of a sustainable and profitable practice, and shelters and veterinarians work together to educate families adopting cats on positive cat care practices.

Jones

At age 10, Jones read a Dear Abby news article that sparked her journey into veterinary medicine. She did not have any exposure to the field but pursued the career anyway landing here where she is today. Jones told attendees that throughout her career, like others in the industry, she lost her purpose and why within the profession. However, she ended up doing a community service project at a foster care organization that gave her that spark back. While volunteering, she could not start engaging with children until telling them she was a veterinarian, and that helped create interest and curiosity for the field.

“Pets Help the Heart Heal was created as a place that provides opportunity and experience to our youth and the power of the human-animal bond. So our youth and foster care have all the different challenges, and sometimes they don't know what it is that they want to do so I always say you don't know until you know,” explained Jones.

“So Pets Help the Heart Heal has been able to do that, not only for youth in foster care but youth all over because you don't know until you know. And I love that I have the space, I have the team, and I have the support of the community in order to do that, through our shadow programs, through our life at pets and junior vets, through our reading initiative, and our STEM workshop, and so we are giving them a why,” she concluded.

Richmond

Richmond, who could not be present at the awards ceremony, is the founder of Flourishing Phoenix, a veterinary wellbeing and engagement consulting practice. Richmond founded the company intending to help veterinary teams create positive workplace cultures and improve veterinary professionals’ overall well-being. In a statement provided by Richmond for the event, he shared a time in his career when he was suffering mentally, leading him to think about the future of veterinary medicine and how to improve the mental health and well-being of those who make up the industry.

“If it weren't for caring individuals in the veterinary community like you, I wouldn't be here today as an early career veterinarian, I experienced serious psychological distress, lacked effective tools, and had a plan to end my life. Thank goodness my coworkers recognized the signs and knew the resources available to get me help,” Mills read from the statement provided by Richmond.

“While in treatment, I was given tools, not only to help me be better and heal but also to enrich and elevate in work and in life. Those lessons and experiences offer me the foundation for a generative question for the future of VetMed: what if veterinary professionals leave in better psychological condition than when they arrived? What if every one of them left work through fulfilled energies, energized and uplifted to do that, we need to prevent psychological harm, treat illness, and promote flourishing.”

Flourishing Phoenix created the first comprehensive workplace well-being, psychological safety, emotional social hazards, and positive leadership evaluations. Richmond also shared that through work with the Florida Veterinary Medical Association (FVMA), and sponsorship from Blue Buffalo, the FVMA now offers support for veterinary professionals in the state, regardless of role in the clinic, to give them mental health professional coaching and therapy.

A lasting impact

To date, Blue Buffalo has donated over $120,000 to veterinary industry organizations to help make the veterinary industry a better place by uplifting those working to do so, like this year’s Together For Pets award recipients. Previous winners of the award, like Addie Reinhard, DVM, MS, founder and chief executive officer of MentorVet, used her grant from 2024 to grow programs that are evidence-based to help support and uplift veterinary professionals. Other previous winners, Jon Geller, DVM, DABVP, emeritus founder of the Street Dog Coalition, Robin Downing, DVM, DAAPM, DACVSMR, CVPP, CCRP, CVA, MS, who pioneered pain management in animals, Terrence Ferguson, DVM, and Vernard Hodges, DVM, hosts of NatGeo’s hit show Critter Fixers: Country Vets, all have contributed in different ways to make the industry a better place for pets, clients, and veterinary professionals.

“In some ways, [WVC] kind of runs itself. We go through the motions. Veterinary medicine can feel like that as well. We show up, we do our job, and we just kind of move forward. I'll tell you, what's really easy is, you get home from a hard day's work, you have a glass of wine or a beer, however, you relax and you start thinking about, like, ‘oh, veterinary medicine really could use this. Or why can't we just right?’ And we said, we have those conversations with ourselves or with others, so it's really easy to think about what needs to be done. What's really hard is doing it is actually taking those steps to change the profession for the better, because I truly believe we can be something miraculous. We have been, we are now, and we can get even better,” Mills expressed to the crowd.

References

1. Blue Buffalo Continues Annual “Together For Pets” Award Ceremony Marking $120,000 Milestone. News release. Blue Buffalo. February 26, 2025. Accessed March 12, 2025.
2. Brown A. About Half of U.S. Pet Owners Say Their Pets Are as Much a Part of Their Family as a Human Member. Pew Research Center. Published July 7, 2023. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/07/07/about-half-us-of-pet-owners-say-their-pets-are-as-much-a-part-of-their-family-as-a-human-member/