Letter: Im inspired by female leaders in the profession today

At the 2015 Western Veterinary Conference, female veterinarians shared their stories of local, state and national leadership in a special session organized by the Women's Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative (WVLDI). An attendee shared this reaction with Veterinary Economics magazine:

I learned at a young age that having strong women as role models has a huge impact on young girls. I was fortunate to have many of these women around me when I was growing up. I was taught that being a girl was not a limitation, but that many times I would need to work harder to accomplish my goals.

I never lost sight of my goal to become a veterinarian-it just took me a little longer to get there. Now that I'm here, my goals continue, and I want to help make a difference for young girls and women in my community and in my profession.

Karen Bradley, DVM, the president of WVLDI, and Lori Teller, DVM, DABVP, past-president of the Texas VMA, have already been doing these things, and I wanted to learn how they did it. I'm just getting started in my community. I started with my daughter's career night at school about three years ago. I gave four presentations about being a veterinarian to groups of 20 to 30 students and their parents. I've given presentations to my daughter's 4-H club and the local Cloverbud Club. I've mentored three young ladies who thought they might be interested in becoming veterinarians. One is attending the University of Findlay as a pre-veterinary student. Another is pursuing an animal science degree and has plans of going to veterinary school. A third is heading into her clinical year of veterinary school this spring.

I want to continue doing the things I'm doing now, but I want to do more. Karen and Lori are doing the "more" I want to do.

I have two young daughters and a third on the way. I want to be the best role model I can be for them, my nieces and other women I can have an impact on. My vote would be for Veterinary Economics and dvm360.com to work side-by-side with these ladies and encourage other women to become leaders in our profession. (Editor's note: We're working on it, Dr. Kidd!)

Jessica Kidd, DVM

Green Meadow Veterinary Hospital in Marietta, Ohio.