Tamara Vinay

I originally got into the veterinary field in 2001 because I was looking to become a veterinarian but wanted to get into the field before spending all that money in schooling. I started out as a kennel tech and worked my way up through the hospital, making sure I got well-versed in all different aspects from kennel tech to assistant technician to technician to surgery tech to pharmaceutical tech, and became very proficient at administration and customer service at the front desk. I wanted to either become a doctor or possibly own a hospital, so I knew I needed to be well-versed in all aspects. After mastering general practice, I branched out to specialty practice and worked with nation-renowned board-certified veterinary dentist Dr. Steven Holmstrom for a few years to learn animal dentistry. I was able to work with some of the top board-certified dentists in the nation, including Dr. Peter Emily who created the test for doctors to become board certified for animal dentistry. We would volunteer our time on weekends providing dental care for exotic animals like lions, tigers, and kinkajus at wildlife waste stations at no cost. After about 13-14 years, I got out of the industry because most hospitals were privately owned husband-wife operations and those opportunities weren't readily available for someone like myself. I joined Crunch Fitness to get operations experience and stayed for 7 years as a multi-location manager running 3 of their 4 largest locations on the West Coast, winning awards as the top operations manager on the West Coast. Once I had legitimate operations experience, I got back into the veterinary field at Whipple Avenue Pet Hospital as practice manager for 3 years. My whole goal was to create the positive, supportive work environment for my staff that I was never allotted during the time I was in their position. I let the staff know that I am not the type of manager that throws titles around, that I will get into the nitty-gritty with them as an equal. That approach has been very successful for me, and I've been rewarded with staff retention in an industry where that is not typically the norm. Whipple offered me a portion of the company because I was building their business up so much, but it wasn't financially the best fit at that time. I'm now with Companion Pet Partners for about 7 months, where I was given a hospital that needs a lot of TLC. I have been able to turn around the hospital in the short amount of time I've been there and let the staff know that I'm here with them, we're in this together. We have a phenomenal team now. Operations is my niche, and I enjoy the industry immensely.