Teaching

Training the Next Generation of Zoo Veterinarians

Kathryn Gamble, D.V.M., director of Veterinary Services at Lincoln Park Zoo, has been mentoring veterinary students since 1994—just two years after graduating as valedictorian from Texas A&M! Between her prior appointments and her work at Lincoln Park Zoo, she will teach her 50th student in 2013, with almost 50 percent of previous students now in full-time zoo practice.

Through adjunct professor appointments with the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine and Northwestern Medical School and by guest lecturing with the London Zoological Society Master of Science in Wildlife Health program, Gamble works with veterinary students all around the world.

Beyond Gamble’s mentoring efforts, Lincoln Park Zoo has a post-graduate veterinary resident program that is approved by the American College of Zoological Medicine.

Where are they now?
Veterinary students taught by Gamble are now working in institutions including zoos, veterinary schools and animal clinics. Look below to find out more about what a specific student is doing.

Helen Browning

I came to Lincoln Park Zoo in 2006 after completing a master’s in wild animal health at the Royal Veterinary College and Zoological Society of London. I spent three months with the Veterinary Services Department as a voluntary intern, where I was lucky enough to assist and observe a number of interesting procedures. These included health checks on western lowland gorillas and African wild dogs as well as an essential surgical procedure on an African lion.

My time at the zoo was a great opportunity to gain new skills, and I am very grateful for the support and encouragement given by the staff, both in Veterinary Services and the zookeepers. After my time at Lincoln Park Zoo, I spent a year as a locum veterinary surgeon, working throughout the U.K., mainly in exotic and emergency medicine, before starting a second master’s degree at the Centre for Infectious Disease in Edinburgh to follow my particular interest in emerging diseases of wildlife. I am now based at the Sea Mammal Research Unit in St. Andrews, Scotland undertaking a Ph.D. to investigate potential genetic and infectious causes behind urogenital cancer in California sea lions.