Senior Director of Shelter Medicine

The Senior Director, Shelter Medicine works within the Shelter Medicine Service (SMS) team to provide shelter medicine expertise within the ASPCA and externally to veterinarians, shelters & rescues, and other stakeholders. The Senior Director leverages shelter medicine knowledge and experience; excellent writing, public speaking, and communication skills; and a strong desire to improve the health and well-being of animals, shelters, and communities.

This person provides mentorship and training and engages in extensive collaboration with different subject matter experts across programs and organizations. Success hinges on their ability to work with a variety of constituents and facilitate relationship-building. Who We Are The SMS team improves the health and welfare of animals in shelters and communities by strategically applying expertise both internally at the ASPCA and externally with key stakeholders.

The team supports the animal welfare field through direct consultation and training, development of educational resources, applied research, and strategic positions and partnerships. SMS is primarily comprised of veterinarians ABVP board-certified in Shelter Medicine Practice and is the home department of the Julie Morris Shelter Medicine Residency, which is based in New York City. Most team members are remote with significant travel to ASPCA programs, external sheltering organizations, and training events at conferences and veterinary schools.

Members of SMS each have a portfolio of ongoing work, focused projects, and areas of emphasis. Through close collaboration, SMS members work to provide consistency and continuity in messaging and recommendations regarding shelter medicine practices, balanced with the nuances of implementation in varied contexts. Collectively, members also subscribe to a workplace culture of life-long learning, relentless collaboration, and a willingness to dive into work that needs to be done.

The Senior Director, Shelter Medicine supports sheltering organizations by providing training, educational resources, and direct consultative work. They provide subject matter expertise on a variety of shelter medicine topics both within the ASPCA and with external organizations to support the integration and alignment of key shelter medicine principles and high-quality animal care. Much of the shelter and community facing work is collaborative with other departments at the ASPCA.

They play a critical role as a mentor for shelter medicine residents and practitioners and contribute to continued growth of the field by serving in leadership positions in strategic veterinary medical and animal welfare organizations. To succeed in this role, the Senior Director, Shelter Medicine must have both breadth and depth of shelter medicine clinical expertise in both individual and population-level practice.

They must have outstanding interpersonal, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking skills and an enthusiasm for training shelter professionals. Success also hinges on their ability to identify and leverage a breadth and depth of past experience to provide a high-quality, collaborative, nuanced approach to implementation of individual and population health principles. Deep relationship building across teams is essential for establishing clinical working relationships and understanding of the work.

The Senior Director, Shelter Medicine reports directly to the VP, Shelter Medicine Services and Veterinary Training Programs and has no direct reports.

This remote-based position requires the ability and willingness to travel up to 30% and is open to all eligible candidates based within the United States who live within an hour of…