Episode #32 – Dr. Lori Teller

Welcome to The People of Animal Health Podcast. The host of our podcast is Stacy Pursell. Stacy is the leading executive recruiter for the animal health industry and veterinary profession. She’s the Founder of The VET Recruiter and has placed more professionals in key positions within the animal health industry and the veterinary profession than any other executive search professional. Along the way, Stacy has built relationships with some outstanding people who are doing incredible things to make a difference. The people of Animal Health podcast features industry leaders and trailblazers who have made a significant impact or are making an impact in the animal health industry or the veterinary profession.

Stacy chats with them to learn more about their lives, their careers, and the unique and interesting things that they have done to contribute to the animal health industry or the veterinary profession. She’s here to share their stories with you. Now here’s the host of our podcast, Stacy Pursell.

Hello everyone and welcome to The People of Animal Health Podcast. On today’s show, we are talking with Dr. Lori Teller. Dr. Teller is a graduate of Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and she is a board certified diplomate at the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners in Canine and Feline Practice. She worked at Meyerland Animal Clinic for many years, starting at the age of 12, and continuing after graduation from veterinary school. In 2018, Dr. Teller joined the faculty at Texas A&M University and is now a clinical professor. She is very passionate about her teaching role as well as telemedicine and its utilization in the veterinary field. She was awarded a grant from Petco Love to improve access to veterinary care for low-income senior citizens in a rural community in Texas, where a combination of in-person and telemedicine visits are used to take care of their pets.

Dr. Teller has been very involved in the veterinary profession, and she is a past President of the Harris County and the Texas Veterinary Medical Associations and was a recipient of the Texas Veterinary Medical Association’s recent graduate of the year award, as well as several president’s awards. In September of 2019, she was honored with the Visionary Award by the Southwest Veterinary Symposium. Dr. Teller has served on several committees and task forces for the American Veterinary Medical Association, as well as in the AVMA’s House of Delegates. She is the immediate past President of the AVMA. She also serves as an AVMA ambassador meeting with congressional representatives, and she has testified before the Presidential Advisory Council to combat antibiotic resistant bacteria and the House Subcommittee on Health. She is a member of TVMA’s Political Influence Coalition and has served as a trustee on the Texas VMA’s PAC.

Dr. Teller has served as the chair of the board of certification for the American Society and Veterinary Journalists, and was a founding board member of the Women’s Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative. She was named one of 14 veterinarians to watch by Veterinary Practice News, and she has a monthly radio spot on Houston’s NPR radio station where she highlights the importance of veterinary care and answers the questions of callers. She serves as an educator and mentor to many veterinary students, recent grads and young leaders, helping them navigate the complicated world of veterinary medicine and life beyond the boundaries of work.

Recently, Dr. Teller was elected as the newest Canine Feline regent of the ABVP, as well as elected to serve on ABVPs board of directors at large. Outside of the veterinary world, Dr. Teller was founder of and a board trustee for the Gateway Academy, a high school for students with learning differences and special needs in Houston, and she was recognized as an everyday hero by 740 KTRH for her volunteer work in the prevention of child abuse. She married her high school sweetheart, Dr. Craig Teller, and they have one son and several pets. In her spare time, Dr. Teller loves to hang out with her friends and family, exercise, read and travel extensively to places where she can explore new things by day and enjoy great wine and food by night. She’s also a sucker for chocolate chip cookies, corny jokes, and puppy breath. Welcome onto The People of Animal Health Podcast, and how are you Lori?

I am great. Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Well, I’m so excited to have you, Lori. I know that we’ve known each other for a number of years now, and I always enjoy seeing you at different meetings and conferences, and I know that you’ve just had tremendous success at this point in your career. But I would love to start off at the bottom in the very beginning of your career, what was your life like growing up and where did you grow up?

I grew up in Houston. We moved to Houston when I was six, and my family is still here, and I am one of those, I guess, stereotypical kids who knew I wanted to be a veterinarian from a very young age. And about the time I turned 12, my dad said, “Do you really know what veterinarians do because it’s not playing with puppies and kittens and riding horses.” And said, “Fair.” And he said, I think you should find out what they do. So my mom drove me to our family veterinarian and I asked if I could hang out with him in the summer, during the summer, and he said, “Yes, absolutely.”

So I did that for every summer until I turned 16 and could get a paying job. And then I started working there after school and on breaks and weekends, and that is where I continued to work even after I graduated from veterinary school until I joined the faculty at Texas A&M.

That is so impressive. So during all of that, when did you first figure out out that you were certain that you wanted to be a veterinarian?

So after my dad said I should find out what veterinarians do at the age of 12. My very first day that summer, I actually passed out watching all the stuff that they were doing with the animals and bounced back and came back for more. And the more I saw what veterinarians did to take care of animals… I loved the science of it. I loved figuring out why an animal was sick and what you could do to make it better. I loved assisting in surgery. I love the interactions with the clients and the relationships that were built, so that really solidified it for me at the age of 12.

Wow. It’s so amazing and it’s so interesting that you’re still at the same clinic that you started working at as a child. That’s so unusual. Well, I’m very curious. Tell us about the very beginning of your veterinary career. How did you get started in veterinary medicine post graduation?

So I went back to the clinic where I had essentially grown up. Became the fourth doctor there. And as you can imagine, it was super exciting for me. I was very lucky to be working with employers that were very supportive of me. I know some veterinarians go back to clinics where they worked before they became veterinarians, and it has been a challenge for those people, and I’m very fortunate that that was not the case. They embraced the fact that I had my DVM set me up with my own clients, started my own appointment scheduling. If I had questions or concerns. Excellent mentors before mentoring was really the term that we used. They were just there. They had my back. So it was really good for me.

I knew a lot of the clients, of course, from my time working there before, so they had also watched my growth and development, and many of them were very excited for me to be a veterinarian. Some of them would still say, well, is that how Dr. so-and-so would do it. And if I had to, I’d go grab and Dr. so-and-so and I would be, “Oh, yeah, absolutely. She’s right on track. She probably knows more than I do.” So very supportive group. And I knew the technicians of course, and the front office people because I’d been working with them and it worked well. We really were a unique team. It was a unicorn practice, and I have been very blessed by that.

I’d love to explore that further with you, Lori, because I know that you said that you’ve had so much support there and it’s a unicorn practice. And you mentioned you’ve had other colleagues that didn’t receive the same support. What do you think is unique about your practice? Because obviously it’s very unique. You’ve been there since you were a young girl. What is different about the practice where you’re at in terms of the support? What do they do different than some other practices may not do?

It’s very much a team-oriented approach to practicing. Everybody’s role is important and everybody’s opinion counts. So we work together to make sure we can support each other. If somebody has a family issue or something going on personally, supportive of that, if they need to have a little bit of time off or need to be able to even take some time for a few phone calls to deal with whatever it is. But always at the veterinary level there to back somebody up. So if I had a case that wasn’t necessarily my biggest area of comfort, which for me was usually surgery, one of the other veterinarians, if I needed an extra pair of hands, needed some guidance if it was a surgery I hadn’t done before, they were always there. And I’m much more a medicine-focused person. So if somebody were, that wasn’t one of their strengths, say endocrine or cardio or GI, they would come find me.

I love cytology. So invariably I’d be asked to pick a second look at a cytology sample and share my thoughts on what it is. So we very much built on each other’s strengths and recognized that we couldn’t be all things to everybody, but we could be really good at certain things. And it wasn’t a bad thing if I couldn’t do something and asked another veterinarian to do it instead. So I don’t do perineal urethrostomies, but I worked with somebody who could get it all done in 10 minutes. So if I had a repeated offender in the block cat part of the world, it was no big deal for me to say, “Can I put this on your surgery schedule?” So we really worked with each other to build on each other’s strengths. And it was never, you took my client or I can’t believe you did that. It was very much, that sounds great, or what can I do to help you?

I love that. That sounds like the ideal practice. Well, I’m curious, you told the story about how you got into veterinary medicine and post-graduation. Was there ever a point in your career, and I know you’re still in the middle of your career, but was there ever a point where you felt like I’m really truly gaining traction now with my career?

Well, yeah. There are a couple of things I think. One, and I know we’ll probably talk more about it, I am very much a believer in organized veterinary medicine. I’m very much a believer that you want to keep the good things going and if there are things that aren’t so successful, work for positive change. And I believe in working within the system. So I think that was a big piece of it. The other thing was I always wanted to be able to advance my knowledge base. So seven years after graduation, I did become a diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Practice, Canine Feline. And I also found that to be something to really help me become a better veterinarian.

So Lori, you were the president of the AVMA. I’m curious, what was that experience like for you?

It was phenomenal. Lots of once in a lifetime experiences. Traveling to different places, whether around the country or around the world. Meeting people from a variety of backgrounds and learning what veterinary medicine is like for them. So many of the things that we deal with here in the US are common in other places, Australia, the UK, the EU, and then there are other places where it’s different. They may not have the level of resources that we have. They don’t have the access to the vaccines or the medications that we have. Some places don’t have access to injectable anesthetics or appropriate pain control. So looking to see how they work with that and still be able to provide veterinary care to the patients that they are interested with.

I mean, it was truly fascinating and it really does all boil down to the people, veterinarians and our support teams and the people who work with us in this profession truly are amazing people. I really can’t say that enough. But the level of passion, the level of empathy, the work ethic and the difference that we all want to make for the animals and even for the public, for the people who are taking care of animals, really, it’s such an amazing opportunity and we are so very lucky to be able to do what we do every day. And being the President of the AVMA really allowed me to see that on such a broad scale.

How has that shaped you going forward? Has that done anything to change the way that you look at anything?

I mean, obviously the more you’re open to new experiences and new people, the broader your viewpoint is making it easier to understand where other people are coming from. I’ve always been a very curious person. So when people will tell me something or do something that I may not understand or that I find intriguing, then I will usually take a deeper dive into that. So being the President of the AVMA was a way to feed that curiosity and then just makes me more curious about other things. So I think I will continue to be curious and engaged in the profession and look for other opportunities to expand on that and then hopefully be able to pay some of that forward. So to our younger colleagues, newer graduates, the people who support us, even our animal owners. Whether they’re pet owners or producers, things like that. It really is pretty amazing to have those kinds of opportunities.

What an amazing opportunity that was. I know and looking at successful people, there’s highs and lows that people experienced throughout their careers. What was the highest high and the lowest low that you’ve experienced in your career up to this point?

Oh, wow. Great question. So thus far, the highest high was probably being AVMA president. Really, certainly the pinnacle of my leadership experience is. The lowest lows, that one’s harder. And I don’t know that they’re necessarily because I am a veterinarian, but just because certain things in my life impacted where I was. So I am a breast cancer survivor, and I was diagnosed when I was 31. So that definitely had an impact on how I lived my life, including being a veterinarian and brought of course, its own challenges. And when that happens to you, particularly at such a young age, it really makes you question why you’re here and why you’re doing what you’re doing. So lots of self-reflection at that time. Am I happy being a veterinarian? Do I want to continue to be a veterinarian? What does that look like for my career going forward? How is it going to change if anything, what I do as a veterinarian?

And not only that, but my relationship with my family, you truly value the people around you that you love and that love you, and want to take the time to stop and smell the roses and make sure that you are devoting the time that you want to those people as well and making sure that they continue to be a priority in your life. So that was probably a big low. Another low, again, not directly from veterinary medicine, but of course impacted how I worked. My son has some pretty significant learning differences, which led to me being a founder of the Gateway Academy. So that was a real struggle, balancing his needs, balancing my needs as far as working and doing all of the things to ensure that I still was happy doing what I was doing and that he had the necessary resources that he needed to learn to deal with the learning differences that he had.

So I actually went to part-time work during part of his childhood just so that I could better balance meeting his needs and getting him to the various therapies that he needed and things like that. And at the time, that was the very appropriate thing for me to do. And once he grew up, I shouldn’t say grew up. Once he could better manage those learning differences and he’s now an independent adult, then I could go back to work full time. So I think that’s one of the great things about being a veterinarian is that there’s also some flexibility and how we practice and when we practice. And I think it’s important for people to recognize that it is a journey. And just because you’re doing things like this right now, it doesn’t mean that’s what it’s going to look like in five years and 10 years. And whatever that looks like five or 10 years from now isn’t going to be what it looks like 20 years from now.

Yes. When you were talking about the breast cancer diagnosis, it sounds like that was an opportunity to really go through some self-reflection, and I think COVID was like that for a lot of people too. Just evaluating what’s important and like you said, but you’ve been able to have flexibility throughout your career to adapt to changing things going on in your personal life. I’m curious, what has been the most surprising thing to you so far during your career in the veterinary profession?

Surprising to me. I think just watching all of the changes in veterinary practice itself. I started out in an independent veterinary practice, and it still is. But definitely over the past several years, watching the changes brought about by the larger corporate practices and private equity getting involved. And some of those changes have been definitely to the benefit of the profession. And some may be less so, but, and we’re still trying to navigate all of that. So I find that fascinating to see how we are adapting and how we will adapt, because the profession will. We have to, there are animals out there that need our care, and we will find ways to ensure that the animals receive the appropriate level of care.

Yes. What does your crystal ball say about the future of the veterinary profession?

I wish I had a crystal ball. I think it’s more like the magic eight-ball. Yeah, that’s a good one. Technology is just going to become a bigger and bigger role. Of course, telemedicine has been a hot topic, but artificial intelligence is the topic du jour, and it’s legit. I mean, it’s really going to change how we practice and use appropriately. I think it will make us more efficient. It can definitely help us with our diagnostics and our treatment planning and hopefully help resolve a fair amount of some of the current workforce issues that we are addressing. But I think in the end, it will help us just be better veterinarians and improve not only animal life, but human life as well.

Yes. And you mentioned telemedicine. You’ve done some work in that area, and I’d love for you to share with our listeners about the projects that you’re up to right now, including what you’re doing in telemedicine.

Sure. So of course, I oversee the telemedicine program at Texas A&M. So the doctors using it, our students use it, of course I’m teaching primary care. So we have our students doing some follow-up visits with it. We also do some of our chronic disease management with it and behavior counseling, nutritional counseling in that using telemedicine. And then some of our specialists use it in their services as well. So that’s the biggie. One of my biggest projects is of course, access to care. And you had talked about the grant we got from Petco Love. So we do have a variety of outreach programs at Texas A&M that really are very impactful. So the Petco Love one, we’re helping senior citizens with limited financial abilities or abilities to access veterinary care. And we go to this rural community once a month and we see dogs and cats, provide wellness care, heartworm tests, leukemia, FIV testing, give them the appropriate prevention if needed.

But then we’re also treating issues where they could be sick, whether it’s a skin infection, ear or eyes. We just saw a thirteen-year-old dog last week that had a PDA. So all the students got to listen to the washing machine, heart murmur, and that was great for them and pretty amazing that this dog has made it 13 years already with this PDA. But then we had a seventeen-year-old cat that was overall okay but ADR things and did blood work on that. And it’s hyperthyroid and has stage two kidney disease. So it’s an amazing program for us to help these owners and their pets. But it’s also an amazing learning experience for our students because our students are doing all of the work and they are the doctor, and of course the real veterinarians. The ones that already have our DVMs. Of course, they’re there to back them up and tweak their plans and things as appropriate.

But just this past week, we had a older woman come in with two dogs, and as we’re finishing the appointment with her, she says, “I just want to thank you so much. My husband died two months ago. I’ve only been able to talk to my dogs the past two months, and I so greatly appreciated that you all would just sit and talk with me.”

Wow.

I mean, it was her first real human contact. So that obviously made us feel good. Had such an impact on the students. And we have other outreach programs that we do as well in areas that are underserved. And for any of these, we can also use telemedicine after we’ve seen them in person. So for some of them, we’ll do necessary follow up via telemedicine if they can’t either come to A&M because of the distance or we need to do follow up before we’re back in that area. So really putting all of those things to good use.

Yeah. And making a tremendous impact along the way. Well Lori, successful people have daily habits that help them to achieve success. You’re a mom, you’re on faculty at the university, you work in practice, you have so many responsibilities. What are some of your daily habits that have allowed you to help achieve success, and how do you find the balance with all of these responsibilities?

So my number one thing is exercise. And it’s the first thing I do when I get up in the morning. So I do exercise every day just unless I’m sick and can’t get out of bed. But even exercise when I had COVID. And that’s really my big thing. It’s a great way for me to clear my mind in the morning, just get settled and ready to face the day. And then depending on what the day holds, it can be crazy busy. I do try to make sure I eat regularly and make healthy food choices except for the chocolate chip cookies. And I love to read. So I do try to make sure that at some point during the day, and it may even just be for 10 minutes before I go to sleep, but that I have the opportunity to read.

Well, speaking of reading, some of the guests that have been on our show have talked about a key book that they’ve read that’s helped them with their mindset or their approach to success. Is there a key book in your life that has had a tremendous impact on you?

I think probably the one at least the one most recently would be Daring to Lead by Brené Brown. That was just really a tremendous book. And she’s from Houston, so she had a pop-up shop. It was right before COVID, I guess, so four-ish years ago. And I was even able to get a couple of framed quotes from the book. So those hang in my office as well.

Oh, nice. Well, what mentor has made the biggest impact on your career so far?

I don’t know if I can just pick one. So of course, my employer’s at Map of Meyerland Animal Clinic, so that would be Tom Vining and Karen Werner, just tremendous supporters throughout my career. And then another one would be Mark Cox. I met him when I joined the Texas VMA Board of Directors, and he really took me under my wing. Was always very honest under his wing, not my wing. Was always very honest with his feedback and willing to listen to what I had to say. And we both served on the TVMA Executive Committee at the same time, and it used to be a joke that we were always on opposite sides of whatever the issue was.

So we were sitting in a executive committee meeting one day discussing, I don’t even remember what it was. But he said something and I said, “I completely agree” and the room got silent. And then he’s like, “Well, I don’t know if we’re both right or we’re both wrong, but if Lori and I agree, let’s vote now. Do it and move on.” But I mean, tremendous supporter. He and his wife are just amazing people. So they’ve been excellent mentors. Of course, Janet Donlin, the CEO of AVMA has been an outstanding mentor. Just really blazed some trails for veterinarians. And Bonnie Beaver, who was a TVMA president and an AVMA president. She’s also always been really a major supporter and giving me guidance and advice always at the right time and always great advice.

What advice would you give the younger version of yourself?

Chill out. We always say it’s going to be okay, but you never know it’s going to be okay until you’re okay. And I was actually talking to one of my mentees about this the other day. When I was first out of out in practice, I’d wake up at 2:00 in the morning and think, oh my God, I forgot to do this for a patient, or I forgot to make this note on a chart, or I forgot to charge for this, and all that stuff that just starts running through your mind and keeps you awake at 2:00 in the morning. So I would call the clinic, and that’s back in the day when you had actual answering machines attached to the phone. And I’d leave them a very lengthy message about all of the things that I was worried about. And then finally go back to sleep.

And of course, my boss would be the first one in that morning, and she’d have to go through my very lengthy messages. And she finally told me I had to stop, that I could not leaving those messages. And if it woke me up in the night, write a note and it will be okay. Nothing is that urgent that it has to be dealt with at 7:00 in the morning and I could deal with it when I came to work. And I was like, “Great idea.” And I didn’t stop. I kept leaving the messages on the answering machine. So she just disconnected the answering machine. She turned it so I couldn’t leave a message anymore. It just said, “If you have an emergency, please call.” But then you can’t leave a message. So that pretty much cured me at that problem. And you just really don’t get comfortable without experience. And I can tell my younger self, you will get that experience and it will be okay. But it’s hard to get comfortable in your own skin until you’ve lived it.

Yeah. Well, that’s a hilarious story about the answer machine. And I’ve been guilty of laying in bed late at night and going into my home office and sending myself an email with all the things, and then I’ll get it first thing in the morning with the reminder, and my husband says, “Stop with doing that.” Lori, what message or principle do you wish you could teach everyone?

Oh, wow. To be curious, to be kind, and to don’t whine.

Be curious, be kind, and don’t whine. I love that. Well, you’ve got the mic Lori, what is one thing that you want to share with our listeners of The People of Animal Health podcast before you drop the mic today?

I think what I want to say is you are each so special to the veterinary profession. You each bring something unique to the table. And in my years as a veterinarian and in leadership, the thing I’ve loved the most is being able to hear your stories and try to help when needed, provide answers or provide reassurance. So thank you for all of those opportunities. It truly has been an amazing career thus far, and I look forward to many more years of that.

Well, Lori, that’s great advice, and thank you so much for being here today on The People of Animal Health Podcast. I’ve enjoyed visiting with you.

Thank you, Stacy. It’s been a lot of fun.