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VIN Foundation: Veterinary Pulse

VIN Foundation: Veterinary Pulse

By: vinfoundation
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The heartbeat of the veterinary profession. Join us as we talk with veterinary colleagues about critical topics from student debt to mental health. And share stories, stories connect us… as humans, as animals, as a veterinary community.Copyright 2005 - 2023 All rights reserved. Economics Management Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • Dr. Bree Montana on the importance of work transition rituals

    Dr. Bree Montana on the importance of work transition rituals
    Jul 27 2026

    Listen in as we chat with VIN Foundation Vets4Vets® team lead Dr. Bree Montana as part of our Inhale, Exhale Series and this time were talking about the importance of work transitions In this episode we have eight major topics we’re addressing:

    1. Defining work transitions
    2. Why thought through work transitions matter
    3. Build a departure ritual
    4. Create a rejuvenation plan
    5. Add in technological barriers
    6. Build a work transition ritual for homecoming
    7. Things that go bump in the night
    8. Where to get help

    As always, we want to hear from YOU. Please share your thoughts by sending an email or joining the conversation.

    GUEST BIO:

    Dr. Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP, is a small animal practitioner and Founder of the Agate Bay Animal Hospital and Dog Gone Crazy boarding/training facilities in North Lake Tahoe California. Following the completion of a B.S. in Biology at the University of Cincinnati’s McMicken College, Dr. Montana graduated from the Ohio State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine with a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine in 1992. A past member of the external advisory and admissions committees for UC Davis’ College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Montana also served as a working member of the VIN Foundation Board. In 2010, Dr. Montana helped to create the VIN Foundation’s innovative Vets4Vets® program, a confidential support group providing critical emotional care to veterinarians struggling with all forms of stress/addiction/mental health issues. The program is international and free for all veterinarians and veterinary students. Learning to balance the life of a rural solo practitioner, mom, wife, husky wrangler and aspiring dressage queen while coordinating the Vets4Vets® program has allowed Dr. Montana to become an expert at thinking outside of the box when advising veterinarians who feel stuck in their careers and personal lives. Dr. Montana enjoys lecturing on topics at the intersection of personal and professional life balance, including strategies for a healthy mentoring relationship, job seekers’ success techniques, effective communication in the workplace, as well as teaching the workplace ergonomics section of The Other Side of Veterinary Medicine: Healthy Clinicians Make Better Practitioners (a RACE approved course).

    LINKS AND INFORMATION:

    • Leaving Work at Work: A Daily Transition Checklist: https://vinfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/VIN-Foundation-_-Veterinary-Pulse-Podcast-_-Inhale-Exhale-Series-_-Bree-Montana-DVM-CCFP-_-Transitions-Checklist.pdf
    • Brene Brown on transitions: https://brenebrown.com/podcast/lock-in-and-lock-through-power/
    • VIN Foundation Vets4Vets®: https://vinfoundation.org/v4v
    • VIN Foundation Veterinary Pulse Podcast Inhale, Exhale Series: https://vinfoundation.org/category/inhale-exhale/
    • VIN Foundation Veterinary Pulse Podcast Future’s So Bright Series: https://vinfoundation.org/category/futures-so-bright/
    • VIN Foundation get updates: https://vinfoundation.org/updates/
    • VIN Foundation GIVE page to support these programs & tools: https://vinfoundation.org/give

    You may learn more about the VIN Foundation, on the website, or join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

    If you like this podcast, we would appreciate it if you follow and share. As always, we welcome feedback. If you have an idea for a podcast episode, we’d love to hear it!
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    45 mins
  • Dr. Lee Friedman on how a non-traditional path led him to his love for veterinary medicine

    Dr. Lee Friedman on how a non-traditional path led him to his love for veterinary medicine
    Jul 14 2026
    Listen in as we talk with Dr. Lee Friedman as he shares his non-traditional path to veterinary medicine. From selling encyclopedias to training as a Navy fighter jet pilot, heart-touching and fascinating, this story is a great reminder of how life brings us profound learning and through it we find our way. As always, we want to hear from YOU. Please share your thoughts by sending an email or joining the conversation. GUEST BIO: Stuart Lee Friedman, DVM Woody Allen once said that Parker Brothers offered to buy his memoirs so that they could make it into a board game. If Lee's story was a board game, it would most certainly be more chutes than ladders. "I'm more proud of my struggles with failure than my actual successes in life. What I achieved doesn't define me as much as the failures I prevailed over." At first, failure came easily. By the time he hit college, Lee was well-practiced in the art of underachievement. He managed to drop out of college on academic probation after two and a half years for more aimless pursuits. Lee found work as a movie theater usher. Then as a busboy. Then a school janitor. Driving a taxicab lasted all of two weeks before being fired for a minor fender bender. He then sold encyclopedias door-to-door, where he once had his pants torn off by an angry dog. Selling stereo equipment was more lucrative, fun, and promised greater wardrobe integrity. And he helped introduce the idea that bicycle couriers - already popular in the condensed city of San Francisco - could actually work in the sprawling freeway metropolis of Los Angeles. He established himself as the only bike messenger with a city-wide courier agency of automobile messengers – and made it work. Despite little successes, however, most of his jobs could well be classified as failures - both the way they ended (often at the insistence of management) and the way they failed to measure up to his existing potential. The gift of treading upon failure's floor was not knowing any ceiling of success. That naivety stood in the stead of accepting less lofty "realistic" goals. Most everything he achieved was launched from the simple question, "Why not?" Friends who offered ready answers to that question soon found themselves outside the small circle of friends who did not. From nothing, he turned daydreams into goals, and goals into realities. Coming out of life's starting blocks late, he achieved most of the targets he set for himself while being nothing extraordinary in terms of talent or intelligence. He managed to gain admission to UCLA despite a miserable academic record at SUNY Buffalo (a success which he attributed to turning the required essay on his application into a written treatise on why someone like him could make UCLA proud). He obtained an appointment to the highly selective US Naval Aviation Officer Candidate School (AOCS) at NAS Pensacola with the help of a good citizenship letter written by the San Francisco Police Department after he tackled a suspect running from an officer. At AOCS, he endured a 16-week "pressure cooker" program designed to cull candidates who failed to meet stringent medical requirements, physical training goals, academic performance, and standards of character. Class attrition rates were typically over 30%. Orders to primary flight training were received at the officer commissioning ceremony (AOCS graduation). Lee's orders sent him immediately to VT-2 at NAS Whiting Field, where he met performance standards for selection to the strike (jet) training pipeline at VT-19 at NAS Meridian. A failed vision test ended his training, but not his love of aviation. He continued in the civilian sector. earning instrument and multi-engine ratings and is a commercially-rated pilot and instrument flight instructor. With the airlines in furlough mode, he restructured his goals along a new set of impossible dreams, dusted off his undergraduate studies, and gained acceptance to the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, having been wait-listed on his second attempt and outrightly accepted on his third. He graduated with his VMD degree in 2003. From a perfectly average underachiever, he shares his recipe of realizing his goals: one part focus and one part attitude, all mixed together with a willingness to suspend disbelief and an embrace of impossible things. From flying military jets to writing published articles to becoming a doctor in his mid 40's, each of those goals meant pushing past gate keepers who explained all the ways it could never be possible - while maintaining an optimism that capitalized on the opportunities that made them happen. That same recipe has helped him perform both as a pilot and as a doctor. Lee also explains how attitude played a role in carrying the debt from his education - a debt assumed in the middle of life that he expected to pay to the grave - and how a positive perspective on a negative burden allowed him to redefine ...
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    54 mins
  • Dr. Tony Bartels on the latest student loan news

    Dr. Tony Bartels on the latest student loan news
    May 7 2026
    Listen in with student debt expert Dr. Tony Bartels in this next installment of our Student Debt Series covering the latest news and information on student loans. In this episode we have seven major topics we’re addressing: RAP rule change alertWhat does this rule change mean for repayment strategiesClass of 2026 new grads, STILL do not consolidateDetermine your IDR profile, know your monthly interest accrual, know your starting repayment balance, & run your Simulations!RAP subsidies – what are they? Will you benefit? For how long?What’s next? RAP to IBR 2014 vs. IBR 2014 only vs. RAP only vs. other?How to get help As always, we want to hear from YOU. Please share your thoughts by sending an email or joining the conversation. GUEST BIO: Dr. Tony Bartels Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA graduated in 2012 from the Colorado State University combined MBA/DVM program and is a VIN Foundation Board Member and Student Debt Expert, and an employee of the Veterinary Information Network (VIN). He and his wife, a small-animal internal medicine specialist practicing in Denver, have more than $400,000 in veterinary-school debt that they manage using federal income-driven repayment plans. By necessity (and now obsession), his professional activities include researching and speaking on veterinary-student debt, providing guidance to colleagues on loan-repayment strategies and contributing to VIN Foundation resources. Beyond debt, his professional interests include small- and exotic-animal practice. When he’s not staring holes into his colleagues’ student-loan data, Tony enjoys fly fishing, ice hockey, camping and exploring Colorado with his wife, Audra, daughter, Lucy, and their two rescued canines, Addi and Maggie. LINKS AND INFORMATION: Urgent message for Class of 2026: https://vinfoundation.org/urgent-for-class-of-2026-do-not-consolidate-your-federal-student-loans/ 2026 New Grad Student Loan Playbook: https://vinfoundation.org/resources/veterinary-new-grad-student-loan-repayment-playbook/ Check your current student loan servicers and other loan details -- VIN Foundation My Student Loans tool: http://www.vinfoundation.org/mystudentloans VIN Foundation WikiDebt: IDR Profiles Student Loan Repayment Simulator: https://vinfoundation.org/loansim VIN Foundation WikiDebt: https://vinfoundation.org/wikidebt VIN Foundation Webinars: https://vinfoundation.org/resources/webinars/ VIN Foundation Get Updates: https://vinfoundation.org/updates/ VIN Foundation GIVE page to support this podcast: https://vinfoundation.org/give VIN Foundation Blog, Related Student Debt Blog posts: 2025 Year End Wrap & Preparing for 2026: https://vinfoundation.org/federal-student-loan-repayment-2025-year-end-wrap-and-preparing-for-2026/40 veterinary school simulations in 60 days: 40 in 60 Project: https://vinfoundation.org/resources/veterinary-student-debt/40-veterinary-school-loan-estimations-in-60-days/Changes to federal student loans come into focus: https://vinfoundation.org/changes-federal-student-loans-come-into-focus/Student Loan Repayment: Trying to leave the SAVE forbearance? Choose PAYE: https://vinfoundation.org/student-loan-repayment-trying-to-leave-the-save-forbearance-choose-paye/ Student Loans in SAVE Plan Will Start Accruing Interest August 1st: https://vinfoundation.org/student-loans-in-save-plan-will-start-accruing-interest-august-1st/ Personalized student loan Help from VIN and VIN Foundation: https://vinfoundation.org/veterinary-student-loan-debt-help/ Federal Student Aid Data, Consolidation, and Repayment Applications: https://studentaid.gov/ One-time Forgiveness Count Adjustment https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/idr-account-adjustment Federal Student Loan Servicers: https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/servicers Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF): https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service Have a veterinary story you want to share? https://share.hsforms.com/1e6QkQvg2RI-wpDv59Byqkwcos60 Stay up to date with VIN Foundation updates: https://vinfoundation.org/updates/ Email VIN Foundation: studentdebt@vinfoundation.org Get updates to stay tuned for the VIN Foundation webinars on student debt. You may learn more about the VIN Foundation, on the website, or join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. If you like this podcast, we would appreciate it if you follow and share. As always, we welcome feedback. If you have an idea for a podcast episode, we’d love to hear it!
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    35 mins
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