Dr. Karen Bradley Bio

Dr. Karen Bradley
PresidentWomen’s Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative

Dr. Karen Bradley graduated from the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine in 1996. Early in her career she worked companion animal relief and emergency medicine in the Atlanta area before relocating to Vermont, her favorite place to live. There she joined Onion River Animal Hospital in 2000, becoming a partner in 2003 and to this day, co-owns the clinic with two other female veterinarians practicing small animal medicine and surgery. She became involved in organized veterinary medicine in Vermont six years into her professional career, instigated by the practice’s founding female partner who had given many years of volunteer service to both the Vermont VMA and the AVMA (she served as alternate and delegate to the HOD). She was invited to the table that is veterinary leadership.

In the Vermont VMA, she has spearheaded and still chairs the Legislative Advisory (now Governmental Relations) Committee and is a past chair and member of the VVMA Animal Welfare Committee. She has served on the VVMA Executive Board since 2003 and served on the AVMA HOD representing Vermont since 2008. She was elected by the HOD to the House Advisory Committee (HAC) in 2010 and served as HAC vice chair 2011-2012 and chair (and thereby an invited participant to the AVMA Executive Board) 2012-2013. In 2013 she was appointed to be the chair of the Governance Engagement Team (GET), a group charged with taking the Task Force on Governance and Member Participation (TFGMP) model to all AVMA members and entities, receiving and reconciling all feedback, and creating a proposal for substantial AVMA governance change to the AVMA Executive Board. She helped found the Women’s Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative (WVLDI) with an advisory board of dedicated individuals.

Karen lives in Montpelier, Vermont with her husband and their two children and probably too many animals.