Wildlife Medicine Symposium

2026 Guest Speakers

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  Avery Berkowitz, DVM, CWR

  Dr. Avery Berkowitz is a co-founder of a new wildlife center, Maine Wildlife Rehabilitation (MWR), in the Bangor, ME area. They graduated from Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in 2020 and worked at rehabilitation centers in California, Nebraska, and New Mexico before moving to Maine. Their areas of particular interest include wildlife ophthalmology, avian orthopedics, and baby bird identification. They have appreciated the opportunity to experience wildlife rehab and biodiversity in various places across the country and are excited to continue building MWR in the years to come.

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  Halley Buckanoff, BS, CVT, CWR

  Halley is the Wildlife Center Supervisor at the North Carolina Zoo’s Wildlife Rehabilitation Center overseeing rehabilitation practices, center operations, and mentoring of volunteers, interns, and students. Halley has worked in small animal, emergency, exotic, zoo, and wildlife veterinary medicine. She currently holding a USFW banding permit and conducting post-release survival studies on commonly rehabilitated and reared backyard birds. She works with birds, herps, bears, and otters, just to name a few.

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  Kendall Carlin, DVM, CWR

  Kendall Carlin is the staff veterinarian at the Von Arx Wildlife Hospital in Naples, Florida. She started out cleaning cages at the Tufts Wildlife Clinic during veterinary school, not realizing it was going to turn into a full-time career in wildlife medicine. She feels lucky to work with her teammates, rehabilitating a diverse cross-section of native Florida wildlife including brown pelicans, raptors, gophers tortoises, and many opossums. She still cleans cages sometimes.

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  Dan H Johnson, DVM, DABVP (Exotic Companion Mammals)

  Dan Johnson is a 1992 graduate of North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. In 1996 he founded Avian and Exotic Animal Care, North Carolina’s first all-exotics practice. Dr. Johnson is a Diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners (ABVP) specializing in exotic companion mammal practice and a Visiting Professor at St. George’s University School of Veterinary Medicine.

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  Stephany Lewis, DVM, CWR, DABVP (Avian Practice)

  Stephany Lewis has been involved in wildlife rehabilitation since 2009. She received her DVM from Tufts University in 2015 and completed an internship in small animal medicine and surgery at Michigan State University. She then completed a 1-year internship in wildlife and conservation medicine at Tufts Wildlife Clinic in 2017. She has worked as the full-time staff veterinarian at California Wildlife Center and Ojai Raptor Center and is currently Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of the Wildlife Medical Clinic at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Lewis is a Certified Wildlife Rehabilitator by the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council. In 2023 she became board certified in Avian Practice by the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners.

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  Erica Miller, DVM

  Erica Miller worked full-time as a wildlife rehabilitation veterinarian for 25 years. She left wildlife rehabilitation in 2013 to explore some other areas of veterinary medicine, including work for New Jersey Fish & Wildlife, the Pennsylvania Game Commission, and the Brandywine Zoo. She is currently the Field Operations Manager with the University of Pennsylvania’s Wildlife Futures Program, but stays involved with wildlife rehabilitation at the Mercer County Wildlife Center.

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  Tracey K. Ritzman, DVM, DABVP (Avian & Exotic Companion Mammals)

  Dr. Ritzman graduated from North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 1995. Dr. Ritzman is a board-certified specialist by the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners in Avian and Exotic Companion Mammal medicine and surgery. She enjoys working with non-traditional pets such as birds, ferrets, rabbits, rodents, reptiles and fish. Her clinical interests include avian wildlife medicine and surgery, endoscopy and avian nutrition. Dr. Ritzman is a staff veterinarian for the Carolina Raptor Center in Huntersville, North Carolina. She provides medical and surgery care to both wild injured raptors as well as the ambassador birds. Dr. Ritzman is also a veterinarian at Whole Pet Veterinary Hospital-Mountain Island in Charlotte, N.C. Dr. Ritzman is currently investigating the surgical use of fish skin grafts for the treatment of soft tissue wounds in raptor species.

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  Julie Sheldon, DVM, MS, DACZM

  Dr. Julie Sheldon is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Zoological Medicine at the University of Tennessee and an ACZM diplomate. She earned her DVM from UC Davis, completed an internship at the University of Tennessee, followed by the Illinois Zoo and Aquatic Animal Residency program during which she earned a master’s degree studying avian lameness and analgesia. Dr. Sheldon is a clinical veterinarian for Zoo Knoxville, Tiger Haven, and Appalachian Bear Rescue and is a referral veterinarian for several other facilities in eastern TN. Her research focuses on free-ranging and rehabilitating black bear health, and mentors house officers and students on research and writing. Dr. Sheldon has participated in several wildlife field research projects in South America and teaches a clinical rotation at the Belize Zoo. When not working, she can be found mountain biking and trail running around Knoxville or exploring the Smoky Mountains.

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  Megan Cabot, DVM, DAZCM

  Megan Cabot is an associate veterinarian at the North Carolina Zoo and board-certified specialist in zoological medicine through the ACZM. Her wildlife training started in vet school at Kansas State and continued through a year-long veterinary internship in wildlife rehabilitation medicine at CROW in Sanibel, Florida. She currently serves as one of the veterinarians for the native wildlife brought to the North Carolina Zoo's Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, alongside the resident animals at the North Carolina Zoo.

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  Amber McNamara, DVM, MHS (One Health)

  After earning her DVM from Purdue University in 2003, Dr. Amber McNamara completed a yearlong internship in wildlife medicine at the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW) in Sanibel, Florida. A one-year commitment turned into eight years of employment; during that time, she earned certification as a veterinary acupuncturist and applied integrative medicine techniques to numerous wildlife patients. After leaving CROW as the Clinic Director in 2011, she spent the next two years in a mobile acupuncture and in-home euthanasia practice. She relocated to the North Carolina mountains in 2013 and spent more than a decade as a faculty member at Lees-McRae College. Working alongside students and staff at the May Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, she provided veterinary and rehabilitative care to over 1,500 injured wildlife patients admitted annually. In 2022, she completed a One Health-focused master’s degree from the University of Florida. In January 2024, she joined the University of Kentucky’s Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment as an Associate Professor and Director of the Pre-veterinary Mentoring program. At UK, she teaches several undergraduate courses and facilitated the development of a new Pre-Veterinary Medicine certificate program. She mentors pre-vet hopefuls of all majors, recently directed a Pre-Vet Camp for high schoolers, and is the faculty advisor for the new Wildcat Wildlife Society, a student-led wildlife and conservation club launching in Fall 2026. Outside of teaching and mentoring, she enjoys birdwatching, trivia, and woodworking.

• Sarah Reich, DVM

  Dr. Sarah Reich graduated from the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine in 2015. From there, she completed a small animal and exotics emergency internship in Milwaukee and then a wildlife medicine and conservation internship at Tufts Wildlife Center. She then returned to her alma mater to oversee the medical care at the University of Illinois Wildlife Medical Clinic. In 2019, she moved slightly north to become the head veterinarian at DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center (formerly Willowbrook Wildlife Center), a large rehabilitation center located in the Chicago suburbs. She is an advocate for growth and advancement, overseeing a nearly $30 million masterplan upgrade to the center, which was just completed in 2026. She is particularly interested in orthopedic surgery, wound management, and opossums (though she is a bird girl at heart).

Cost 

In Person

• Veterinarians: $450
• Veterinary technicians, wildlife rehabilitators, current students: $250
• Lees-McRae students: $175

Virtual Attendance Cost

• Veterinarians: $200
• Veterinary technicians, wildlife rehabilitators, current students: $100

The in-person cost covers a light breakfast and full lunch each day of attendance as well as an evening social.

Lodging

Lodging options

With questions, contact wildlifesymposium@lmc.edu.