Graduates Pursue Veterinary Medicine, Public Health Through Dual DVM-MS Program

Story by Megan Bennett and Courtney Price, VMBS Marketing & Communications

September 25, 2025

Veterinary medicine and public health are intertwined in many ways.

Veterinarians support public health by treating zoonotic diseases that spread between animals and people; by caring for food animals and, therefore, improving human nutrition and food safety; and by protecting pets, who play an important role in owners’ mental health.

Likewise, a thorough understanding of veterinary medicine is necessary for policymakers and public health specialists battling infectious diseases and biosecurity threats worldwide.

As the human population continues to grow and become more globalized, it’s more important than ever to have scientists trained both in veterinary medicine and public health serving as leaders in their communities and around the world.

Recognizing this need, the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) launched the Master of Science in Veterinary Public Health & Epidemiology (VPHE) and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) Combination Program in 2021.

The program allows students to enroll in graduate courses during the summers, leading to concurrent graduation with both degrees in four years.

Students are trained to integrate knowledge from both disciplines into their veterinary careers or advance to careers in local, state, federal, and international public health agencies and academia.

The first cohort of combination degree program students graduated in May, and each of the four is now on a unique career path utilizing their expertise to support human and animal health.

“The five epidemiology faculty members in the Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences (VIBS) who act as primary mentors to combination program students are excited to see this first cohort of students graduate,” said Dr. Christine Budke, a VMBS professor and VIBS department head. “Many years of planning went into program development with the curriculum designed to develop and support the unique veterinary public heath interests of each of our students. We look forward to our graduates becoming leaders that improve the lives of both animals and people.”

Luke Gibson

Growing up in Corpus Christi around his family’s many chickens and fish tanks, Dr. Luke Gibson ‘25 has always been fascinated by the relationship people have with their animals.

Thanks to opportunities like the VPHE-DVM degree program, Gibson has found a way to combine his love for helping people and animals with a passion for science.

“Even from a young age, I saw the connections that people have with their animals, and I knew I wanted to do something that could help people through their animals,” he said. “Taking care of an animal — something that is separate from us but needs our care and attention — is a beautiful thing.”

Gibson began pursuing his interest in veterinary medicine at Texas State University, where he majored in animal science as part of a pre-vet program. He shadowed veterinarians at clinics, where one thing that stood out to him was Texas A&M’s reputation within the veterinary community.

“Having lived in Texas all my life, I knew the academic reputation of the Texas A&M veterinary program,” he said. “But what made a difference was the amount of joy that people had when talking to me about going there. Seeing the amount of care they had for their jobs and for taking care of people and animals, I could trust that Texas A&M really cared about their students.”

Not long after being accepted to the VMBS’ DVM program, Gibson received an email letting him know about the brand new dual degree program.

“Everyone who goes into veterinary medicine has a different interest, and it was unique to spend time with three other people who were also interested in public health,” he said. “We all worked really closely with each other and with our professors to help figure out what the program would look like.

“I learned more than I ever thought I would through the VPHE program,” he said. “From mathematical modeling, to parasites and wildlife, to learning how to set up a bird net in the courtyard with Dr. Sarah Hamer, it opened my eyes to a lot of different things.”

While working in public health may be his ultimate goal, Gibson is still passionate about helping animals, and people, in a clinical setting.

“After spending some time honing my clinical skills, I plan to transition to a career in zoonotic disease control. What appeals to me the most is outbreak investigation, where you try to trace an outbreak back to its source,” Gibson said. 

“Even if I do go into the policymaking or regulation side of medicine, it’s critical that I understand what it looks like on the front lines,” he said. “Local veterinarians are the ones out there seeing patients, so they play a big role in how disease outbreaks get reported. I also just really enjoy talking to clients, and I think I’ll always want to keep doing some kind of medical practice.”

Molly Guyette

Dr. Molly Guyette ‘25 grew up in Florida thinking she wanted

to be an aerospace engineer, but she changed her mind once she had her first experience working with animals.

“I didn’t know I wanted to be a vet until my senior year of high school,” she said. “I love math, but then I realized I didn’t want to sit in an office all day; I wanted to do something very hands-on. I started working at animal shelters and fell in love with veterinary medicine.”

Guyette completed an undergraduate degree in biomedical sciences at Texas A&M and then, through her discovery of the VPHE-DVM degree program, decided to stay in College Station for veterinary school as well.

“When I was looking for places to apply for vet school, I really wanted one with a big public health focus because of my interest in shelter medicine,” Guyettte said. “To me, public health is a large part of that because it involves community medicine, community education, and population control.

“I was looking at some other places but then A&M came out with the dual degree program,” she said. “It was perfect timing, like all the stars were aligning.”

Guyette enjoyed the VPHE-DVM degree program’s flexibility, allowing her to customize her experience to match her career goals by choosing a unique capstone project.

“My capstone was developing a feline infectious disease guide for cattery or shelter use that summarized the potential of diseases spreading between cats or from cats to people,” she said. “I loved that we had the ability to tailor it to what we wanted to get out of the program. That way the experience was our own and as fulfilling as we wanted it to be.”

Guyette also tailored her fourth-year externships to her career goals, working at both the Stray Rescue of St. Louis and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals headquarters in New York City. She enjoyed her time in St. Louis so much that she chose to return to the city after graduation, working in an animal hospital that has close ties to the local shelter.

“Shelters play important roles in communities because they control loose animals, which can help control the spread of diseases like rabies, and they support the community’s mental health,” Guyette said. “The impact that companion animals have on people can never be overstated, and being able to support access to that is very important to me.

“Shelters’ role in the community education aspect of public health is also very important to me,” she said. “I feel very strongly about access to veterinary care and offering proper education that can lead to better outcomes for animals and their owners.”

Kaitlin Thompson

During her childhood in Flower Mound, Texas, Dr. Kaitlin Thompson ‘25 always wanted to become a veterinarian, but it wasn’t until she was working toward her undergraduate degree in microbiology at Montana State University that she discovered a passion for public health as well.

“I had no idea that you could be a public health veterinarian,” she said. “Then I took a Spanish class during undergrad that really got me more into the public health mindset. We learned all about how the environment of Latin America shaped its culture, literature, and history. That got me thinking about how I could apply what I learned in my science classes to culture, which is essentially public health.”

After returning to Texas and beginning veterinary school, Thompson took an opportunity to explore public health further by participating in Operation Border Health with the Texas A&M Veterinary Emergency Team.

“I like the community engagement and educational parts of public health, so I really enjoyed getting to talk to folks in the community about why their dog needs flea and tick control all year long or why the rabies vaccine is so important,” Thompson said. “I like the micro-impacts I can make with each person I interact with. My ideal job would be doing boots-on-the-ground testing, interviews with people, and contact tracing.”

Thompson has also enjoyed exploring the “big picture” side of public health through a six-week externship with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the Tennessee Department of Health.

“I was in the Communicable Environmental Diseases and Emergency Preparedness branch, so I got to make things that were actually disseminated to the public, such as surveys for clinicians and surveillance reports,” Thompson said. “My first main project was writing a survey that was disseminated to healthcare providers within the state to figure out their familiarity with tuberculosis testing guidelines.

“I love animals and I want to treat animals, but my big draw to veterinary medicine is helping people through helping animals,” she said. “What has always drawn me to public health is the human aspect of it.”

In addition to coursework in public health, the VPHE-DVM degree program offered Thompson the unique chance to build relationships with VPHE faculty.

“Building and using those connections to get more immersed into public health and epidemiology has been really valuable, and I don’t think I would’ve gotten that if I hadn’t done the VPHE program,” she said.

Although Thompson plans to work as a general practitioner for a while, her ultimate goal is to join the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Services fellowship program before beginning a career focused on public health.

“It was awesome to be part of this program, because I don’t think I would’ve ended up where I am now without it,” Thompson said. “Having this opportunity while I was in veterinary school meant that I was always engaged in thinking about public health and epidemiology during my veterinary courses. The dual program also took off a lot of financial strain, compared to if I had gone back to school to do a master’s degree.”

Lindsey Walker

Dr. Lindsey Walker ‘25 first discovered a love for veterinary medicine when she was 11 years old, and she’s been working in veterinary clinics ever since then.

“I was a kennel tech at a local vet’s office to get hours for the 4-H Vet Science Club,” she said. “For the most part, my job was letting the dogs out in the evening. I got to see what life was like at the clinic and after just two or three days there, I was in love.”

Walker moved from her hometown of Wimberley, Texas, to College Station to pursue an undergraduate degree in animal science and then her DVM degree from Texas A&M. While she began applying to veterinary school with the goal of becoming a rural veterinarian, Walker soon discovered a new career path from an unexpected source.

“I was halfway through my application cycle when I watched a documentary on Netflix called Pandemic,” she said. “I remember thinking, ‘This is going to be horrible when it happens one day.’ About three months later, COVID hit.”

Walker enrolled in the VPHE-DVM degree program to learn more about public health and how she, as a veterinarian, could contribute to making the world a safer place for people and animals.

The spread of bird flu during her time in veterinary school emphasized veterinarians’ role in public health even more.

“With the background I have now, I understand what it looks like to monitor and navigate an infectious disease outbreak,” Walker said. “This helps me guide my owners to make proper decisions for their pets’ health and help them understand how that can impact human health. For example, as we’re seeing cats being affected by bird flu, I am better prepared to communicate to my owners why it’s important that their cats avoid raw diets at this time.”

Now working at Apollo Veterinary, a small animal practice in south Austin, Walker enjoys applying her public health knowledge to her day-to-day veterinary life.

“Having a foundation of public health training just makes me a stronger veterinarian,” she said. “I am better prepared to support shelter medicine and can better manage diseases and parasites that could spread to other animals or people. Having gone through this program also opens up other doors as to what I could do with my degree and career in the future. 

“Veterinarians really are so much more than just veterinarians — we take care of pets, we take care of our counterparts, and we take care of our community,” she said. “People look up to us and look to us for answers. While that’s intimidating, it’s also really amazing.”

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Note: This story originally appeared in the Summer 2025 issue of VMBS Today.

For more information about the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, please visit our website at vetmed.tamu.edu or join us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Contact Information: Jennifer Gauntt, Director of VMBS Communications, Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, jgauntt@cvm.tamu.edu, 979-862-4216

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