Waddell Named TVMA Veterinary Technician of the Year
COLLEGE STATION, TX – Katy W. Waddell, RVT, VTS, a veterinary technician at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (CVM), was named the Texas Veterinary Medical Association (TVMA) 2013 Technician of the Year. Waddell, a Feline and Canine Internal Medicine and Endoscopy Services Floater Technician, also specializes in ECC and anesthesia.
Veterinary technicians are nominated for this award by members of the TVMA. Dr. Johnathon “Bert” Dodd, Clinical Professor at the CVM and TVMA member, nominated Waddell and described her as “one of the most proficient techs with whom I have ever worked.”
“Her patience with students and her love for teaching is absolutely amazing,” Dodd continued. “Over and over she has been awarded the ‘Student Choice Award’ at the College of Veterinary Medicine.”
“Katy is an outstanding member of our hospital staff,” said Dr. Eleanor Green, Carl B. King Dean of Veterinary Medicine. “Her excellent clinical skills make her a valuable member of our treatment teams in the Small Animal Hospital, and her ability to share that knowledge with our students and actively engage them in the learning process has made a tremendous impact in the education of future veterinarians.”
Waddell has always enjoyed teaching, she said, which is one of the reasons she returned to the CVM in 2002 after 15 years in private practice. She had previously worked at the CVM for seven years in the 1980s.
“I just love to see the light bulb go on when students understand something,” Waddell said. “It’s incredibly rewarding.”
Waddell said that one of the best ways she can help patients is by teaching students, which she does above and beyond her job requirements. In addition to speaking at regional and national meetings, she teaches online courses that draw an international audience. She even runs informal wet labs for student groups on weekends. This work helps Waddell enhance her ability to be a patient advocate while simultaneously fostering her profession, she said.
This work very much impressed the TVMA awards committee, said Devorah Jakubowsky, the Associate Director of TVMA. One of the selection criteria used by the committee was leadership in and contributions to advancing the role and value of the veterinary technician.
In addition to inspiring her students, Waddell remains committed to challenging herself. She enjoys working at the CVM because she gets to work on a wide variety of cases.
“It’s learning opportunity for me every day,” Waddell said. In fact, she went into anesthesia because she wanted to look at the whole patient, or “nose to toes,” as she put it.
In her personal time, Waddell enjoys cooking and grows her own herbs, including catnip for her six cats and the six others she is fostering. Until recently, she had a dog as well, but when he passed away she didn’t feel like she immediately needed to get another one.
“I don’t need to search for them; animals find me,” she said. Perhaps they can sense her deep love of and commitment to them. One of the best parts of her job, she says, is when she sees an injured animal recover and get to go home.
It was this passion for veterinary medicine that the TVMA recognized in honoring her with the Technician of the Year Award at the TVMA Awards and Installation Banquet on March 2, 2013.
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
