About Us

Tangela M. Williams-Hill received her DVM from Tuskegee University in 2001. Dr. Williams–Hill was a research scholar at the University of Georgia and the University of Maryland at College Park. She worked as a lab researcher in chemistry until attending Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, AL. She practiced in Collingswood, NJ for six years in small animal medicine and exotic medicine. She is an active member of the North Jersey and South Jersey VMA, as well as an AAHA member. She is also active in community programs that help promote and educate students from low income areas about veterinary medicine. Dr. Williams-Hill was a board member on the Patient Family Advisory Committee and a NICU volunteer at a local hospital in New Jersey from 2013 to 2017. Dr. Williams-Hill joined Idexx Laboratories in April 2015 as the Philadelphia Professional Services Veterinarian, serving the greater Philadelphia region and conducted CE seminars and communication training. She presently sits as a board member of AVMA-supported Women’s Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative and is a member of Idexx Global Diversity and Inclusion Council.

Dr. Adney received her PhD from Colorado State University (CSU) in 2016, where she is currently a member of the veterinary class of 2020. Her PhD research investigated the role of dromedary camels in the transmission cycle of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MER-CoV).

Upon completion of her DVM, Dr. Adney will integrate her scientific and veterinary expertise to continue researching the role of reservoir hosts in the spillover of emerging infectious diseases.

Dr. Adney is passionate about promoting women and minorities in science. She is one of the founding members of CSU’s Women in Science Career Issues Group, has helped organize two symposiums focused on the topic, and serves as the student director of the Women’s Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative. Furthermore, Dr. Adney believes science communication within the scientific community and amongst the general population is critical to the advancement of science. She is a founding member of Science on Tap, Fort Collins, a monthly event focused on open and informal discussion between scientists and the public.

With his position as Adjunct Professor for Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, there are several veterinary students receiving part of their clinical training at Island Cats.

Dr. Marshall is a Past-President of the Washington State Veterinary Medical Association and still serves on the Board of Directors. He also has previously served as Vice-Chairman of the American Veterinary Medical Foundation and currently serves as one of two representatives from Washington State in the House of Delegates for the American Veterinary Medical Association.

He is proud that his last act as WSVMA President was to propose and promote that Washington be the first State VMA to sign on in support of the Wake Up Vet Med Call to Action by the Multicultural Veterinary Medicine Association.

Late in 2020, he was appointed to the Advisory Group of the Commission for a Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Veterinary Profession. This is a joint venture of the AVMA and AAVMC.

Dr. Marshall is also working with the Washington State University Center for Undergraduate Education (Pre-Veterinary Medicine) to establish a DEI forum with a panel of current veterinary students.

Outside of this veterinary medicine, Dr. Marshall enjoys getting to all the corners of the Pacific Northwest to work on honing his landscape photography skills, and during the winter he participates in a local curling league.

Dr. Marshall is married and has two grown children. He and his wife share their home with their cat named Millicent Cloudberry (Millie), senior Bassett-Retriever cross named Fred, and during pandemics, the Island Cats clinic cat named Ella.

As a member of their senior program leadership team, Dr. Makenzie Peterson serves as the Director for Wellbeing at the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC). She works to advance AAVMC’s strategic goal of fostering a culture of wellbeing throughout academic veterinary medicine by promoting preventative, systems-based initiatives that positively impact people’s lives. Dr. Peterson provides subject-matter expertise on evidence-based health and wellbeing practices, as well as how organizations can improve overall wellbeing by addressing the root causes of distress. She speaks on a variety of wellbeing-related topics across the profession to drive positive change.

In Dr. Peterson’s current role, she leads efforts to improve the wellbeing of students, interns, residents, staff, and faculty at our member institutions by conducting national research on mental health and wellbeing and providing organizational recommendations and consultation for program development and implementation. She also provides oversight for AAVMC’s Academic Veterinary Wellbeing Professionals (AVWP) group. Beyond her role in academic veterinary medicine, Dr. Peterson also established the Wellbeing Coalition group for the Federation of the Allied Schools of the Health Professions (FASHP) to encourage cross-disciplinary efforts and resource sharing to collectively support the wellbeing of all the health professions.

A few of Dr. Peterson’s previous roles included being a health specialist for a joint MIT/Harvard-sponsored start-up located in Harvard Business School’s Innovation Lab focused on educating college students on health topics, and at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine as their first Wellbeing Program Director creating community wellbeing initiatives for students, staff, and faculty. She served on the Wellbeing Committee for the New York State Veterinary Medical Society and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Women’s Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative.

Born and raised in Alaska, Dr. Peterson completed her master’s degree from the University of Utah in Health Promotion & Health Education and her Doctorate of Social Work from the University of Southern California. When she’s not working to translate wellbeing research into practice, Dr. Peterson can be found enjoying time with her family and her wolfdog Odin, and fixing up her circa 1845 home in central New York (a never-ending endeavor).

Dr. Kimberly Cunningham Simmons started her long career in Animal Health as a companion animal veterinarian in private practice in Georgia upon graduation from the Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine. She then moved on to corporate veterinary practice, as Senior Clinician with PetSmart Veterinary Services, then as Chief of Staff with Banfield, the Pet Hospital. After realizing that she wanted more exposure to the Animal Health Industry, she joined Novartis Animal Health as a Professional Services Veterinarian for the companion animal commercial business, eventually moving into the area of Regulatory Affairs. With Novartis, Kimberly had the honor of working and living in Europe, having leadership/global roles in the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. Based on her love of working in and with diverse cultures around the world, Kimberly has been in several global leadership roles for many major Animal Health companies, including Merial Animal Health, IDEXX Laboratories, Inc., and most recently as VP Global Regulatory Affairs with Elanco Animal Health. In 2020, Kimberly decided to start her own Regulatory consulting business, Simmons Consulting Group, LLC supporting the Animal Health and Pharma industries on regulatory strategy, innovation, product stewardship, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives. She is also Director of Regulatory Affairs with Clinglobal and an AVMA/AAVMC Advisory Group member for the Commission for a Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Veterinary Profession. .  Kimberly currently resides in Indiana with her husband, twin teenagers and a host of family pets, including an English Springer Spaniel, an American Shorthair, a guinea pig, and a turtle.