International Member Spotlight: Dr Chris Gray

The RCVS is proud to have members working across the globe, who continue to use their MRCVS post-nominals and uphold and protect the welfare of animals in every continent. To help us get to know our international members a bit better, we’ve launched a new interview series, International Member Spotlight. Every month, we will be speaking to a different overseas RCVS member to find out about them, their role and veterinary regulation in the country where they work.  

In our first International Member Spotlight interview, we spoke to former RCVS Council member Dr Chris Gray. In his interview, Chris gave us an insight into the nuances of US veterinary regulation, the mentorship scheme he is creating and the reason he wakes up at 5.00am.

Can you tell us what organisation you work for and where you are based?

I am the Chief Executive of the Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society (VECCS) and have had this role since July 2020. The organisation is based in San Antonio, Texas but I live in DeWitt, Michigan. The VECCS is an inclusive society for technicians, nurses and veterinarians – you can tell I’ve lived in the US for a while because I say ‘veterinarians’ – as well as support staff and practice leaders.

Currently, the Society has over 6,000 members across North America as well as globally including Europe, UK, Australia and Japan. VECCS is built on a foundation of education - we publish a peer-reviewed journal every other month and put on two symposiums a year. One symposium is members only and one is the larger International Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Symposium (IVECCS), which pre-Covid attracted around 4,000 attendees. At the larger symposium, there are around ten co-current educational tracts over five days, as well as practical labs and talks on leadership topics as well as a trade show with over 150 exhibitors.

I’m also currently looking to broaden the Society’s membership offering to include wellness initiatives, brokering healthcare information and developing a mentorship scheme.

How does a typical day start for you?

I’m fortunate in that I work from home which gives me flexibility with my time. I’m a keen runner and triathlete so I structure my day so that I wake up at around 5:00am so that I can fit in my training before I get to my home office.

Can you give us an overview of what a typical day in your role looks like?

My day-to-day involves getting the right team in the right place and making strategic decisions that affect the Society. I also work with the elected Board to steer the direction of what the Society provides for the membership. My typical day is so varied but often I have recently had Zoom meetings with some of our veterinary mentees, as I’ve matched with a couple of younger vets to be their mentor next year. I’ll also meet with sponsors for our big conferences and catch up with the network of Executives who are part of the Veterinary Medical Association Executives (VMAE) to discuss the wellness committee’s actions.

What is your favourite part of your role?

I enjoy meeting people and getting to listen to the membership to understand what they need so we can increase the value offering for our members. People may join because they want to access the journal or come to a conference but then we hope that they see what else we have to support them and want to remain a member. Getting to chat with newer members through our Beta testing mentorship scheme is also really enjoyable. I currently mentor two vets and one nurse and getting to listen to how their careers are taking off and what their goals are is really fun.

How do you work with your mentees?

We meet once a month and depending on their personality and what they want to do we will either pick a couple of chapters from a book to read or a podcast to listen to and use that as a framework for discussion. It has seemed to work pretty well so far!

How does US veterinary regulation differ from the UK’s regulation?

The regulation is done on a state level and each state’s regulation is different. There isn’t a national regulator, so you have to pass an exam to practice in your state. Some veterinarians will get licensed in multiple states, and some will only practice in the state that they graduated in. The structure of regulation can be very strict in some states and very loose in others, for example, there are still a couple of states that don’t regulate nurses. As there is no national regulation, different people have different experiences with the rigidity of their regulation which does make it hard to drive change at a national level.

How does your role uphold and protect animal welfare?

The Society’s mission is to advance the standard of care in emergency and critical care, and we help to do this by providing education through our journals and symposiums. We also do this through our wellness member initiatives, where we help to look after the team and by virtue of those, animals are going to be looked after better. We are looking at putting in place an ‘employee’ assistance programme for our members which will be a phone line they can use if they need confidential advice and if necessary, they can speak to a counsellor.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

I’m running the Boston marathon this month and then an Olympic distance triathlon later in the year. My goal over the next few years is to do the world’s six major marathons – I still need to do Tokyo and New York!

Are you an internationally-based RCVS member? If you would like to be interviewed for our next International Member Spotlight, please do get in touch by emailing Rosie on [email protected].