Vet Cetera magazine 2015

PHOTO / COURTESY
More OSU
alumni honors
At the 100th Annual OVMA
Convention and Expo, two
more alumni were honored.
Dr. Kimberly Weiss
(’99) received the
Distinguished Service
Award. Weiss owns and
operates Heartland Healing
Hands, a mobile veterinary
practice serving the greater
Oklahoma City metro area.
Dr. Edward Wagner
(’80) received the
Companion Animal
Practitioner Award.
Wagner works at 15th
Street Veterinary Group
in Tulsa.
Dr. Carey Floyd
Graduates of OSU’s Center for Veterinary
Health Sciences have many career options
— as personified by 2015 Oklahoma Veterinarian
of the Year Dr. Carey Floyd.
Floyd grew up in Ada, Okla., and knew early
on she wanted to be a veterinarian.
“I don’t ever remember wanting to do anything
else,” Floyd says. “We had about 25 acres
outside of town. My mom was the animal lover;
every stray ended up at our house. My dad
taught biology at Ada High, so every year when
he cleaned out his classroom for the summer,
the snakes and turtles came home with him.”
Floyd earned her DVM degree from OSU in
1985 and returned to Ada.
“I worked in a private veterinary practice
for several years. Then I had an opportunity
to work at the Oklahoma Department of
FLOYD NAMED
VETERINARIAN OF THE YEAR
Agriculture. I was the first woman they hired
as a field veterinary medical officer. … I enjoyed
it and really liked the people I met.”
After 15 years, Floyd moved on to Murray
State College in Tishomingo, Okla.
“I was the director of Murray State’s veterinary
technician program. I loved teaching and was
there for almost 11 years. Then in May 2014, I
decided to try something different. I am now
teaching biology II and anatomy and physiology
at Seminole High School.”
“I really think what I like the most about
being a veterinarian has to be my colleagues
and the people in and around the veterinary
medicine profession,” she says. “I loved my
patients and my clients. And I really love the
kids and teaching. I tell people I am not a typical
high school teacher; I am a veterinarian
who is teaching.”
And because she is not currently practicing
veterinary medicine, Floyd was surprised when
the Oklahoma Veterinary Medical Association
selected her as the 2015 Oklahoma Veterinarian
of the Year.
“It is such an honor to be recognized by many
veterinarians and colleagues in Oklahoma. I
have tried to give back to this profession. I have
done a lot of different things with this veterinary
medicine degree — some things I never
would have been able to do without it. I am very
humbled by this award. It was truly an amazing
honor for me to receive it.”
Floyd is the 36th veterinarian to be honored
by the OVMA. Of that number, 30 (83
percent) have been alumni or faculty members
of the OSU Center for Veterinary Health
Sciences.
2015 Oklahoma State University 57