PVMA Keystone Veterinarian Winter 2021 - 12

A casual interview with Alyssa Mages, CVT,
and Danny Vazquez-Mondragon, CVT
inaugural meeting of PVMA's Diversity,
Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee was
held on November 5, 2020. The committee
consists of a diverse (of course!) group of
veterinary professionals who are deeply
committed to increasing representation in their chosen field.
One theme that quickly emerged from the meeting is the need
to share the stories of minorities in veterinary medicine.
As an introduction to the DEI committee, two members, Alyssa
Mages, BS, CVT, and Danny Vazquez-Mondragon, CVT, share their
discussion about Danny's experience as a Certified Veterinary
Technician and Hospital Manager.
Alyssa: I have not worked with you in far too long, and I know a
good amount about you but not enough. I am really excited to
have this conversation with you so everyone else can get to know
you too. So, to start off, I'll go with one of the big ones: What was
your " Ah ha " moment that directed you to want to do veterinary
medicine?
Danny: To be honest, I don't know that I had an " Ah ha " moment
for the entirety of the medical field, but when I was a kid I always
wanted to be [a veterinarian], but then my " Ah ha " moment for
going towards nursing rather than a doctorate was in the middle
of my pre-vet program at Penn State. I was just kind of at my
wits' end with all of the studies and everything. While I was in
that I was also working in practice and seeing how much actual
hands-on and actual medical care that the doctors do versus
the nurses. That was kind of my, as you said, " Ah ha " moment.
I didn't know any better when I first started, so I was going for
my doctorate. [I realized] the nurses do a lot of medical care.
12 | Keystone Veterinarian

They are the ones who go to the doctors and say, " This is what's
happening and we need to do something about it, " or " This is
what the patient's feeling, something has to change. " Then the
doctors collaborate with the nurses and figure out what is best.
Alyssa: So you really wanted to have that personal touch, that
impact with your patients, and get into the medicine of it. So that
kind of leads me to my next question: Do you have a favorite part
of vet med? Do you like ER, critical care, anesthesia...? I know you
love anesthesia!
Danny: I feel like I have two parts to that, and it switched from
the time I met you. So, before that it was anesthesia all day,
every day; that was my heart and soul. Then when I opened up
my horizons and went to Metro and started as the emergency
nurse, I fell in love with the fast pace, the never knowing what
was going to walk through that door. [It may be a] cute little
puppy that potentially has kennel cough, or it [may be] that dog
that was hit by a car and is in cardiac arrest and we need to do
CPR. So, I would say I started out with anesthesia being my endall and my favorite because you are in control in those situations,
that everything that is happening is because of you. You have the
knowledge and the capabilities to be able to change it for either
the better or for the worse if you aren't paying attention.
Alyssa: You mentioned anesthesia before we met, and we did
emergency together. Tell me more, tell everybody more about
your journey from where you started to where you are. Is it a
straight road or did you kind of wind around?
Danny: No, I would say for a majority it was a straight route once
I made my choice. In the beginning way back when I first started,

PVMA Keystone Veterinarian Winter 2021

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