Pulse - March 2021 - 15

Jaclyn
Wilson
Will Bring
Passion
for the
Environment
to Profession
Jaclyn Wilson, a fourth-year veterinary student at Western University of
Health Sciences, has had an interest in environmental issues since her childhood - a passion she will bring with her when she joins the profession soon.
" I've always been inclined to be frugal
with the things I consume and the things
I use, whether it was always at the forefront
of my mind or not, " she said in an interview, " especially when it comes to singleuse things. "
As she was growing up, her parents
bought large packs of water in plastic bottles. " I would take the bottles and refill
them with filtered water from the frig
and put them back, instead of throwing
them away, " she said. " I really didn't realize
what I was doing. My parents would ask:
'What are you doing? You're being so silly.'
I would say: 'No, I'm not being silly. You're
being silly for buying all this bottled water.'
" I became more passionate about it later
when I purchased food to go from a restaurant and it included those plastic-covered
packets of plasticware that each have the
fork, the spoon and the knife and a salt and
pepper packet and napkin. " She thought:
" I'm just going to use this once and I
won't see it again but it doesn't disappear. "
" I was down on the Gulf of Mexico
coast when the Horizon oil spill happened. That was very traumatic for that
area. I lived in Alabama after the spill and
for years I would find chunks of tar on the
beach. I would also find trash and I would
do my best to pick it up. After you pick up
the thousandth piece of trash, you realize
that it's not going to disappear. And you

PULSE

MARCH 2021

wonder what you can do to make this better, " Jaclyn said.
" So I started applying small changes to my
life that would reduce my waste and reduce
the footprint that I leave on this earth. That
has transformed into a passion and to really
wanting to inspire and encourage others that
the small changes they make in their lives can
have a major impact. It doesn't have to be
expensive. It doesn't have to be fancy.
" It can be as simple as taking a small
cloth, wrapping a fork and a knife in it
and sticking it in your backpack and using
that instead of the plasticware that comes
with to-go food. Do that once a week for
a year and that's 52 pieces of plastic that you
haven't put in the trash. Multiply that by
1,000 people and that's a lot.
" People individually can make an impact.
But we have a worldwide issue and a crisis
now so there are larger things to consider.
We ought to be advocates for our planet
because it can't speak for itself. And this
really relates a lot to veterinary medicine. "
Jaclyn is hoping to do an exotics-based
internship with a small animal component
before taking her first job. She is also interested in fish medicine and hopes that can
be a part of her first job - and later part of
her own practice. " I have practice ownership
goals, maybe five years out, " she said.
" As a student I don't have a lot of say
about how hospitals handle things and what

they do to reduce their footprint, " she said.
" I'm hoping as a practice owner I can build
the most sustainable veterinary practice and
show people how it's done and how easy it
is to implement some of these things.
" I want to encourage other veterinarians
to move toward more sustainable practices -
both in waste management and the practice
of medicine, with judicious use of antibiotics and making sure that medical supplies
are properly disposed of - especially medicines and antiparasitics and things like that. "
Jaclyn would like to do advocacy work
for sustainable practices. " I would like
a more professional role as an advocate
on the policy level because veterinarians
occupy a unique position in the world.
We're right there at the intersection of
One Health - at the center between animals, people and the environment. "
She sees veterinarians as the key to
One Health because of their training. " It's
a lot easier for the veterinarian brain to
expand beyond the health of the individual because we're trained to see the whole
environment. That really is at the base.
That is where we need to start because
you can't build something without a solid
foundation. "
Jaclyn's parents live in Florida. She grew
up in Michigan, earned a BS degree in
marine biology and Spanish at Auburn
University and an MS degree in aquaculture and fisheries at the University of
Florida. She worked as a marine biologist
in the Gulf of Mexico before enrolling at
Western. She lives in San Diego and plans
to practice there.
" Some people will beat themselves up
about not being able to be the perfect sustainable person or the perfect zero waste
[person] or the perfect advocate for the
environment, " she said. " But we don't need
people to be perfect. We just need a lot
of people to care a little bit. That adds up
a lot. I would encourage people to make
small changes and do what they can. The
more small changes they make, the more it
gets woven into their lifestyles and the bigger impact they have. "

Pulse - March 2021

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