Burnout and Work-Life Balance Study 2021

Dr. Ivan “Zak” Zakharenkov is a veterinarian, an entrepreneur and a passionate advocate for the well-being of veterinary professionals. After 12 years in ER and a severe case of burnout, Ivan pivoted to creating products that improve the workflows and experience of veterinary teams. 

Pursuing his goal to make a sizable impact on the veterinary industry, Dr. Zak founded Galaxy Vets, a veterinary healthcare system co-owned by its employees and with burnout prevention as a strategic priority. 

Along the way, Ivan obtained an MBA degree in International Healthcare Management with a thesis, “Implementation of Lean Thinking to Improve the Employee Experience.” He serves on the board of Galaxy Vets Foundation and Vets in Mind Alliance, and co-hosts two podcasts: Veterinary Innovation Podcast and Consolidate That!

Dr. Melanie Bowden is a 2016 Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine Graduate. She currently works at a small animal 24 hour emergency and specialty clinic in Scarborough, Maine. Dr. Bowden started her journey to becoming a veterinarian in 2011 as a veterinary assistant and immediately fell in love with how amazing and unique our profession is. She found it full of bright, compassionate, innovative and giving people who really set up and support each other. However, this profession can also be very challenging. Outside of her passion for Medicine, Dr. Bowden is passionate about supporting other veterinarians and veterinary professionals in making this career sustainable. This led to her giving a Ted-X talk in 2020 entitled “What Being A Veterinarian Really Takes” and she then released a book in 2021 focused on overcoming burnout, developing self advocacy and career development in 2021 entitled “What the F**K! Is This Vet Med?”

Dr. Catenacci is an organizational psychologist and leadership coach passionate about creating workplace cultures that enable all veterinary professionals to thrive. In 2010, she obtained her BS and BA degrees from the University of Central Florida and a few years later, received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University. In 2019, Lauren started working as Associate Director at Gartner, where she designed a leadership framework guiding scalable identification, assessment and development of leaders across the organization. She has also worked with leadership teams from the military and governments, to the private sector with enterprises, startups and SMB to identify and develop the capabilities and solutions needed to navigate transformational change successfully.

Alyssa is the Chief Visionary Officer (CVO) of EVT (Empowering Veterinary Teams) where she oversees the content development, clinical skills training, and overall vision of the company. She co-founded EVT to provide training programs, materials & coaching/learning opportunities for veterinary practices, as well as content development and training directives for veterinary industry service providers. The EVTeam consists of veterinary professionals, industry leaders & coaches.

Alyssa graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a BS in Marine Biology which led her to the education/conservation track. Ultimately her desire to learn and do more led her to transition to the veterinary field where she attained an AS in Veterinary Technology from Manor College and added CVT to her credentials.

She has over 17 years of veterinary experience and has worked in numerous sectors of the industry. Throughout her tenure she has held multiple leadership roles including Lead Veterinary Technician, Adjunct Professor and Education & Development Coordinator. Alyssa’s love of teaching and her passion for the education, evolution & empowerment of the support team members in veterinary medicine led to the launch of EVT in October of 2019.