Dr. Josie Noah, aka Dr. Josie, joined East Bay SPCA after taking an unconventional path to becoming a veterinarian. Her first passion in life was math, beginning her career as a math teacher at Berkeley High School. After five years of teaching and a decade of math curriculum publishing, she felt her passions changing when she encountered a stray dog on a camping trip. The dog was starving and thirsty, so she had him stay the night in her car. When it came time to drop him off at a shelter the next morning, she was crying, and by the next day, she was wondering why she hadn’t become a veterinarian. Fast forward a few years, after receiving a veterinary degree from UC Davis, Dr. Josie’s presence at East Bay SPCA was felt immediately. With the help of a well-seasoned Medical Support Team, treatment plans for animals with similar health conditions (e.g., upper respiratory infections) were created, improving the speed and efficiency. This also meant that our Travers Family Veterinary Clinic veterinarians no longer needed to split their time between treating shelter animals and owned by community members, opening up more time for serving people with pets at home. By the end of 2022, Dr. Josie and her team performed nearly 1,000 surgical procedures and freed up nearly 1,500 exam appointments for the general public. Having a dedicated shelter veterinarian has also allowed us to take in more cats and dogs with medical issues, including ones that other shelters cannot accept or for which they are unable to provide ongoing treatment. Toast, a 10-week-old kitten transferred to us from another shelter, was an animal in need of surgery to save his life. He had a large indentation in his chest, causing him breathing difficulties. After applying a stint to align the bones of his sternum, he recovered with his foster family. Soon enough, he was a brand-new kitten, breathing normally for the first time. We are incredibly grateful to the many donors who made this possible. Having a Shelter Veterinarian has elevated the care we can provide for our shelter animals. Along with our Veterinary Clinic, we continue to be an example of excellence in care for all animals in our community. Dr. Josie has been able to manage all of our shelter animals’ medical care from start to finish and provide consistent care throughout their time with us. She’s also doing the bulk of shelter surgeries, freeing up more appointments for our public vet clinic. To say she’s helped tremendously would be an understatement.” – Kristen Beitzel, Vice President of Medical Services Dr. Josie in surgery.