Interview

Dr. Sarah Reuss: Sitting Between Generations, Bringing Them Together

By Marie Rosenthal MS

As a member of Generation X, Sarah Reuss, VMD, DACVIM, hopes to bring people together during her tenure as president of the AAEP.

“I’m a solid Gen-Xer, and we always talk sociologically about how we’re that in-between generation” before and after the rise of digital technology, she said.

“Where I sit both in my day-to-day job—as well as considering the generational aspect—I sit in-between a lot of our different members,” she told Modern Equine Vet. “I think my area within the strategic plan [of the AAEP] is to really work on that member engagement and make sure that all our members, whether young or old, in academia or in private practice—wherever they’re coming from—feel like they’re part of AAEP and that their voice is being heard.”

And she thinks that her career is a good starting point for understanding the variety of people who are AAEP members or who interact with the organization and its members.

Since she was a little girl growing up in Pennsylvania, Dr. Reuss has always loved horses, which is ironic because her parents “honestly are terrified of horses,” she said. “But I grew up in a time that I could get off the school bus and walk to a barn,” she said. She worked to pay for lessons, and eventually realized she wanted to be an equine veterinarian.

Dr. Reuss graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine in 2005 and did an internship at the Equine Medical Center of Ocala, in Florida. Then, because she is a “science nerd,” she completed an internal medicine residency in large animal medicine at Texas A&M.

Dr. Reuss practiced general and specialty medicine at McKinlay & Peters Equine Hospital in Newman Lake, Wash., until she moved to academia “to follow my passion for teaching,” where she spent 6 years on the faculty at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine as a clinical assistant professor and the chief of the large animal medicine service.

“And then I made a move that, honestly, I wasn’t really planning on making. But I think that is kind of the story of life. I took a job in industry,” she said. She transitioned to industry practice in 2016 with Merial, which was later acquired by Boehringer Ingelheim.

Her job as president of AAEP is not to make radical changes, she said, but to ensure the membership feels involved with the association. She also recognizes that the AAEP is representing them to other veterinarians, industry, and local, state and federal agencies. This solidarity can be crucial to people who may spend a good portion of every day alone in a truck traveling from barn to barn.

Dr. Reuss said that she has traveled many roads in her professional life, but she has never regretted being an equine veterinarian.

“To me, equine veterinary medicine is just the coolest [profession]. Horses are the coolest. They’re just amazing animals that we have the privilege to work on. And we’re surrounded happily by amazing people who are associated with the equine industry. So, I think whatever facet of equine veterinary medicine you want to be in, it’s a good place to be.” MeV