Sustainability Working Group

Formerly co-director of Mayes and Scrine Equine Veterinary Practice, now Member of the Electoral College of the BVA, Judy is founder and chair of the Equine Sustainability Group within Vet Sustain, mentor and committee member: crazy adventure marathoner (often dressed as a witch) and obsessive fundraiser for Breast Cancer Now.

For his first 8 years, John practised in the UK, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, before starting the Liphook Equine practice where he worked for 30 years. He retired in 2004, and worked as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Melbourne then subsequently as a Visiting Professor at the Swedish Veterinary School.

Rebekah Sullivan BVSc Cert AVP (EM) MRCVS, Lead Vet for Medicine at The Donkey Sanctuary and co-ordinator of veterinary department sustainability group. Member of VetSustain Champions Team and One Health Advocate, having just completed One Health MSc.

Julia qualified in 2007 and has worked at Ashbrook Equine Hospital in Cheshire since 2009. Julia enjoys all aspects of hospital and ambulatory equine practice, but particularly enjoys medicine, having been an Advanced Veterinary Practitioner in Equine Medicine since 2013. Julia is passionate about enabling positive change to do the best for our patients, our colleagues and the environment, loving all things QI and sitting on the VetPartners Equine Clinical Board. Julia is a keen gardener (for edible produce and wildlife) and all her hobbies involve being outdoors.

Wendy graduated from Cambridge in 1997 and, after completing an internship at The Animal Health Trust, went to Scarsdale Vets in Derby where she was subsequently made a partner in 2006 and worked there until 2021 after joining IVC in 2019. Wendy has a certificate in Equine practice and completed an MBA at Nottingham in 2017 and the Climate Emergency programme at Oxford in 2021. Wendy is now an Honorary Fellow of the University of Nottingham Business School and an investor in early-stage businesses in Human and Animal Health and those looking to provide solutions to the Climate Crisis. She supports young and growing businesses and the people in them and is an advocate of the Investing in Women Code. She believes are so many exciting things happening in our equine veterinary industry, alongside the challenges that the world faces, so we must seek out the opportunities to do the right thing in a business setting – being part of the BEVA Sustainability working group is important to help shape our ways of working for the future and encourage collaboration across groups.

I graduated from the University of Glasgow in 2009 and started my career in mixed practice. I have always had a keen interest in one health and sustainability and after a few years in mixed and large animal practice I decided to complete a masters in International Animal Health whilst working as a veterinary programme advisor for the working animal charity SPANA. After travelling extensively across Africa and Asia providing training to SPANA veterinary teams and communities, I decided to set down from roots at the University of Surrey. At Surrey, my main role is to champion the intramural rotations within the final year curriculum, supporting students on farm and equine placements within our partner practice. Alongside this I champion sustainability within the vet school and wider university including encouraging others to go green and cycle to work! I also have recently taken on a part time role with Vet Sustain as their Technical Content Lead, helping to inspire and enable veterinary professionals on their sustainability journey.

I have always been interested in tropical medicine and unusual species since working for eight years in Kenya when I first qualified from Bristol in 1966. I was only 22 when I had my first veterinary students seeing practice with me. A lot of water has run under the bridge since then. My main career has been in large animal practice shifting slowly from farm animal to equine, always doing some teaching and voluntary work. I gained an MSc in Veterinary Practice for my contribution in designing the current RCVS Certificates, then a doctorate in publishing veterinary literature. This was followed by my Fellowship from the RCVS for my research in equine dentistry. I have written a total of five textbooks. My teaching experience has been very broad and has taken me to a huge variety of places around the world. My voluntary work has taken me twice to Nicaragua with World Horse Welfare and twice to Ukraine with The BEVA Trust. All the time I have been advising local veterinarians and their staff on a wide variety of topics, in both lectures and practical sessions.

Having spent time in both first-opinion and referral practice, I have seen the passion felt universally by equine vets when it comes to environmental issues. A survey published in Equine Veterinary Education found that, as a profession, we feel that sustainability is important, but that equine practitioners don't feel they have the tools to effectively approach the issue. For this reason, we set up the BEVA Sustainability Working Group in 2021, and have focused on driving research, promoting best practice, and engaging practitioners in environmental issues. We believe that, together, our many small changes can add up to make a sizeable difference.