Board of Directors

Ex-officio Members

AVMA Delegate - Dr. Teresa Hershey
AVMA Alt. Delegate - Dr. Scott Dee
MVMA Executive Director - Kelly Andrews 
MVMA GAC Chair - Dr. Trevor Ames
MVMA GAC Vice Chair - Dr. Jessica Fox
POTL Program Liaison - Dr. Ashley Smit 

MN Board of Animal Health - Dr. Brian Hoefs  
MN Board of Veterinary Medicine - Dr. Pamela Johnson
MN Department of Health - Dr. Stacy Holzbauer
U of M CVM- Dr. Laura Molgaard
MVMA/MVMF Student Representatives - UMN - Kayla Sawchak & Bri Hotzler; SDSU - Olyvia Horsman
SAVMA President - Bella Kappenman 

 President

Dr. Rob Memmen graduated from the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine in 2010 and served as the vice president of SCAVMA in his third year of veterinary school. After graduation he spent three years in Granger, IN, working a small animal practice and volunteering his time caring for patients and serving on the board of the St. Joseph County Animal Humane Society. Dr. Memmen co-owns Gehrman Animal Hospital, a small animal general practice in Minnetonka, MN, where he has worked since 2013. He was involved as a participant in the MVMA Power of 10 Emerging Leaders group and then chaired the group for three years. Dr. Memmen was a director on the MVMA board from 2018–2020. He has been on the MVMA’s MOVE Task Force for four years and served as chair of the MVMA’s finance committee for four years. Dr. Rob and his wife Sara live in Minnetonka with their three children, Elizabeth, James, and Lillian, and their dog Annie.

Past President

President-Elect

Dr. Jessica Fox is a mixed animal veterinarian with specialized training and expertise in aquatic animal species including shrimp! She lives in Southwest Minnesota with her husband Mike and bullmastiff Dexter. Dr Fox has worked for over 20 years in research and development in the human food industry and animal feed nutrition and additives with her primary focus in the area of improving gut health in agriculture and aquaculture species through natural solutions. She has a consulting business “Fins Feathers Fur and Fetlocks” with aquaculture, aquarium, zoo and backyard poultry clients and is an associate veterinarian at Marshall Animal Clinic in Marshall, MN.  Dr. Fox has been an active member of the MVMA Governmental Affairs Committee (GAC) since 2015, serves as Vice Chair of GAC and is a graduate of the 2016 MVMA Power of 10 Leadership Program. She served two terms on the AVMA Aquatic Veterinary Medicine Committee and is currently serving on the Minnesota Board of Animal Health. She received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Minnesota and truly loves working with all creatures great and small. She is an animated public speaker and passionate educator. She loves painting, beading, sewing, and making engaging power point presentations; her husband says she was created to create. She loves traveling and meeting people from all walks of life on her journeys.  Her personal mission statement is to live life fully, honestly, and compassionately while making a positive impact on the health of the animals, humans and environment in the world around her.

 Vice President

Edward “Ned” Patterson, D.V.M., Ph.D., DACVIM (SAIM), is a Professor of Small Animal Medicine at the U of MN College of Veterinary Medicine where he has been on the faculty for 20 years. He received his D.V.M. in 1996 and Ph.D. in 2004 - both from the U of MN. He is board certified in Small Animal Internal Medicine (SAIM) and currently has a bi-monthly dog and cat seizure clinic. He has been funded for canine genetics and neurologic/neuromuscular research by the NIH, Animal Foundations, and breed groups, and has published 66 peer reviewed manuscripts regarding canine genetics and neurological and neuromuscular disorders including as a co-author of 9 consensus statements on epilepsy. For the past 7 years he has also been Director of Graduate Studies for the U of MN, CVM Graduate Program in Veterinary Sciences which has 40-50 M.S. and Ph.D. students at any one time. He is a past chair of the U of MN system wide Faculty Consultative Committee which is the executive and steering committee of the University Faculty Senate. He was on the organizing committee for the biannual International Conference on Canine and Feline Genetics and Genomics (ICCFGG) from 2013- 2022 including hosting the meeting in St. Paul, MN in 2017. He has been on the MVMA Board of Directors since 2020, and has been chair of the MVMA DEI Action Team since 2021. Outside of veterinary medicine he enjoys family time with his wife, parents, brother’s family, daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter, and he and they enjoy hiking and camping, pickleball, skiing, and travel with a special interest in wilderness canoeing. He had previously been on the Board of Directors of the teen wilderness camp YMCA Camp Widjiwagan for 9 years including 3 years as Chair of the Board.

Secretary/Treasurer

Director

Dr. Travis Anderson is a small animal practitioner and private practice owner in Minneapolis, MN. Travis attended St. Matthew’s University and earned his DVM in 2012 after a year of clinical study at the University of Minnesota. In addition to practice ownership, he is currently serving on the board of AERC, and enjoys volunteering with the MVMA Surgery Suite committee. He also serves as a facilitator and board member for the Veterinary Leadership Institute.  He enjoys the challenge and opportunity provided by building and maintaining dynamic and successful veterinary care teams. At home, he is supported by his wife Amanda, their dog Riker, and two cats. In his free time he enjoys traveling, playing guitar and banjo, and reading. 

Director

As a technical service specialist since 2020 for Diamond V, Dr. Dodd is responsible for providing technical support for customers in the United States, specifically in the Midwest. He earned his DVM from the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine in 2001. Throughout his career Dr. Dodd has focused on dairy production medicine, heifer development, and record and data analysis. He has been involved with the MVMA over his career, starting back in vet school as SAVMA President. He has continued to be involved through the Bovine/Food Animal Committee, leading or assisting in the Annual Convention Bovine Track planning over the years. Prior to joining Diamond V, Dr. Dodd spent the past 19 years in private practice. He has worked at various veterinary clinics in Wisconsin and Minnesota, including ownership in 3 different clinics. Dr. Dodd is based in Zumbrota Minnesota.

Director

Ashley Plotkowski, DVM
Minneapolis Animal Care & Control

Dr. Ashley Plotkowski graduated from the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine in 2014 after completing her undergraduate degree at Carleton College. She always wanted to be a shelter vet and was thrilled to discover that this position actually existed. After finishing a year-long shelter medicine internship at San Diego Humane Society in 2015, she moved back to Minnesota and worked at Animal Humane Society for nine years. She now works at Minneapolis Animal Care/Control. Ashley has been an active member of the MVMA Governmental Affairs and Small Animal Welfare Committees, and previously served on the board of directors of the Association of Shelter Veterinarians. Ashley shares her New Brighton home with four boys: husband Nick, son Owen, and cats Cooper and Herbie. As a family they enjoy riding bikes and building marble towers. When alone, Ashley can usually be found reading (ideally outside), cuddling her cats, attempting to be crafty, or re-arranging her family’s list of home improvement project priorities based on what has been newly failing.

Director

Dr. Holly Rudolf is a 2009 graduate of the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, after which she completed a small-animal rotating-medicine internship in Florida before returning to Minnesota to work as a small-animal general practitioner. Dr. Rudolf is the owner of Halo Pet Care, based out of Mankato, Mn. and is a standing member of the Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association’s Power of Ten program. She enjoys learning from her colleagues’ wealth of knowledge and strives to leave a mark on the industry by promoting, engaging, and advocating for early-career veterinarians and strengthening rural veterinary medicine. Outside of veterinary medicine, she enjoys spending time with her family, sewing, being outdoors, and being on the water, but not necessarily all at the same time.

 Ex-officio Members 

  AVMA Delegate

AVMA Alt. Delegate

MVMA Executive Director/CEO

MVMA Governmental Affairs Committee

Trevor Ames, DVM
MVMA GAC Chair
University of Minnesota, Retired 

POTL Program Liaison 

MN Board of Animal Health 

MN Board of Veterinary Medicine

MN Department of Health

U of M CVM Dean

MVMA/MVMF Student Representatives

SAVMA Chapter President

Bella Kappenman