Veterinary Woman is partnering with XLVets to run a ‘Veterinary Women in Leadership’ virtual event. The inspirational afternoon and evening will feature speakers from the veterinary world and beyond and a number of leading veterinary women will be stepping up to share their career stories. The event will take place on Tuesday 29^th September and will run from 1pm to 7pm, with recordings available to anyone who registers but can’t attend the whole six hours. Registration is now open here.

The event is being steered by two inspirational women in their own right: Liz Barton is Editor of Veterinary Woman and an accomplished speaker on the topic of parenting, work life balance and the challenges specific to women in the profession, while Kerrie Hedley is Chief Operating Officer at XLVets and has recently completed her MBA dissertation on factors affecting female leadership within veterinary practice.

The speaker line-up includes performance coach and head of training at VDS training, Carolyne Crowe, Jamie Callan who is Professor of Leadership & HRD and Director of Equity & Diversity at Newcastle Business School and Laura Whyte, who was previously HR Director at John Lewis Partnership and is a Non-Executive Director with a number of organisations including XLVets, the British Horseracing Authority and the Ministry of Defence on its Defence People and Training Board and the People Committee.

A number of women from industry and practice will also share their experiences and perspectives in short sessions entitled ‘If you can see it, you can be it!’ to reflect how veterinary women can tackle challenges and make the most of opportunities.

Liz Barton of Veterinary Woman says she is delighted to be hosting this event with XLVets, “We’ve been working hard to develop resources for women in the profession for the last few years and it’s wonderful to see so many women coming together and providing the skills and inspiration that will help other women aspire to leadership roles.”

Kerrie Hedley will be running a workshop on ‘Overcoming Stereotypes: What does the future leader look like?’. She said, “From the research I undertook last year we know that there is a stereotypical perception of what a leader looks like in the profession, for example a requirement to work full time. This workshop is about crushing that stereotype and defining what the future leader could look like. I’m really excited to be supporting women to develop innovative solutions in their leadership journey and look forward to seeing what we can achieve at this inaugural event.”

The virtual event is open to anyone in the profession – vets, RVNs, practice managers, whether from independent or corporate practice, industry or academia.