AVMA podcast highlights policy pathway through Jacey Cerda
CURRENT BRIEF VERSION: AVMA’s My Veterinary Life podcast this week spotlights Dr. Jacey Cerda, whose career path spans veterinary medicine, law, public health, conservation, and policy. In the episode, Cerda discusses her experience with the AVMA Government Relations Externship, a four-week Washington, D.C., program that places veterinary students alongside AVMA’s Government Relations Division to work on legislative and regulatory issues affecting the profession. The program gives students exposure to congressional meetings, hearings, and policy research on topics including student debt, animal welfare, funding for veterinary education, and small business and tax policy. Cerda’s current role as a Colorado State University postdoctoral researcher and 2024-2025 Fulbright Scholar adds another example of how advocacy experience can translate into broader leadership across One Health, biodiversity, and emergency response work. The episode also fits into a wider My Veterinary Life pattern: recent installments have highlighted early-career veterinarians finding ways to shape the profession through organized veterinary medicine, volunteering, belonging, and general practice leadership. In those episodes, AVMA framed volunteering as a way to expand networks, help shape the future of the profession, and make space for more connection at a time when many veterinary teams still feel the effects of post-COVID disconnection and pressure to prioritize efficiency over listening and engagement. (electives.vet.osu.edu, avma.org)
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, the episode is less about one career story and more about the profession’s policy pipeline. AVMA’s externship has long been designed to show students how federal policy shapes practice, and the association has described advocacy experience as a way to strengthen veterinary voices in Congress and federal agencies. It also lands within a broader AVMA message that early-career involvement in organized medicine, committees, and volunteer roles can help veterinarians build community, develop leadership skills, and influence the profession beyond the exam room. That matters at a time when workforce pressures, student debt, animal health policy, public health, and retention all remain live issues for the profession. Cerda’s trajectory underscores that organized veterinary medicine can be a training ground for careers well beyond clinical practice, including government, conservation, and science policy. (electives.vet.osu.edu, avma.org)
What to watch: Watch for whether AVMA continues using this podcast series to recruit more students and early-career veterinarians into organized medicine, advocacy, and policy-facing roles, especially by connecting policy pathways like the externship with broader messages about volunteering, belonging, and leadership development. (avma.org)