AVMA spotlights advocacy career path through Jacey Cerda podcast

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The latest My Veterinary Life podcast episode spotlights the AVMA Government Relations Externship through the career story of Dr. Jacey Cerda, a veterinarian whose résumé spans clinical practice, law, research, conservation, and policy. The episode fits into AVMA’s broader series on organized veterinary medicine and appears designed to show early-career veterinarians and students how advocacy experiences can translate into unconventional but influential professional roles. (avma.org)

Cerda’s background helps explain why AVMA chose her for this conversation. Public biographies describe her as a Colorado State University-affiliated veterinarian and postdoctoral researcher with prior experience as a litigation attorney, as well as a Fulbright scholar focused on wildlife conservation and disaster response. Her current research has centered on building policy frameworks, training programs, and cross-disciplinary response models to protect wildlife and ecosystems before, during, and after disasters. (jaceycerda.com)

That broader policy lens is especially relevant to the government relations theme. Fulbright and university materials say Cerda’s 2024-2025 research in Australia examined how the country responded to the Black Summer fires and what the United States could learn about biodiversity emergency support teams, wildlife triage, and coordinated disaster preparedness. In other words, her career path sits at the intersection of veterinary medicine, law, public health, emergency management, and conservation policy, precisely the kind of cross-sector work that advocacy training can support. (fulbright.org.au)

The AVMA Governmental Relations Division has a long history of using student externships and legislative programming to bring veterinary voices into policymaking. AVMA reporting from prior years describes externs helping advance legislative priorities in Washington, D.C., while student fly-ins and related advocacy programs were built to teach participants how to communicate with lawmakers on issues affecting animal health, public health, and the profession itself. That history gives useful context for Cerda’s appearance: this is less about one individual career story than about showing what advocacy exposure can lead to over time. (avma.org)

Direct outside reaction to this specific podcast episode was limited in publicly available sources, but the broader industry message is consistent with AVMA’s recent emphasis on belonging, engagement, leadership development, and early-career involvement in organized veterinary medicine. In a recent My Veterinary Life conversation, AVMA Chief of Veterinary Engagement and Belonging Dr. LaTonia Craig argued that the profession needs to invest more intentionally in human connection, listening, and making people feel valued if it wants them not just to stay in veterinary medicine, but to thrive. That framing helps explain why AVMA keeps using the podcast to spotlight different kinds of veterinary careers and entry points into leadership. Related episodes featuring Dr. Brennan Pitard, Dr. Sara Verghis, and Dr. Karen Cross similarly frame volunteer leadership and organized medicine as practical entry points for shaping the profession and expanding career options. (myvetlife.avma.org)

The podcast’s wider editorial pattern also reinforces another message relevant to Cerda’s story: veterinarians do not need to have every step mapped out early to build meaningful careers. In a separate recent episode on general practice, Dr. Jon Cudiamat described not deciding on veterinary medicine until his junior year of college and emphasized that students often only need a general direction, not a perfectly linear plan. That perspective complements Cerda’s nonlinear path and makes the organized medicine series more approachable for listeners who may be interested in advocacy or policy but are unsure how those interests fit into a veterinary career.

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, especially students and early-career associates, the takeaway is that policy fluency is becoming more valuable across multiple sectors, not just in association work. Regulatory affairs, wildlife health, disaster preparedness, public health, and One Health initiatives all increasingly depend on people who can move between science, practice, and policy. Cerda’s path is unusual, but the underlying lesson is practical: organized veterinary medicine can be a training ground for leadership roles that affect clinical practice, professional standards, and animal health systems at a much larger scale. (portal.wfoh.org)

That matters for clinics and hospitals, too. Practices often feel the downstream effects of legislation and regulation, from workforce policy to telemedicine rules to public health preparedness. Veterinarians who understand how those decisions are made are better positioned to advocate for their teams, their patients, and the pet parents they serve. Cerda’s example also broadens the picture of what veterinary leadership can look like, particularly for professionals interested in combining clinical credibility with legal, policy, or emergency response expertise. It also aligns with AVMA’s broader message that stronger engagement and a greater sense of belonging can help more veterinarians see a place for themselves in the profession, even if their careers do not follow a traditional route. (portal.wfoh.org)

What to watch: The next signal to watch is whether AVMA pairs these career-story podcasts with more visible pipelines into advocacy programs, externships, and leadership development, especially as the profession looks for new ways to engage students and early-career veterinarians in regulation and public policy. It will also be worth watching whether the association continues tying those opportunities to its broader belonging-and-engagement agenda, using the podcast not just to inform listeners but to help them imagine where they fit. (avma.org)