Meet Our Team

Janine was born in the UK and moved to Australia as a young girl. She first joined BVS in 1996 when she was studying for her nursing certificate at CIT in Canberra, from which she graduated in 1997 at the top of her class being presented with the Highest Academic Achievement award. She enjoys all facets of veterinary nursing and many animals have benefited from her caring attitude and high level of professional competency.

Janine has given more than 20 years of wonderful dedicated service to BVS and has seen the surgery evolve and grow. She says how proud she is to still be a part of such a wonderful caring practice. She currently works three days a week, mostly in surgery.

Janine owns several horses and spends much of her spare time helping her daughter train and compete in dressage.

Kay has been a vet nurse since 1993. After moving to the Bungendore area in January 2009 Kay started with BVS in the July the same year. Kay has worked at various practices over the years and cared for all kinds of animals large, small and the exotic. Intensive care, anaesthesia and animal behaviour are her particular areas of interest, she loves to continually update her knowledge and regularly attends continuing education seminars.

Since mid-2011 Kay has been organising and running our popular puppy classes of an evening. These classes provide important socialisation opportunities for new pups as well as covering behavioural, nutritional and grooming topics.

Away from work Kay enjoys spending time with family on her farm and looking after her many four legged family members including dogs, horses, chooks and a sheep.

Paula has been a veterinary nurse for 20 years, initially in a mixed animal practice similar to BVS, then moving into small animal practice. For many years she was a theatre nurse assisting Dr Sarah Webb, a small animal specialist surgeon in Canberra. She started with us part-time in March 2010 and is a huge asset to our clinic, bringing with her a wealth of knowledge, experience and a great personality. She has a special interest in small animal surgery, especially orthopedics often assisting Michael in cruciate surgeries.

When Paula is not at work, she is busy spending time with her boys and her beautiful golden retriever, Jasper.

Kara graduated from Charles Sturt University in 1995 with a Bachelor of Equine Science (picking up the Dean’s Award for Excellence for good measure) and has been employed in animal health ever since. She started at BVS in 2007 and obtained her Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing in 2008. She spends most of her time in surgery, but also helps out in reception a couple of times a week.

Kara’s interests include running, horse-riding, exercise physiology and sewing. She loves spending time with her family and being a part of her children’s sports and other interests. She has a menagerie of cats, dogs and horses on her farm and in the few hours a day she has free she likes to sleep, preferably with a cat on her head and under one arm!

Kay grew up in Canberra and completed her veterinary nursing certificate (equivalent of Certificate IV) at Wagga Wagga TAFE. She started with BVS in December 2016 and comes to us with 31 years of nursing experience – needless to say we were very pleased to welcome her to our nursing team. While her previous experience is in small animal practice, she is enjoying the challenges associated with working in a mixed practice.

Kay brings with her a very broad range of skills in all aspects of veterinary nursing including animal husbandry, lab work and reception, but she particularly enjoys working with the vets in surgery.

Having lived in the Bungendore area for many years, but working in Canberra, Kay says she is particularly enjoying the short commute to work. In her spare time, she loves to spend time with her husband, two daughters and their menagerie of dogs, cats, chickens and a lizard. She is also a wildlife carer and a keen soccer player and coach.

Susie graduated from ANU in 1993 with a BSc in Zoology and Ecology. She went on to work as a ranger for various National Parks and Wildlife agencies throughout ACT, NSW and the NT, with a particular interest in threatened species research.

After living in the Top End, Susie returned south to Wamboin enjoying the next 10 years with her young family and various animals including horses, dogs, cats and poultry.

Susie started a Certificate IV in Vet nursing at CIT in 2017. Her work placement was secured at BVS, not long after we successfully treated her dog for snakebite. She now continues to enjoy the variety of working with a range of animals in a busy, friendly workplace.

Grace moved to the Bungendore area with her family about 8 years ago from Canberra and has been working part time with us since July 2021. After completing Year 12 in 2022 she is now studying a Bachelor of Veterinary Technician through Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, with a possible plan to study Veterinary Science in the future. Grace is a keen rider and has two horses, 2 dogs and a cat. When not studying she tells us she loves to bake, though this could be a myth as she hasn’t actually brought in any baked goods for the team as yet!

Hannah was born in Darwin and lived in the top end until 2016 when her family moved to Canberra. She started at BVS in July 2022 and is currently studying for her Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing through TAFE in Goulburn. In addition, Hannah was recently awarded a scholarship (one of only 8 offered) to complete a Consultation Nurse course over the next 12 months through the University of New England.

Outside of work Hannah’s passion is definitely horses. She started riding bush ponies at the age of six and started working at a local show jumping stable as a rider and groom while still at school. She now has a team of horses that she competes in show jumping around Australia. As well as her horses Hannah’s constant companion is her Border Collie Tess who goes everywhere with her.

Starting at BVS in late 2022, Lizzie brings with her a wealth of knowledge from both general practice, and emergency and critical care nursing. While she loves all aspects of being a vet nurse, Lizzie is most interested in pathology and imaging, and the respiratory and cardiovascular system. She also works at an emergency clinic in Canberra. Lizzie enjoys the balance between the emergency and general practice world of nursing.

Lizzie first started working as a nurse in 2016, and graduated in 2019 with a Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing. Lizzie feels honoured to be able to care for a wide range of animals, and enjoys seeing the loving bond pets have with their family.

When she’s not at work, Lizzie is studying towards a Bachelor of Nursing (human nursing!) at Charles Sturt University.

Lizzie spends a lot of time with her daughter, and helping her partner on his family property, doing sheep and cattle work, and beekeeping. Her partner is a commercial apiarist (beekeeper), and this has bought on an interest in honey production, food production, and bee management. Their daughter loves to help with all the farm and bee work too.

Lizzie owns a beautiful purebred Labrador boy named Reggie, a rescue ginger cat named Tommy, chickens and a very stubborn rooster.