Keynote Speakers

• What Do You Have, A Bee In Your Bonnet?

• Clash of the Titans: Effective Conflict Resolution (co-presented with Dr. Betsy Charles)

• Top 10 Management Mistakes

• Top 10 Communication Mistakes Managers Make

Megan Brashear, BS, RVT, VTS (ECC) graduated in 2000 with a BS in Veterinary Technology and obtained her Veterinary Technician Specialty in Emergency/Critical Care in 2004. She has enjoyed working in emergency and critical care since 2000 and is the Small Animal Veterinary Nursing Manager at the Purdue University Veterinary Hospital in West Lafayette, Indiana. Here, Megan truly enjoys the opportunity to work with technician supervisors as well as teach and train technicians and students on the hospital floor. She loves to travel and lecture sharing her knowledge with veterinary technicians and nurses around the world.

• I am the Boss of Me: Taking the Right Control of Your Life

• Clash of the Titans: Effective Conflict Resolution (co-presented with Megan Brashear)

Elizabeth “Betsy” Charles, DVM, MA combines a wide variety of professional experiences with her love of veterinary medicine in order to help others be the best they can be. She believes we all have the capacity to be exceptional people of influence by learning the skill sets necessary to become effective communicators, relationship builders and boundary setters. After completing an internship in equine referral practice, Dr. Charles spent a year in ambulatory practice followed by 6 years in performance horse practice where she was the director of her practice’s imaging center. She completed an alternative track residency program in diagnostic imaging while also serving as a member of the faculty at Western University of Health Sciences where she taught until 2017. She has also served as an adjunct professor at Washington State University for several years.

Dr. Charles holds a master’s degree in Organization Leadership and pairs that expertise with veterinary medicine to help veterinary professionals understand how emotionally intelligent servant leaders can facilitate the development of high functioning organizations. Her master’s thesis dealt with implementing change initiatives within veterinary practice. She is passionate about helping others understand that change, whether personal or professional, can be difficult but is necessary and exciting. She also believes that veterinary medicine in the 21st century requires new leadership models and strategies in order to thrive. She has presented on leadership topics at the state and national levels in numerous venues including over half of the veterinary colleges in the U.S., numerous state VMA’s, the AAEP national convention, NAVC, and the AVMA-VLC. She has served on the AVMA’s Council on Communication, the AAEP’s Leadership Development Committee and was a long time member of AAEP’s Student Programs Task Force.

Currently, Dr. Charles is the Executive Director of the Veterinary Leadership Institute. She is also developing an online radiology training opportunity for veterinary students, new graduates and veterinary technicians called RadiologyRules. When she takes a break from trying to make a positive difference for the profession, she enjoys having meaningful and authentic conversations with all who cross her path, developing young entrepreneurs as they pursue their passions, riding her horse Lenny, reading, and hiking with her red heeler, Sadie.