Jessica Hekman, DVM, PhD

Jessica received her joint DVM and Master’s from Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in 2012. After completing an internship at Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program at the University of Florida in 2013, she went on to earn a Ph.D. in Genetics, Genomics, and Bioinformatics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which she completed in 2017. Jessica currently works as a postdoctoral associate at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she studies canine behavioral genomics. Jessica frequently lectures and gives webinars online on canine behavior, biology, and genetics, and has been praised for her ability to clearly explain complex topics. At Animal Health Advice, Jessica offers consultations on dog breeding (mate selection), interpreting genetic test results, and how spay-neuter timing affects health and behavior. Jessica is pictured here with Dashiell, who she trains in Nosework. You can learn more about Jessica at www.dogzombie.com.

Sue Yanoff, DVM, MS, ACVS

Sue graduated from Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in 1980. After three years in private practice, she joined the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps. While on active duty, she completed a 3 year residency in small animal surgery and became board certified by the American College of Veterinary Surgeons. She has extensive experience working with Military Working Dogs around the world.

Sue retired from the Army as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2004. After working for a year on a horse farm in Idaho, she returned to Ithaca to join the staff at Colonial Veterinary Hospital as their second surgeon. She retired from Colonial in December 2009. The following month, Sue started working for Shelter Outreach Services, a high quality, high volume spay-neuter organization. She also does canine sports medicine evaluations at the Animal Performance and Therapy Center in Genoa, NY. Sue is a guest instructor at the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, an on-line dog training school. She teaches a course on Canine Sports Medicine for the Performance Dog Handler. She has given several webinars on that platform.

Sue trains and shows her dogs in conformation, obedience, agility, and tracking. She was introduced to competition obedience with her first beagle, Tristan, in 1975. He earned an AKC CDX title. Her second beagle, Devon, earned an AKC UD title. Her third beagle, Charm, was one of the most titled Champion beagle bitches in history (CH Wilkeep Third Time’s a Charm, UD, RE, MX, MXJ, TD). Her current beagle, Ivy (CH MACH Wilkeep Ivy League, CDX, RN, TD) is working on her UD and TDX.

Sue’s areas of expertise are the diagnosis and treatment of sports injuries, and the management of developmental orthopedic diseases, in performance dogs.