Galaxy Vets Presents Its Leadership Team, Enhances the Integrated Services Model

DALLAS, March 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Galaxy Vets, the first employee-owned veterinary healthcare system in the U.S., continues to strengthen its leadership team with key appointments in medical operations, telehealth, retail diagnostics, membership services, hospital integrations, and learning and development.

The company announced Lowell Ackerman, DVM, MBA, joining Galaxy Vets as Head of Global Veterinary Strategy. With deep knowledge of global veterinary needs and markets, and extensive experience in primary care practice, specialty medicine, industry and academia, Lowell will be responsible for developing and improving medical policies, processes and procedures to ensure quality, consistency and alignment in medical standards across all verticals in the Galaxy Vets healthcare system: general practices, emergency and specialty hospitals, and virtual care services.

The operations team is led by Emmitt Nantz, MBA, Chief Operating Officer. Emmitt spent nearly two decades in the veterinary industry as part of Banfield Pet Hospital, SmartFlow, and IDEXX. Emmitt uses his experience of creating large-scale operational improvements to increase hospital performance and leverage processes to relieve burnout.

Diagnostic Operations is headed by Dean Cornwell, DVM, Ph.D., a veterinary industry veteran specializing in medical technology and clinical pathology. After 23 years at IDEXX, Dean joined Galaxy Vets to set up a network of retail diagnostic centers — an integral part of its business model. 

Sarah Wallace, DVM, is driving the development of Galaxy Vets' virtual care model as VP of Telehealth. With a background in growing virtual care platforms at Fuzzy Pet Health and Modern Animal, Sarah is committed to increasing the use of telehealth to improve access to care and mitigate workload for veterinary teams.

Membership Services is led by Tina Stofiel. After 21 years of designing and growing wellness plan programs at Banfield Pet Hospital, Tina brings her expertise and deep market insights to build out a membership services platform at Galaxy Vets with the goal to improve lifetime care for pets, improve access to care for pet owners, and ultimately achieve zero economic euthanasia.

Tara McCarthy, DVM, is Head of Community Engagement. A veterinarian with 16 years of experience, she is focused on attracting like-minded people who share Galaxy Vets' purpose of reducing burnout in the veterinary profession. Tara has a background in health and wellness along with her career in veterinary medicine. Her particular passion is helping DVM moms with their health and finding their own personal balance.

Steve Kemph, MAOM, VP of Field Operations, is responsible for ensuring a smooth and stable transition for veterinary hospitals into the Galaxy Vets system and enabling predictable and sustainable growth. Steve has over a decade of field leadership in the veterinary space, including work as a Region Manager at Banfield Pet Hospital and VP of Operations at Pet Vet Care Centers.

"Only eight months since the inception, and Galaxy Vets is already a highly mature organization with a strong team, established business processes, systems, and a data-driven value creation plan for 2022 and five years beyond that," Dr. Ivan Zak, Galaxy Vets CEO, said.

Galaxy Vets partners with general practices within small regions across the U.S. to build new surgical and emergency specialty hospitals with their own reference laboratories, creating a unique, vertically integrated veterinary healthcare system. Galaxy Vets is developing a network of retail diagnostic centers and will leverage the virtual care model to accommodate the growing demand for veterinary services, effectively distribute the caseload through tele-triage and tele-consulting, provide more flexibility and task variety to the veterinary teams, and improve client experience.

Media Contact:
Galyna Danylenko
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SOURCE Galaxy Vets