Internship Examples
Jennifer Rommel DVM
Jennifer Rommel DVM is a 1994 graduate of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. After veterinary school, she initially worked in both large and mixed-animal practices and later, became more interested in companion animal medicine. Several years into small animal practice, she found that clients needed a great deal of help with their petÃs behavior problems and she did not always have the answers. Many clients were frustrated with the results of incorrect behavior information either taken from books or given by others with no qualifications in the field. Some were considering relinquishment of their pet and this gave her the impetus to take her first continuing education course in behavior medicine.
Jennifer decided to specialize in the field of companion animal behavior because of her passion for the subject. Early on, she recognized that a broader knowledge base in psychology, animal learning, and ethology would be necessary to provide the best care for her patients. Therefore, she is currently working towards certification as an Applied Animal Behaviorist and is busy meeting the rigorous requirements. She is completing a Masters degree in Experimental Psychology and is enrolled in a mentored intern program with Nancy Williams, CAAB (Associate). The internship has enabled Jen to work with hundreds of cases under supervision to prepare for her own practice. (ChesapeakePetProblems.com)
Mary Huntsberry, MA, ACAAB
Mary Huntsberry, M.A. is a 2006 graduate of American University. Her degree is in Behavioral Neuroscience with a focus in animal learning and behavior. After graduate school she completed a year long internship with the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) where she worked with a variety of nonhuman primates on various behavior oriented studies. Interactions with monkeys included cognitive testing, and behavioral observation and assessment. She's assisted in studies on Mirror Self Recognition and Behavioral Economics with Capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) that involved shaping monkeys to touch targets and exchange tokens. While at NICHD she completed research investigating the Selective-Value effect, loss aversion, inferential reasoning, imitation, and face recognition in capuchins and infant rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). She also conducted ethological research looking at the effects of introducing 2 new males into a stable troop of 19 capuchin monkeys.
After her internship, Mary spent 2 years as the Canine Animal Behaviorist for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). As manager of the canine program she taught classes as well as trained, socialized, and pair housed purpose bred canines. When not working with the dogs, she clicker trained pigs to safely enter and exit a Panepinto sling for blood draws and health maintenance duties, and observed and developed treatments for monkeys exhibiting abnormal behavior.
Currently she works for the National Institute on Aging (NIA) training and testing rhesus macaques, ranging from 3 to 39 years in age, to perform a number of behavioral and cognitive tasks.
While she enjoys working with monkeys, her passion has always been companion animal behavior. Mary was introduced to Nancy Williams ACAAB a few months after accepting the position at NIH. Right away she recognized that mentorship would help her achieve her goal. Mary has been mentored by Nancy Williams for approximately 2 years and has recently been certified as an Associate Applied Animal Behaviorist.
Mary can be found at http://helpingpetsbehave.com.