{"id":30768,"date":"2025-08-01T12:17:32","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T16:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/?p=30768"},"modified":"2026-04-29T10:12:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T14:12:22","slug":"new-clinical-residents-welcomed-to-purdue-veterinary-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/new-clinical-residents-welcomed-to-purdue-veterinary-medicine.php","title":{"rendered":"New Clinical Residents Welcomed to Purdue Veterinary Medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the calendar pages turn toward the latter part of summer, it\u2019s time to welcome a new class of residents to the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine. On July 16, the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences (VCS<\/a>) held a welcome breakfast for the new VCS residents in the Joy Matson Multi-purpose Room of the Brunner Small Animal Hospital. Many department faculty and current residents joined in the event to help welcome the new residents while also enjoying some coffee and treats.

The Interim VCS Department Head, Dr. Tim Lescun, began the event by sharing opening remarks before each of the new residents were introduced by their mentor. The breakfast provided the new residents with a nice break from their busy orientation schedule while also giving others the opportunity to welcome them to PVM!

The three year residency programs provide advanced training in a chosen specialty and preparation for obtaining board certification as specialists. Residencies also offer research and teaching opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congratulations to each of these veterinarians who\u2019ve joined the VCS Department for their advanced clinical training:
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The new class of VCS residents for 2025-2026: Front Row (L-R) <\/em>\u2013 Niloufar Ghahari, Catarina Bianchi, Madeleine Swindell, Polina Zinchenko, Kristy Faulkner and Nikole Pouri; Second Row (L-R)<\/em> \u2013 Stephanie Smick, Kiki Landsbergen, Courtney Westcott, Pili Ortiz-Fullana, Sofia Dazarola (a clinical pathology intern with the Comparative Pathobiology<\/a> Department who participated in the VCS resident orientation), Jennifer Tsai, Anna Preston, Amanda Midkiff, and Rachael Lahar (Photo by Ed Lausch)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Catarina Bianchi<\/strong> \u2013 Small Animal Surgery (earned a DVM degree from the University of California, Davis in 2024 and did a Small Animal Medicine and Surgery Internship at the University of Florida from 2024-2025)

Dr. Kristy Faulkner<\/strong> \u2013 Neurology Specialty Intern (earned a DVM degree from the Atlantic Veterinary College, Prince Edward Island, in 2024 and did a Small Animal Rotating Internship at Canada West Veterinary Specialists & Critical Care from 2024-2025)

Dr. Niloufar Ghahari<\/strong> \u2013 Small Animal Medicine Specialty Intern (earned a DVM degree from Semnan University, Iran, in 2018; did a Small Animal Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Tehran, Iran, from 2018-2021; and served as a Purdue University Visiting Scholar from 2022-2023 and graduate student from 2023-2025)

Dr. Rachael Lahar<\/strong> \u2013 Small Animal Internal Medicine (earned a DVM degree from the University of Illinois in 2024 and did a Small Animal Rotating Internship at North Carolina State University from 2024-2025)

Dr. Kiki Landsbergen<\/strong> \u2013 Large Animal Surgery (earned a DVM degree from the University of Calgary in 2024 and served as an intern veterinarian at Moore Equine Veterinary Centre, Canada from 2024-2025)

Dr. Amanda Midkiff<\/strong> \u2013 Oncology (earned a DVM degree from The Ohio State University in 2024 and did a Small Animal Rotating Internship at Ohio State from 2024-2025)

Dr. Pili Ortiz-Fullana<\/strong> \u2013 Ophthalmology (earned a DVM degree from North Carolina State University in 2023; did a Small Animal Rotating Internship at Ohio State from 2023-2024; and, from 2024-2025, completed an Ophthalmology Specialty Internship at Animal Eye Guys and served as an associate veterinarian at Low Cost Pet Vax)

Dr. Nikole Pouri<\/strong> \u2013 Oncology (earned a DVM degree from Western University in 2024 and did a Rotating Internship at VCA Animal Specialty Group, Los Angeles, California, from 2024-2025)

Dr. Anna Preston<\/strong> \u2013 Diagnostic Imaging (earned a DVM degree from the University of Melbourne in 2022; served as a volunteer veterinarian at SPCA, Fiji and as a volunteer veterinarian at Te Are Manu Veterinary Clinic, Cook Islands in 2023; worked as an associate veterinarian at Albavet Dunfermline, Scotland from 2023-2024; and was a Junior Clinical Training Scholar in Small Animal Studies at the University of Cambridge from 2024-2025)

Dr. Stephanie Smick<\/strong> \u2013 Large Animal Internal Medicine (earned a DVM degree from St. George\u2019s University in 2024 and did a Large Animal Rotating Internship at Purdue University from 2024-2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Madeleine Swindell<\/strong> \u2013 Small Animal Internal Medicine (earned a DVM degree from Texas A&M University in 2024 and did a Small Animal Medicine and Surgery Internship at Purdue University from 2024-2025)

Dr. Jennifer Tsai<\/strong> \u2013 Emergency & Critical Care (earned a DVM degree from Iowa State University in 2024 and did a Small Animal Rotating Internship at MedVet Chicago from 2024-2025)

Dr. Courtney Westcott<\/strong> \u2013 Cardiology Specialty Intern (earned a DVM degree from the University of Georgia in 2024 and did a Small Animal Medicine and Surgery Internship at Purdue University from 2024-2025)

Dr. Polina Zinchenko<\/strong> \u2013 Neurology (earned a DVM degree from the University of Georgia in 2023; did a Small Animal Rotating Internship at Purdue University from 2023-2024; and completed a Neurology Specialty Internship at Blue Pearl Pet Hospital Stone Oak, San Antonio, Texas, from 2024-2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"New
New VCS residents received a warm welcome from department faculty and current residents. (Photo by Andres Herrera)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the VCS Department residents, a new class of clinical pathology and anatomic pathology residents joined the College of Veterinary Medicine this summer and will be featured in a separate story in an upcoming issue of the Vet Gazette.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the calendar pages turn toward the latter part of summer, it\u2019s time to welcome a new class of residents to the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine. On July 16, the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences (VCS) held a welcome breakfast for the new VCS residents in the Joy Matson room of the Brunner Small Animal Hospital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":30770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,41,29,42],"tags":[23,578,25],"class_list":["post-30768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvm","category-faculty-staff","category-our-people","category-students","tag-hospital","tag-residents","tag-top-story"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30768"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33523,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30768\/revisions\/33523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}