Ep 161: Understanding the Veterinary Income Gap, with Dr. Sam Morello

After a short break for Christmas, That Vet Life Podcast is back! Our first episode of 2023 kicks off with Dr. Sam Morello.Dr. Sam Morello is a veterinarian, educator, researcher, and leader focused on professional sustainability. After receiving her BS and DVM from Cornell University and completing a large animal surgical residency at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Sam spent over a decade working as an Associate Professor of Surgery. Where she spent a great deal of time investigating professional sustainability, economics, and work-life in veterinary medicine focussing in particular on gender and diversity. Since then, Sam has been spreading her findings as a national and international speaker with the goal to improve mentorship, and career decisions, and guide policymakers to improve veterinary medicine. Dr. Sam currently serves as the assistant director for Continuing Education for the American College of Veterinary Surgeon, as a faculty with AOVet (a program she helped to design to improve gender and racial diversity and mentorship), and on the board for the Women’s Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative. Alongside this, Dr. Morello works as a consultant and courtesy associate professor at the Cornell University Center for Veterinary Business and Entrepreneurship (CVBE). As a part of the team at the CVBE, Dr. Morello’s primary research and outreach focus is on gender in veterinary medicine and how the feminization of the labor market presents a unique challenge and opportunity for veterinary medicine. She also focuses on professional sustainability and developing an understanding of how to improve compensation, career advancement, and workplace value for veterinarians and traineesIn this week’s episode, Dr.Moriah and Dr.Sam talk about the pay gap in vet med, how Dr.Sam pivoted into research from practice, the finding and outcomes of the research on the gender pay gap, mentorship and how we can use our hard-earned understanding of the scientific method as veterinarians to solve different problems than what we're normally used to.Outline[00:20] Dr. Moriah begins the episode with a short introduction of Dr.Sam Morello.[02:05] Dr.Sam shared her professional journey and how she ended up as a mentor.[08:02] Dr. Moriah and Dr.Sam discuss their vet school experience.[09:30] Dr.Sam explains how she started her research path to help students make better decisions about their careers and possible pivots.[12:06] Dr.Sam explains her experience of pivoting to research from vet practice.[15:44] A short ad break - sign up to our Career Concierge service.[17:04] Dr.Sam explains the topic of the research and the findings of the research.[20:06] Dr.Moriah and Dr.Sam talked about the outcomes of the research and how it is changing the face of the veterinary profession.[24:02] Dr.Moriah and Dr.Sam discussed stereotypes and biases about the gender pay gap in the profession.[27:23] Dr.Sam shared where you can find more information about her work and research.[28:44] Dr. Moriah wraps up the episode.