Our History

The VBMA began as a stand-alone organization founded by three students at the University of Pennsylvania in 2001.

In 2006 Meghan Stalker, the then club president of that organization, recognized the power that veterinary business organizations could realize by working together. She began to contact veterinary schools in the northeast US to see if they would be interested in working with her group at the University of Pennsylvania. The National VBMA was thus created officially, in September 2004 with the inclusion of the 16 original VBMA chapters. The picture above is from the first-ever national meeting of the VBMA.

The goal of the National VBMA was to provide a support network among students with common interests and goals. These students believed that in order to practice quality medicine, veterinarians needed to possess subsidiary skills to enhance client compliance and personal success. These beliefs were rooted in the results of industry research of the time, most notably the KPMG Mega Study but also the Brakke and AVMA-Pfizer studies that followed. These studies showed the importance of business education as factors in improving the quality of veterinary service and the amount veterinary income. The founding students of the VBMA felt like this element of their education was not being addressed and moved to fill the void.

One of the founding principles and greatest attributes of the VBMA is that it has always been lead, managed, and organized entirely by veterinary students. The VBMA considers itself to be “independent” primarily because it does not have, and was not created or directed by any type of parent organization. Our organization is founded on the determination, innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit of future veterinary leaders who desire a higher level of business education than what is being offered through veterinary colleges. This allows us to pursue their own educational interests through lectures and hands-on experiences.

The VBMA’s growth has been astronomical. In less than 5 years the VBMA has established a chapter at every single veterinary school in the US with slightly under 2500 members. Additionally it has 3 international chapters with several more pursuing memberships. At the 2008 VBMA National Meeting, our students provided the student voice in the “Elephant in the Room Discussion”, where industry and academic leaders debated how to deal with the impending debt crisis. Several members took this debate back to their own chapters to engage their faculty and local practitioners on this issue. The astounding growth of this organization and the influence it has are a testament to the need the organization fills and the structure of our student leadership.

It is exciting to imagine what the VBMA will accomplish as it moves into the future. Stay tuned, we’d love to have you on the journey with us.

First-Ever VBMA National Meeting