I feel that my largest accomplishments this year has been the Flooding Relief Efforts that I spearheaded in August and September of 2022. My background as a veterinarian, and because I teach equine health and disease, I am always very aware of disease outbreaks.  When the historical floods happened in the summer in Eastern Kentucky, I immediately started to fear that we would have an outbreak of vector-borne diseases in the horses in that region. The amount of water and the time of the year enabled these insects to multiply exponentially, which was the right combination for more disaster. Those people had already lost so much, and I wanted to help them with their horse needs so they could focus on their personal needs of mourning and rebuilding. 

I put a group together consisting of the Kentucky Horse Council, Appalachian Horse Project, Kentucky State Vet, Kentucky Veterinary Medical Association, and Kentucky Association of Equine Practitioners to try and vaccinate those horses for the most important vector borne diseases we have in this country. I then contacted multiple vaccine manufacturing companies and received 1,000 doses of vaccine (retail value: $50,000). I created a form so horse owners could sign up to have their horses vaccinated, and another form so veterinarians could sign up and donate their time to assist those horses. As we learned more of the local needs, I also personally contacted multiple companies soliciting other donated goods. As a result, I received and delivered 200 tubes of dewormers (retail value: $2,000), 300 bottles of fly spray (retail value: $7,500), 200 pairs of mud boots (retail value: 24,000), 300 bottles of medicated shampoos for horses and dogs and cats (retail value: $3,000), 1,000 bottles of wound treatment (retail value: $25,000), at least 100 halters, dozens of fly masks and buckets, hundreds of syringes and needles, and monetary donations from personal friends (these donations were given to the Kentucky Horse Council to help with hay and feed purchases). In total I helped raise over $100,000 in goods that went to that community. In addition, I took multiple trips to the region to help conduct the vaccination clinics, to deliver hay, and to assess how we could continue to help those horses and their owners. It was monumental task, but we served over 300 horses in the course of 6-8 weeks.