First veterinary class: From startup college to startup clinic for Valerie Campbell and Nancy Hall

Starting from scratch was nothing new for Valerie Campbell and Nancy Hall as they built a veterinary practice in burgeoning Northern Virginia in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They had already come through the inaugural class at the new Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine.

Campbell and Hall became friends and business partners studying together in the veterinary college’s first graduating class at Virginia Tech, entering in the fall of 1980 and graduating in the spring of 1984. 

“It was definitely interesting when we had one classroom in an office building and a library next to it across from the mall and Kroger’s at the time,” Campbell recalled. “We weren't even on campus. And the labs were converted sheep barns.”

Today, Blue Ridge Veterinary Associates, the clinic Hall and Campbell started as only a mobile equine service in 1987 followed by a small-animal clinic in Purcellville nearly three years later, regularly has 10 to 12 veterinarians and provides 7-day, 24-hour emergency services, general veterinary and wellness care, and a long list of specialty and surgical options for domestic and exotic animals in Northern Virginia. 

While the early days of the veterinary college faced limited resources, indefinite prospects for accreditation and political uncertainties, Campbell and Hall simply felt blessed to be in veterinary studies anywhere. 

“I just embraced it as we were 64 people, and we had the entire college working for us,” said Campbell, who did her undergraduate studies in biology at Mary Washington University. “There were no seniors above us, there was no dilution of the attention that they were willing to give the first-time veterinary students for the first year.” 

“I did feel sort of privileged that there was no senior class above us,” said Hall, who completed a bachelor’s degree in animal science at Ohio State. “We didn't have to compete with a class above us to get our hands on things.”

Several things tightened the bond between Campbell and Hall during their veterinary studies. Their last names were both in the top half of the alphabet and therefore ended up in many classes and labs together. They were each friends of Don Nichols, now Campbell’s husband of 40 years. They lived in the same apartment complex and discovered they had come from close proximity in Northern Virginia.  

“Nancy and I actually decided to have a practice together before we graduated,” Campbell said.

Fresh from graduation, Hall aspired to be an equine veterinarian, but didn’t want her small-animal surgery skills to go dormant, so she worked three years for a veterinary clinic in Fairfax, taking on many surgeries and on-call emergency shifts. Then, she launched a mobile equine veterinary service in 1987. 

“Valerie and I were talking the entire time, and we named it Blue Ridge Veterinary Associates right off the bat, even though it was only me doing the equine mobile part,” Hall said.

By 1990, the new veterinary clinic found a physical location in a Purcellville strip mall and launched its small animal clinic, with Campbell joining her friend in the practice.  

“I was always interested in going into business for myself, because I'm just that way,” said Campbell, who also operates a 140-acre farm and owns and manages both a bed and breakfast and a real estate rental/holding company.

“She's the entrepreneurial, business-minded one for sure,” Hall said. “I give Valerie full credit for giving me entrepreneurial motivation, and boldness, whereas I probably would have stuck with a three-doctor practice all along.” 

“Every time we had a recession, I just decided to expand the practice,” Campbell said. “So that's kind of how most of this stuff happened.”

Nancy Hall also credited her father for key assistance as she and Campbell launched the clinic. 

“My dad also had a strong entrepreneurial and business sense, so he helped with our business plan,” Hall said. Hall added that her father created the original computer system the practice utilized for many years.

Hall and Campbell had a hard time in the 1980s finding banks that were willing to loan money to two women without their husbands co-signing. Veterinary medicine, also, was a male-dominated career path in that era, as more men attended veterinary college than women, something that has changed dramatically by the 2020s. 

Modern veterinary medicine, especially after the pandemic, also has developed a greater emphasis on work-life balance. It’s a development Hall and Campbell can applaud given their own life choices, but it has made it more difficult for them to hire new veterinarians for a 24-hour practice when many clinic jobs emphasize 9-to-5, 5-day-a-week hours.

“I really do think work life balance is vitally important,” Hall said. “But I would encourage new grads to be open-minded to what they can learn from being on emergency and urgent care cases. You just learn so much when you're put in the spotlight, and you've got to make decisions quickly. Even if you don't want to do it forever. It's like everybody ought to do it for a year or two.” 

From humble beginnings in converted sheep barns, Campbell and Hall look back in appreciation on their journey from being the pioneers for 40 years of veterinary college graduates to longstanding and successful veterinarians and businesswomen.

“I've always looked back fondly on that,” Hall said. “I love Virginia Tech. I love the Blacksburg area. I come back down every now and then for football games. And, yes, it was a very, very good experience down there being in the very first veterinary college class.”