Valerie Ragan retires from director role, having guided many veterinarians onto new and rewarding paths

Valerie Ragan is retiring as the director of the Center for Public and Corporate Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech. But she is not retiring from the influence and expertise she has developed in a wide-ranging career over the past four decades.

Between finishing a book to help veterinarians decide if and how to make a shift in their careers, a potential future book project on brucellosis, occasional consulting with corporations and governments on infectious diseases, and a real estate side business, Ragan will have plenty to keep her engaged, in addition to caring for family members, after her retirement this month from Virginia Tech.

"I don't actually like the word retire, because it sounds like you're tired again, right?" Ragan mused. "I like to think that I'm moving to my next chapter, like my students are. I'm graduating. I'm graduating from this job into my next step of life, just like they do. And I want to make that next step just as exciting as this step has been."

Ragan has been director of the center since 2009, first working out of the University of Maryland campus of the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, then at the veterinary college’s main campus at Virginia Tech starting in 2014.  

“Valerie Ragan has advanced the consideration of and preparation for careers in veterinary medicine beyond private practice for many students and practicing veterinarians over the years,” said Dan Givens, dean of the veterinary college. “Valerie’s passionate efforts have laid foundations for many exciting and rewarding careers.  The professional yield from seeds that Valerie Ragan has planted will continue to be harvested by many veterinarians in the decades ahead.”

“Dr. Ragan has expanded the center’s reach and enriched the training of students pursuing careers in public and corporate veterinary medicine,” said Cassidy Rist, the center’s associate director. “Through her guidance, support, and inspiration, Dr. Ragan empowers veterinary students and graduate veterinarians to explore professional paths beyond private practice. She shares not only her passion for the profession but also a practical framework for discovering fulfilling career opportunities.”

Spending 16 years at the veterinary college and 12 on the Virginia Tech campus completed a circle that began when Ragan studied biology at Virginia Tech in the late 1970s. She even participated in student efforts and political contacts to bring a veterinary college to the campus.

However, presented with an opportunity for early entry, Ragan accepted a spot in the University of Georgia's veterinary school one year before the veterinary college at Virginia Tech took its first students in 1980. 

"I always wanted to come back to Blacksburg,” Ragan said. “I loved it here, and always wanted to come back here. So here I am."

Between her 1983 University of Georgia veterinary degree and her return to Blacksburg, Ragan had several professional experiences that shaped her career and an international reputation.

That started with five years in private veterinary practice in northern Georgia.

"I was going to be a horse veterinarian, like a lot of young girls, but then in veterinary school, I saw our equine professor get kicked in the face," Ragan recalled. "He was on the ground, and we thought he was dead. He wasn't. But I thought, maybe I'll just ride horses. And so I did small animal medicine."

As much as she loved many aspects of small animal medicine, Ragan eventually found the experience confining in many ways.

"I remember, I was spaying my sixth cat in the morning, and I was thinking, 'I'm not feeling challenged enough any more,'" Ragan said. She also realized she didn’t want to be in that building for the rest of her career. Additionally, having grown up overseas, she was hungry for opportunities to travel, which small animal medicine didn’t provide for. It was time for a change.

That led to 17 years working for the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s, Veterinary Services (APHIS, VS). She eventually became one of the foremost experts on brucellosis, a bacterial infection often found in livestock, and served as USDA’s National Brucellosis Epidemiologist 

That got her re-connected to Virginia Tech, which has long been a world leader in brucellosis research. Gerhardt Schurig, then dean of the veterinary college, encouraged her to return to the college in 2009 to head the Center for Public and Corporate Veterinary Medicine.

"If we want to eat, if we want to stay healthy, if we want to ship animals and sell them, we need public and corporate veterinary medicine," Ragan said.

Ragan's deep experience in public veterinary work, and, especially, the desperation and frustration she once felt wanting to make a career shift, informs her role leading the training of new public and corporate veterinarians, plus helping veterinarians in private clinics make the transition to new careers. 

“When I was ready to leave clinical practice in 2017 and transition to a job in the animal health industry, Dr. Ragan was one of the very first of my veterinary colleagues to offer her help,” said Will McCauley, founder of animal health and biotech consulting firm MAHC Group and director of industry and government relations for Medgene. “Through the generous contribution of her time and professional insight, I succeeded in my mid-career transition and today find myself in a role that I find both incredibly satisfying and beneficially impactful.” 

This commitment has led Ragan and her colleagues to develop coursework, available in person and online, that is sought out by veterinarians nationally who are considering a career change. Ragan often personally advises veterinarians who call her about making a career shift. 

“After I saw the article about her in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, I emailed her at the address listed in that article, not really expecting to hear back directly from her, necessarily,” said Kay Breed, an FDA veterinary medical officer who had been a private clinic veterinarian. “Not only did she email me back, she talked to me for over an hour about goals for transitioning to a new sector of vet med from practice. She was also very caring, and really seemed to be committed to taking on the cause of keeping veterinarians ‘in the biz,’ so to speak, even if a traditional role in practice was not ideal for them. “

“One of the most impactful lessons she has taught me is that there is a place for every veterinarian in veterinary medicine,” Rist said. “That’s a belief that has become a core value in both my personal journey and the mission of the center.”

Much of that knowledge and experience will be encapsulated in her forthcoming book, which she says can actually be helpful for anyone wanting to make a shift in any field, although the last few chapters are more specifically geared to careers in veterinary medicine.

Ragan’s influence has extended far beyond Virginia Tech, as twins Ann and Lydia Carpenter, DVM/MPH dual-degree veterinary college alums and Ragan’s former students who have followed her footsteps into USDA (APHIS), have noticed as they have worked in federal posts.

“Dr. Ragan’s extensive experience in the public and regulatory animal health spaces made her an excellent resource for students looking for veterinary careers outside of the clinic,” said Lydia Carpenter, a five-year veterinary medical officer for the USDA. “Many of the state and federal veterinarians that I work with on a daily basis are VMCVM alums and were under the tutelage of Dr. Ragan. She has raised years of well-rounded, prepared, and confident veterinarians who contribute meaningfully to the public and regulatory animal health sectors.”

“Dr. Ragan played a pivotal role in my career,” said Ann Carpenter, who moved from the CDC to USDA this year. “Her influence during my veterinary school education, opening my eyes to opportunities and career paths outside of clinical practice, inspired me to pursue two public health and epidemiology fellowships at CDC before moving to animal health commodity work. Her mentorship was one of the most valuable aspects of my veterinary education.” 

Although Ragan's career has taken turns she could not have expected as a child, her love of veterinary medicine is ingrained deeply, not just in her childhood but her ancestry.

"When I was 5, I told my dad, I'm going to be a veterinarian," Ragan said. "It was all I ever wanted to do from then on. My great-grandfather was a veterinarian, and his brother was a veterinarian, althoughI never knew them. They were gone before I was born. But it was in the genes, I guess."

When Ragan graduated from Georgia's veterinary college in 1983, her grandmother gave Ragan the veterinary degree diploma her father – Ragan's great-grandfather – had earned at George Washington University in 1911, plus the instruments he used in his work. "Those were my prized graduation gifts," Ragan said.

A high school counselor told Ragan she couldn't be a veterinarian because she was a girl, but her parents told her to ignore him and pursue her dreams anyway. 

She continues to do that and help others do likewise.