Meet Our Leadership Team
Veterinary Medical Director | Dr. Gillian Penn
Dr. Gillian Penn graduated from UW Madison Veterinary Medical School in 2011 and has been working as an emergency/ critical care veterinarian in several states across the Midwest, the South and now here in Colorado.
Additionally, she completed a Master of Public Health degree at Colorado School of Public Health (MPH) in 2022. This degree focused on how our environment impacts human, animal and plant life, and the reverse, through various lenses such as community health, One Health, EcoHealth, and Planetary Health. Her coursework specialized in public health preparedness and disaster response obtaining an academic certificate in the respective field. These studies have broadened her skill set in addressing community and environmental health issues including those associated with climate change, infectious disease, and natural hazards resulting in disaster, provided more tools to collaborate across sectors, and educate the public.
Dr. Penn represents the Front Range vMRC (FRvMRC) on the board of our parent unit, the Rocky Mountain MRC of Colorado (RMMRCCO). She serves in the role of Veterinary Medical Director and oversees all veterinary medical activities within the units.
Research Director
Kalinda Gupta DVM, MS, MPH
Dr. Kalinda Gupta is a veterinarian by training – a graduate of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana College of Veterinary Medicine.
She completed her veterinary doctorate in parallel with a dual degree public health program in 2021. Dr. Gupta’s research background has included conservation field research, pharmacologic research, microbiologic research, and public health policy surveillance research.
Dr. Gupta is available to advise on clinical, benchtop, pharmacologic, and policy research approach, methodology, data synthesis and general evaluation, and manuscript editing.
Training & Exercise Coordinator
Russ Laughlin BS, MA, MBA, CBCP, CISSP, PMP
Russ is a retired Information Technology, Business Continuity, and Crisis Management professional. Over the last 50 years he has acquired wide experience in multicultural and geographically dispersed environments supporting hardware infrastructure, software development, compliance, operations, and data center administration.
Russ’s final role was in Business Continuity first at ADT Security and then Oracle. In these roles, he planned for and managed response to a wide variety of incidents including uncounted application outages, a myriad of data center outages, earthquakes, hurricanes, blizzards, wildfires, a war, and a pandemic.
Russ Laughlin provides perspective on the importance of business continuity planning to enhance emergency preparedness in the veterinary industry. Russ discusses taking a proactive stance when planning for large scale disruptions and the need for practicing disaster plans in table top or full-scale exercises.
Volunteer Coordinator
Felicity Leonard DVM
Dr. Leonard is a Colorado veterinarian with a passion for helping animals and their caregivers in her community. Her goal not only to empower animal lovers to be an active member of their pet’s medical team, but also to prepare them for emergencies. In the FRvMRC, Dr. Leonard helps coordinate community members interested in volunteering with the program, to support the program’s growth and mission.
Dr. Leonard earned a degree in zoology at Colorado State University, before graduating as a doctor of veterinary medicine from CSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Along with her career and her role in the FRvMRC team, she also fosters kittens and other animals in her free time.
Come hang out with us at an E3 event!
Our E3 events are informal gatherings of friends, colleagues, and community members.
Join us for a hike, a swim, an evening of star-gazing, and more!
Learn more about E3 Events here.