Roles in research, to top academic posts, to practice ownership, and beyond. Today, Hendricks is capping off a long career that’s inspired countless otherįemale vets to find their foothold and their voice in veterinary leadership: from key Kahn Dean of Veterinary Medicine, overseeing classes that have been comprised of In 2006, she was named Penn Vet’s Gilbert S. Hold an endowed professorship at the school-the Henry and Corinne R. Veterinary Clinical Investigations Center. Of Critical Care in the Department of Clinical Studies, and founded the School’s Insight as I researched sleep apnea in dogs, and I fondly remember many morningsĪ faculty member at Penn Vet for more than 30 years, Hendricks rose to Chief Of Bellwether, dedicated to Penn Vet’s female trailblazers. We later became colleagues and friends,” Hendricks noted in the Spring 2015 issue
“Joan was the only female full professor when I joined the Penn Vet faculty, and Joan O’Brien, V’63, a leading respiratory specialist who had attended Male mentors” as well as female veterinary pioneers, she said. By the early 1990s, those scales had tipped even further, with aĬlear majority of women in veterinary schools nationwide, according to the AVMA.Īt Penn Vet, Hendricks was encouraged by “clear-headed and highly effective Schools had already begun to climb steadily, reaching a nearly even 50-50 genderĭivision that decade. By the time sheĮarned her VMD and PhD at Penn Vet in 1980, enrollment of women in veterinary Opened the floodgates for women in the field-including Hendricks, who arrivedĪt Penn Vet in 1974 after studying biology and psychology at Yale. When the passage of Title IX finally made sex-based discrimination illegal inġ972, it sparked major changes at veterinary schools across the nation. Joan O’Brien, V’63 (pictured below), as well as Penn Vet students and colleagues. Along the way, she has drawn inspiration from mentors including Dr. Thought I might change the future of women in academia if I failed,” she said.ĭean Hendricks has spent her entire career at Penn Vet, rising from VMD-PhD student to Dean.
“I don’t think every woman feels judged as representing all women, but I did. Result, the veterinary profession was populated almost exclusively by men-yet thisįact only seemed to steel Hendricks’ resolve.
Universities were free toĭiscriminate openly against women, barring them from studying or teaching. Though, I was told that women weren’t vets.”Īccording to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), only 277įemale vets existed in the entire United States in 1963. “When I was eight, I found a dead mouse in our front yard, and I wanted to cut Particular calling in veterinary medicine. This earlyĭesire to understand and heal animals suggested a scientist in the making, with a To fill the void, she tried to care for some of the animals sheĮncountered, including an ailing dragonfly, a pigeon, and a baby sparrow. Young Joan Hendricks rarely had the usual pets, since her Army family movedįrequently. As Dean of Penn Vet since 2006, Hendricks has overseen classes that have been comprised of around 80 percent women. Dean Hendricks spoke with Linnea Tracy, V’19, at last year’s MLK Day Clinic.