Meet Our Veterinary Team

JESENIA

Veterinary Technician & Resident Aquatic Artist

Jesenia is an inaugural team member who has worked with our team since we opened in 2019. She loves working hard with our clients and team to bring the best health to the pets that come to our clinic. The opportunity to help pets get the care they deserve and seeing the results from our care brings so much joy to her life! She has a special interest in surgery. Wildlife rescue is a big part of her life; she sees herself working with animals for a long time. She has two dogs, a rambunctious GSD/Lab mix named Dagger and a docile Pitt Bull named Kalani. She spends lots of time with them on trails and at the beach, soaking up the sun as much as possible. She recently graduated with her Bachelor’s degree in biomedical sciences. When she is not busy chasing her two beautiful daughters around, she loves to surf and fish, which has led her to create coastal-inspired artwork using the Japanese art of Gyotaku. You can find her unique artwork at http://atlanticartjax.com/.

LESLIE

Veterinary Technician & Co-Resident Cat Lady

Leslie started working at CVC in October of 2022. She first knew she wanted to be in veterinary medicine when she watched her heart, Maryland, be born via C-section in 2014. Unfortunately, Maryland’s mother passed away, and Leslie had to learn how to bottle feed and care for such a tiny living thing. Since then, she has been biased toward cats and kittens and is our resident kitten expert. She loves that you learn a wide variety of skills in veterinary medicine that make a difference in pets’ lives. Her most incredible privilege is to help comfort owners and patients during end-of-life care and help ease their suffering. She also loves to see pets grow up and experience life with them and their owners. She loves Client Education and feels like practicing Fear-free techniques has deepened her bonds with patients and their owners. She shares a house with 13 cats: Maryland, Rascal, Arizona, Alaska, Milo, Theo, Indiana, Calvin, Moon, Whiskey, Jasper, Betty, and Bert, along with three dogs, Nevada, Moose, and Knox, and a squirrel named Rhode. She grooms dogs and spends time with her pets in her spare time.

CAROLINA

Veterinary Technician

Carolina started working at CVC in early 2021 after moving to Jax Beach from the suburbs of Atlanta. She started working in the kennel of her hometown vet during the summer and moved through different departments until moving here to Jax Beach. She began as a Client Care Specialist, and her attention to detail made her a great asset to our team. She started training as a Veterinary Assistant in between duties as a CCS, and when a position opened up, she transferred to being a Vet Assistant full-time. She loves vet med because there are always new things to learn and various skill assets to be used. She also feels it is gratifying to see sick patients becoming well again. When not working, she enjoys caring for her large plant family, going to the beach, and hanging out with her two cats, who keep her busy. Lola is a beautiful grey loaf whose activities include, but are not limited to, biscuit making and looking for leftovers (she could afford to lose a few pounds). Kit is a young calico adopted from CVC; she has three legs and impaired kidneys. Despite her slight disability, she loves the catnip and will use her phantom leg to pick fights and spin in circles for treats.

JULIA

Veterinary Technician and Certified Nose Booper

Julia started working at CVC in October of 2022. She has always loved animals and, from a young age, wanted to take care of them. Six years ago, she leaped veterinary medicine and hasn’t looked back. Her passion is caring for sick and injured pets and seeing the progress and transition back to wellness. She is also very passionate about her monochromatic cats, all orange! Chester is the oldest and most affectionate of the bunch, followed by Cheddar, a shy boy. Strangers don’t typically see him, but Julia says he is the most beautiful red kitty ever! Jack is the silliest out of the bunch, always sticking his nose into everything Julia is working on and making her laugh. Last but certainly not least is the princess of the group, Pip. She was adopted from the clinic as a bottle baby and is still learning her place in the tribe (though she has already won over Jack, and they are best buds). She likes to unwind and relax at home with her son and cats in her spare time. When she does venture out, she likes to explore and critique ramen and boba places. If the weather is favorable, she also wants to go hiking.

RACHAEL

Veterinary Technician – Co-Resident Cat Lady & Doberman Aficionado

Rachael is an inaugural team member. She worked alongside Dr. Cole at a previous veterinary clinic and followed him when he opened Cole Vet in 2019. She has been in veterinary medicine since 2004, when she worked as a kennel assistant and was asked to monitor and hold oxygen for a critical patient. Her interest in veterinary medicine was sparked. She has since worked in various specialties, including Emergency and Critical Care, Exotic Medicine, and General Practice. She loves the feeling of seeing a hospitalized critical patient get better and go home with their owners, knowing she was able to help in their recovery. Her interests lie in emergency and urgent care, feline medicine, and anesthesia. She shares resident cat lady status with Leslie and is the go-to for elder cat care. She has a house that consists of Chloe, her brilliant Doberman (who thinks she is a cat), and 13 cats that mostly fall in the Black/White/Grey color scheme: Caligula, Morgan, Weebles (a Cerebellar Hyperplasia cat), Gamer, Batmom, Adventure, Harley, Ivey, Isley, Patrick, Alexis, Johnny, and Shawshank. She also has two bunnies named Reek and Corporal Carrot, and Skippy, her spectacular rescue squirrel, who cannot be released back into the wild. In her spare time, she likes video games, working on her cars, hiking, indoor rock climbing, spending time with her husband and extroverted Doberman, reading or crocheting while surrounded by cats, traveling with friends, and mangling music on guitars (her words, not ours).

LEXI

Veterinary Assistant and Resident Circus Performer

Lexi started working at CVC in March 2022. She started working as a part-time intern at a veterinary hospital in Indiana in high school. Once she graduated, she was offered a full-time position there as a “jill of all trades,” working as a veterinary assistant, receptionist, and kennel! She continued to work there throughout college before moving to Florida. She started here as a Client Care Specialist for a year and learned a lot. When we had a veterinary assistant spot open up, she seamlessly transitioned into her new role. She loves getting to know all of her patients’ personalities and building relationships with their owners. Spending her day surrounded by animals is the best part of working here. She has an Alaskan Kee Kai named Lola and two cats: Ollie, a tabby cat, and Squid, a black and white Tuxedo. She loves to spend her downtime surrounded by water: boating, swimming, beach time, etc., as well as spending time with family and friends, walking with her pup, and reading. Fun Fact: She was a cheerleader for 20 years and an acrobatic circus performer for 12 years.

CHRISTY

Client Care Specialist Lead

Christy started working at CVC in October 2020 after moving cross-country from Colorado. Before moving to Florida, she worked as a CSR/Operations Manager for a large veterinary hospital in Boulder for 11 years. She loves being around animals, watching them grow from puppies and kittens, and being a part of their lives as they continue into their senior years. Getting her daily love and snuggles always makes her day. She is fascinated with veterinary lab work such as blood analysis and urinalysis and wants to continue learning more about it and how things change and progress. While in Colorado, she worked with the veterinary team and breeders to help facilitate safe reproduction practices and c-sections for Golden Retrievers and French Bulldogs, one of her career highlights. She has a Cockapoo/Lab mix named Panther, who likes destroying fluffy toys, and four cats: Little Miss (aka Moo Moo), a black and white Domestic Longhair, Cali the Calico, Bentley, a brown and grey tabby, and Hobbes, an orange and white tabby. She is very close with her family that lives in Florida and spends a lot of time with them, going for drives and seeing what Florida has to offer, and finding new disc golf courses. She also loves having “me” time, cuddling on the couch with her fur babies while reading Stephen King.

FRANCES

BAS, CVT
Practice Manager

Frances is a Certified Veterinary Technologist and has worked for CVC since it opened in 2019. She worked with Dr. Cole for 14 years before the clinic opened.

She graduated from St. Petersburg College with a degree in Veterinary Technology in 2010, after working in veterinary medicine as an assistant/technician since 2000. She returned to school and earned her Bachelor’s in Veterinary Technology in 2015 through a combined advanced nursing and practice management degree, where her senior thesis project was published in the NAVTA journal.

She loves working in an environment that aims to make every patient physically and emotionally comfortable through fear-free techniques and individualized care.

She loves hiking, camping, and traveling with her dogs: Irish, a whippet/border collie mix, and Guinness, a black lab. She also spends some lazy days trying to read; however, her cat Mizzou likes to challenge her by lying about whatever she reads!