A Servant to Her Gifts

Dr. Renee Schmid’s rejection letter from the first time she applied to veterinary college sits right next to the acceptance letter she received the following year. Those letters serve as a reminder of how far she has come. They are symbols of her perseverance, determination and resilience — traits that helped her achieve her childhood dream of becoming a veterinarian.

Since that first rejection letter to today, her career has followed a nontraditional path, but one that leaves her feeling fulfilled at the end of the day.

Challenge accepted

After her beloved basset hound developed lymphoma and had to be euthanized, as an adolescent Dr. Schmid made a firm decision about her future.

“That’s when I really decided that I was going to devote my life work to helping animals,” Dr. Schmid says. “And that’s what really made that transition from wanting to be a veterinarian to knowing that I was going to be a veterinarian.”

Getting into veterinary college was not an easy path. At first, Dr. Schmid didn’t really apply herself during the beginning of her undergraduate years. She just assumed it was easy to get into veterinary school after completing her classes, not considering there might be competition for a seat.

That misunderstanding led to someone advising her to seek a different career path — or find a “Plan B” — since she would “never be a veterinarian.” To her, those words signified a challenge and motivated her to reach her goal.

“If somebody wants me to do something, tell me I can’t do it,” Dr. Schmid says, laughing. “It gave me the motivation I needed to become a good student and do the things I needed to do.”

As a result, she focused on her studies. Despite being rejected the first time she applied, Dr. Schmid didn’t give up on her dream and was rewarded with admission to veterinary school the following year, in 1997.

She attributes her K-State education for enabling her the opportunity to grow in her chosen career path.

“It set me up with the tools that I needed to succeed and to be successful in my career,” Dr. Schmid says.

Forging her way

After graduating in 2001, Dr. Schmid moved back to Wichita and joined the clinic she worked at during high school. Five years later, she found herself back at K-State for an anesthesiology residency.

“I had just gotten the itch to do more than general practice and really wanted to specialize in something,” Dr. Schmid says. “I was going back and forth between medicine and anesthesia, and there happened to be an opening for an anesthesia resident. I really liked the idea of the fast pace, the criticalness of it.”

During her residency, she met her husband, Luke, who was in the DVM class of 2007. After they married and their first daughter entered the world, she shifted her focus.

“I continued my residency for about six months after we had our first daughter, and mother’s guilt was overwhelming for me,” Dr. Schmid says. “The entire plan the whole time was that I would continue, but I left after two years of my anesthesia residency to just start raising babies.”

Married to a native Nebraskan, the family moved to Scribner after several years in Kansas and Texas, after her spouse was offered an opportunity to work in a mixed animal practice. Since they were planning to settle in either Kansas or Nebraska, it felt like the right choice for their lives at the time.

“An opportunity came up for him, and, at the time, my 99% job was being a stay-at-home mom,” Dr. Schmid says. “Once we started having children, I just wanted to be home with them. And so, we moved for his opportunity.”

While she says she kept her skills sharp by helping friends with their practice in Bellevue and Andover, she tired of commuting. Her goal — find a job that would allow her to move out of general practice and let her stay home with her children.

Dr. Schmid says. “I contacted them and started looking for that pharmacovigilance route, which is regulatory reporting for pharmaceuticals, pesticides, different chemicals and products.”

The discovery of SafetyCall International — the parent company of Pet Poison Helpline — changed her work trajectory. The discovery of SafetyCall shifted her towards a less conventional career path for a DVM. When she contacted them there was an opening on the pet poison side of the company and she took the job.

“I really just kind of fell into it, to be honest,” Dr. Schmid says. “And I really enjoyed it. It worked excellent for my family. I was able to work in the evenings while my husband could take care of the kids, and I could be home with them during the day. And I just really enjoyed toxicology.”

Dr. Schmid says there were other benefits to the career change.

“I felt like the therapies and things we were consulting veterinarians on, brought in my general practice experience, my emergency practice experience, my anesthesia residency — it just combined all of those features,” Dr. Schmid says. “It has been a really great fit and I have been here for about nine and a half years now.”

Family first

As her children got older, Dr. Schmid took on more responsibilities at work, eventually working her way to become a boarded specialist in general toxicology and veterinary toxicology and into her current position as the Pet Poison Helpline Manager of Veterinary Medicine and Professional Services. Even with her current leadership role in the company, she still manages to meet her family’s needs.

“Now I think we’ve done it long enough that we’ve found a good balance in our home,” Dr. Schmid says. “The kids’ needs are less, but they’re still there — they’re just a bit different. Helping a high schooler with their algebra or a grade schooler trying to figure out life is still a challenging time with them. Luke has been extremely supportive of my career goals, so caring for our family is definitely a team effort.”

A New Path

Dr. Schmid’s resolve to change career paths spurred her to start looking for remote work. Not wanting to leave the veterinary field, she started exploring suitable options for her skillset.

“Someone had told me about a K-State graduate who did pharmacovigilance from their home in Nebraska,”

Sharing her knowledge

Dr. Schmid’s current position provides her with a variety of opportunities, including educating other veterinary professionals.

“The education I’m able to provide veterinarians across the country is my favorite part,” Dr. Schmid says. “Not only through phone consultation work, but also through lectures and presentations at conferences, and through webinars. Toxicology is an exciting portion of the field, but we don’t get a lot of training in school because there is so much information to learn overall in only a four-year period.”

She also stays connected to her alma mater. Dr. Scott Fritz, clinical assistant professor of toxicology, says she guest lectures in his course.

“You can tell she takes a genuine interest in the veterinary students within our course, and she brings the experience from a national call-in center,” Dr. Fritz says.

Dr. Schmid gives students an inside view of toxicology evidenced by various cases she has encountered.

“The veterinary students really respond to her,” Dr. Fritz says. “They appreciate her coming in. They’re tuned in; they’re zoned in because they know this is a national presence — somebody who gets to see all these cases from all over the place.”

Looking forward and looking back

Looking forward, Dr. Schmid says she plans to grow her career and her leadership role within the Pet Poison Helpline. While she doesn’t see herself going back to general practice, she is open to the possibility of providing educational opportunities for future K-State veterinary students.

Her goal is to positively contribute to the veterinary profession and her community, something working at the Pet Poison Helpline allows her to do for not only professionals, but pet owners and their pets as well.

Dr. Schmid says her career path provides a positive example others could follow, especially if they are determined and don’t give up.

“I hope people will see that I’m an example of how you can succeed with determination and perseverance and to not give up on their dreams,” she says.