Best Friends’ own named shelter veterinarian of the year
If you wanted to design a moment that perfectly captures who Dr. Erin Katribe is, it would look something like this: The Association of Shelter Veterinarians (ASV) calls her name at their awards ceremony for one of their highest honors, and she’s not there! She’s in another state entirely, on the ground educating others on how to push the boundaries of shelter medicine. Classic.
Dr. Erin Katribe, director of the national veterinary program at Best Friends, was just named the ASV's 2025 Veterinarian of the Year. I’ve had the privilege of watching Erin do this work, and I can tell you this award could not be more deserved.
Dr. Colleen Guilfoyle, a veterinarian on Erin's national shelter medicine team at Best Friends, accepted the award on her behalf. "Many of us hold Erin in such high regard because of her insane work ethic, high level of integrity, and her courage to question everything," Colleen shared. Her enthusiasm, another colleague wrote in her nomination, is genuine and contagious.
The ASV's Veterinarian of the Year Award has been given since 2018 to recognize members who have been outstanding in improving community animal health and well-being, and who serve as role models for the entire profession. It's a meaningful honor in a field full of people doing hard, important work every single day.
Dr. Erin built her foundation across emergency and critical care, high-volume spay/neuter, and shelter medicine. Then she made a deliberate shift into nonprofit work focused on expanding access to lifesaving care. She came to Best Friends in 2017, and not long after, she was in Houston leading our veterinary response following Hurricane Harvey, helping pioneer new approaches for treating distemper and caring for hundreds of animals in crisis.
There's a balance in this work that's hard to get right. You're making decisions at the population level while staying grounded in the needs of each individual animal. You're holding humane standards, managing limited resources, and pushing lifesaving forward all at once. Erin does that in a way that people notice. "Inspirational" is the word her team uses most. And one shelter partner said it in a way I love even more: "Thank you for coming in and being a magical fairy dogmother for us and our dogs."
Part of what makes Erin so deserving of this award is that she doesn't step back when things get hard — she steps forward. Erin genuinely appreciates a good outbreak consult, not because outbreaks are fun, but because she sees them for what they are: an opportunity to bring clarity to chaos, change outcomes, and save animals who might otherwise have been lost.
And there’s one phrase you won’t hear on her team. “This is the way we’ve always done it.” To heck with the status quo. Curiosity as the starting point, always. Because in shelter medicine, questioning the old way is often what opens the door to saving more lives.
That mindset shows up everywhere. Beyond her role at Best Friends, Erin works with Rural Area Veterinary Services to provide care in underserved communities, spends weekends supporting Navajo Nation outreach clinics, teaches shelter medicine, and helps train veterinarians across the country. She’s shaping the field in real time, while still doing the day-to-day work that makes it all matter.
Simply put, Erin lives and breathes this work.
And as Colleen said at the awards reception, "Despite Erin not being present today, her influence on shelter medicine will undoubtedly be present in the shelter medicine track.”
In the end, it’s not whether someone is there to receive recognition but whether their thinking, their standards, and their impact are showing up everywhere else. Congrats, Dr. Erin. We're so lucky you're ours.
-Julie
