Eva Evans
City Pets Animal Care, LLC
Dr. Eva Evans is a Nashville native and attended The University of Tennessee where she graduated from the College of Veterinary Medicine in 2012. She received her MBA from The University of Maryland in 2015. Dr. Evans spent two years in Las Vegas, Nevada where she worked at a small animal private practice. In 2014, Dr. Evans moved back to Nashville, Tennessee and focused on Emergency medicine at an after-hours practice.
Dr. Evans is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Foundation, the American Veterinary Medical Association, former Chairwoman of the Board on the AVMA Political Action Committee and now serves on the board of the Women's Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative where she helps encourage and recruit female veterinarians into leadership positions.
In 2017, she opened City Pets Animal Care in the Germantown neighborhood. City Pets is a technology driven, high quality, boutique style veterinary practice that focuses on creating a comfortable environment, empowering and educating pet owners, and providing the best service and medical care available. She is currently working on opening a second practice in 2023 to serve the Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood.
Dr. Evans enjoys many aspects of Veterinary Medicine, but is truly passionate about Geriatric Care (including Hospice), Pain Management and Anesthesia, Acupuncture, Dermatology (focusing on allergies), Surgery, Imaging and Endocrinology. Personal interests revolve around SCUBA diving, skiing, traveling, wine and spending time with friends. She shares her home with two crazy Boston Terriers, Mayzie and Roxy and one very tiny kitten named Gryffin (who you will be sure to meet at future EO events and has been nominated as the Nashville EO Chapter's Mascot!)
What is a personal piece of advice (business advice/saying/quote) that you lean on and could pass on to others?
We have a lot of sayings at work to help us cope with the compassion fatigue, stress and trauma we deal with in the veterinary industry - most of those pieces of advice center around setting and enforcing strong boundaries with clients. As a veterinarian, our job is to take care of creatures who can’t take care of themselves. Unfortunately, sometimes clients can’t or won’t agree to the care their pet needs and then shift blame and guilt in the form of severe abuse onto the doctors and nurses caring for their pet. One of the biggest pieces of advice I received is that you can’t care more about the outcome than their owner does because we cannot control the situation. We simply do not have enough emotional energy to take on other peoples personal problems. In order to be in effective leader, clinician and human being we have to constantly remind ourselves the world is not fair and we can’t save everything. We can’t make someone do the right thing for their pet. We do our best every day, but taking home problems that belong to someone else is a recipe for burnout, compassion fatigue and contributes to veterinarians having the highest suicide rate of all professions. Strong boundaries keep us healthy so we can continue to serve our patients!
Best business book you’ve ever read?
My favorite business book is Grit: The Power or Passion and Perseverance, by Angela Duckworth - it focuses on the factors that produce success in an individual. Growing up with a learning disability meant I had to work twice as hard as everyone else, and realizing that grit trumps talent helped validate my experiences in school and in my career.
One misstep you took in your business that you could caution others about?
Blind trust of employees who you think would never hurt you - sometimes people change, and the unfortunate part of human nature is that many people can’t resist the temptation to lie, cheat or steal if it benefits them personally and they think they can get away with it. While I give my employees a lot of rein and freedom, I’m also constantly monitoring for red flags that could indicate someone isn’t doing the right thing or has compromised their values
How to you de-stress after a particularly hard day?
Usually I open a nice bottle of wine! I’ve become a wine collector by accident because I signed up for too many wine clubs… So I have accommodated my vice by buying a bigger wine cooler to store them all! If the day was particularly rough, a cup of herbal tea and snuggling with my dogs and kitten is the best way to unwind.
What’s something about you that would surprise everyone reading this?
I am a Nashville native, born and raised. I grew up on a summer day camp in Joelton (Camp Biota) where I plan to eventually build a house and move back out to the country. My dad lived in China for over 20 years so I’ve spent a lot of time there and speak some Chinese.
What upcoming EO event are you looking most forward to?
I’m looking forward to our Christmas party, the GLC in Cape Town and the MyEO Women’s conference in Marrakech next summer!
Any exciting plans for the remainder of 2022?
I have some trips planned for this fall/winter: skiing in Oregon, hammerhead shark diving in Bimini and spending my birthday wine tasting in Chile!