Melissa Nixon earned her BS at Santa Clara University and her DVM at the University of California at Davis. She practiced in Nevada County, California. Dr. Nixon was asked to serve as Incident Commander for the Animal Evacuation Unit during the 49er fire of 1988, and she went on to train over 100 volunteers, work several fire and flood incidents, serve on the California Veterinary Medical Association's committee for disaster response, lecture at the Wild West Veterinary Conference, the veterinary school, and the National Conference on Animals in Disasters on disaster response issues, and write her first training manual "Help Us Get Them To Safety." She has received commendations at the county, state, and national levels for her work in veterinary disaster response. Dr. Nixon has been active with the VIN crisis team during the Katrina/Rita hurricane response of 2006, the Pet Food Recall of 2007, and the Midwest Floods of 2008. Dr. Nixon currently lives in Northern California in the safest neighborhood she can find with her husband and service dog. She has a special interest in the needs of Assistance Dog Teams during disasters. Dr. Nixon can be reached at Melissa@vin.com

Revised: 6/24/2008