This final article (for now) in our Your Pet and the Administrative State series follows from our previous article, A Cozy Cadre of Unbiased Professionals, where we introduced you to some veterinary board members past and present.
Despite the somewhat peculiar and unrepresentative nature of many of your typical specimens at the local veterinary board, you might be told that the public members are less so. After all, being public members, they’re here to represent us and our pets; even if they can easily be outvoted, at least we have a voice, and at least someone less biased is watching. In that vein, Julie Young, a former public member, once said during her 2014 reappointment hearing that public members are very important to reassure the public that the Board isn’t just a good old boys’ club. She then went on to dismiss the same 80% of cases that everybody else does.
The remainder of the public members on the Board and the Investigative Committees have been more or less the same, featuring a former legislator, a pharmacy executive, a pharmacy board member, a hospital executive, a lawyer and administrative law judge who specializes in representing professionals before administrative agencies, a general who worked for the US animal health component of a famous company, a retired bureaucrat who can’t volunteer enough, a stay-at-home mom who likes animals and getting out of the house, a pharmaceutical-sales cowpoke protecting us from animal-rights terrorists, an agricultural finance expert, and even a former assistant attorney general who previously represented the veterinary board. Some of the public members came prescreened by the veterinary board after having previously landed an Investigative Committee position before getting nominated to the Board itself. Let's learn about these public members, all regular people just like you and me.
Jane Soloman, appointed in 2019, actually worked as a county bureaucrat in California for most of her professional life. Some of her main accomplishments included a proposal to outsource a police helicopter service after back-to-back crashes killed off two helicopters’ worth of deputies, along with a successful county morgue proposal eagerly reviewed by both Sonoma and Napa counties. Coming back to Arizona, she ended up as part of Arizona Humane Society’s new animal medical center and shelter initiative and also championed the University of Arizona’s new veterinary program.
Jessica Creager, appointed in 2016, was a former political consultancy assistant and McCain staffer who volunteered and briefly worked at the Arizona Humane Society as Community Engagement Manager. She actually got appointed by the Board to one of the Investigative Committees two years before getting appointed by the governor to the actual Board; in essence, she came pre-screened by people already on the Board. During her Senate confirmation hearings, she said that as a stay-at-home mom, being able to get out once a month to be part of a professional activity was good for her. There's the possibility that her uncle is public policy lawyer and lobbyist Rob Dalager of Public Policy Partners, a lobbying firm once hired to represent the Board.
Julie Young, mentioned earlier, actually worked for a prominent veterinarian, Alan Eads, during high school. She apparently worked for another veterinarian to put herself through college, then went on to be a school librarian, Arizona Animal Welfare League volunteer, and finally a veterinary board member. She later switched careers to work as a family counselor and sex addiction therapist helping men and boys overcome their sexual compulsions.
Deb Gullett served on the Board from 2010 to 2015 and was actually a former Arizona legislator and Chair of the Arizona House of Representatives Health Committee. During her political career she won a variety of awards from health care related interests including the Arizona Public Health Association, Arizona Psychology Association, Arizona Association of Physical Therapists, Arizona Hospital Association, and the Arizona Pharmacy Association. Around the time she was on the Board, she also landed as a Senior Government Relations Specialist at Gallagher and Kennedy.
M. Elizabeth Miles, better known as Lisa Miles, served on the Board from 2007 to 2012. She was actually a former Arizona Assistant Attorney General who, among other duties, had previously represented the state veterinary board some years prior. That wasn’t a problem for then-Governor Janet Napolitano nor the senators who approved the nomination. The January 2008 issue of the veterinary board newsletter actually lists her as representing over 20 state boards during her tenure as an Assistant Attorney General.
Sylvia Arena, a public member from 2003 to 2007, was similar to future Board member Jessica Creager in that she came prescreened by the Board before she got the job. Arena had actually served as an Investigative Committee member for two years before getting appointed to the Board. Her bio in the June 2003 board newsletter states that she was “involved in the animal industry for many years and brings a wealth of knowledge as to the treatment and care from the public's point of view.”
Lisa Gervase, who served from 2000 to 2005, is also quite the public member. According to the September 2002 veterinary board newsletter, she’s described as an animal lover, Phoenix attorney, and administrative law judge who formerly served on the Board of Psychologist Examiners before ending up with an appointment to the veterinary board. Lisa Gervase was also at the same April 9, 2003 Senate confirmation hearings as Board member Robert Kritsberg. However, she was there for other reasons as Director of the Structural Pest Control Commission to discuss some of its appointees. At her Gervase Law Firm, she now “regularly advocates for due process for Nurses, CPAs, and other licensed professions and businesses faced with regulatory complaints.”
Jenna Jones served as a public member from 1997 to 2002 according to Senate records but the September 2002 veterinary board newsletter lists her as serving for a total of seven years. She also served on the National Board Examination Committee during her tenure. Her experience as a public member ended up helping her land a full time job as the board’s Executive Director a couple of years later in 2004, a position she held until 2012.
John Musil, registered pharmacist and public member from 2010 to 2012, wasn’t just any registered pharmacist. He actually started The Apothecary Shops, a compounding pharmacy chain that ended up becoming Avella Specialty Pharmacy. According to a 2004 East Valley Tribune article he was the president-elect of the Arizona Pharmacy Association. He also appears to have been involved in the pharmacy programs of both Midwestern University and the University of Arizona, now having an endowed chair in his name at the latter.
James Lewis, a public member listed as serving from 2004 to 2009 according to the Senate, actually served as far back as 2002 according to the veterinary board’s own newsletter. In addition to being a brigadier general, his vet board newsletter bio tells us that he had retired from Bayer Animal Health as manager of the Western Region. At the time of the newsletter, he was said to serve on three other state boards at the same time.
The livestock public members can often be particularly entertaining in that they represent the livestock industry while acting in the legal framework of also being a public member. Cynthia Tidwell-Shelton served from 2004 to 2014, coming from a ranching background and having 20 years of experience in agricultural finance. She was also heavily involved in the Arizona National Livestock Show, where in 2014 she served as the organization’s secretary alongside its president, Jim Loughead.
Loughead, a cattle industry expert who went into sales with Fort Dodge and Boehringer Ingelheim, became the next livestock member on the Board, replacing Tidwell-Shelton. He had a notably interesting Senate hearing in which he explained his contention that PETA and Humane Society of the United States were essentially terrorist groups according to conversations he claims he had with the FBI, also stating that while animals should be treated humanely, they also had no rights. Loughead eventually ended up the target of an investigation by the Arizona Ombudsman after suggesting during a 2021 board hearing that a complainant had intentionally sickened and killed his own dog.
But those are just the public members of the Board. The Investigative Committees also have public members that are somewhat less independent insofar as they’re actually picked by the Board itself. Typical compositions have included as few as one public member to three veterinarians as well as a somewhat more balanced two public members to three veterinarians. They can easily be outvoted, and the Board can always overrule the Committee anyway. In the end, it doesn’t really matter; they’re not very representative of the rest of us either.
Steve Seiler, a more recent Investigative Committee member appointed in 2019, was actually a well-known health executive most recently out of the Banner system after having managed a variety of hospitals. In retirement he started a network of healthcare executives to discuss today’s “light speed” changes in health care. He was told about the position by his longtime friend and veterinarian Robert Kritsberg, who had a two-decade presence in the Board’s activities. The Board not only appointed Seiler but put him on the same committee as Kritsberg.
Ed Hunter, another Investigative Committee member, was actually a registered pharmacist who elected to push papers instead of pills. He had worked for the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy for many years, and prior to that also worked at the Texas State Board of Pharmacy also as a regulator. According to a retirement article in the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy newsletter, among other endeavors, he aided the state of Texas in cracking down on welfare scammers. His wife worked in the controlled substances program at the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy.
Adam Almaraz, a long-serving public member dating as far back as 2014, actually has an undergraduate degree in animal science from Cornell. He did an undergraduate thesis on nutritional supplementation in pigs, then went to Arizona for a law degree. After working at several jobs, he went back to handle admissions for the University of Arizona’s law school, then moved on to Amazon HR for a while before settling in at Manpower.
In 2008 animal helpers Cricket and Shelly Forstrom teamed up to help out the Investigative Committees by each taking a position on one of them. Regardless of what Committee your case got assigned to, it got a Forstrom giving it a thorough review. Cricket Forstrom later went to be featured in an Arizona Humane Society anniversary ad. Both Cricket and Shelly were listed in the Arizona Humane Society’s 2018 Impact Report’s Circle of Friends, a group of what has been described elsewhere as “passionate donors” funding spays and neuters.
Many Investigative Committee members, unfortunately, are rather anonymous, particularly as there are no Senate hearings or formal filings related to anything about them. Gregg Maura was a public member with a pre-med background who ran a cardiac cath lab before going into construction consulting. He subsequently ran a homeowners’ association and wanted to be on the Investigative Committee because of his love of animals and fairness to everybody. Former investigator Mary Williams was also a former senior insurance executive and cattle enthusiast.
Going back nearly two decades to 2003 and 2004 it doesn’t get any better. Bonnie Matheson was a public member and paralegal, while fellow investigator Amanda Zibell was the Program and Compliance Auditor for the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission. Jeanne Galvin was a former Arizona Assistant Attorney General who served on both Investigative Committees. Traci Cornell was a registered nurse who volunteered with none other than the Arizona Humane Society. Craig Keffeler was a healthcare executive from Barrow Neurosurgical Associates, while Kathy Finley was a senior claims examiner with Scottsdale Insurance Agency who rescued and showed Bearded Collies.