The Regulatory Roll Call lets you meet the men and women that keep Arizona's regulatory state chugging along as it rolls right over your pets. Assembling information from online sources, public records, government hearings, and more, you'll get to learn a bit about their own backgrounds and unique contributions to our current situation. For some of them you'll even get to hear them in their own words.
Board members are appointed by the Governor and are confirmed by the state Senate. Here you can learn a bit about each of them, watch their Senate confirmation hearings, and run through relevant portions of their voting records on the Board. This isn't an exhaustive historical list but includes the more recent appointees most relevant to the rest of our website.
| Christina Bertch-Mumaw was a veterinary member and college instructor who said acupuncture makes old horses run and lame dogs walk. |
| Craig Nausley is a veterinary member, two-time clinic owner-operator, and animal rescuer who was asked to apply by a former Board member. |
| Darren Wright is a veterinary member who registered his nightclub out of his vet clinic and told a senator he wouldn't be too hard on vets. |
| John Greg Byrne is a veterinary member and Verde Vaquero who rode in all the way from the Westworld horse show to give the Board an equine perspective. |
| Jane Soloman is a public member, ex-bureaucrat, and Arizona Humane Society volunteer who made an Arizona senator proud to be a woman. |
| Jessica (Amend) Creager is a public member, McCainiac, and Arizona Humane Society PR person who moved on up from Investigations. |
| Jim Loughead was a livestock member and ex-chair who said the Humane Society of the United States is a terrorist organization and animals have no rights. |
| Julie Young was a public member, school librarian, and future sex addiction therapist who said the Board isn't just some good-old-boys' club. |
| Les Hatfield was a veterinary member who couldn't get enough of ethics committees and had all-too-rational doubts about diploma mills. |
| Melissa Thompson is a veterinary member, Arizona Humane Society Vice President of Medical Operations, and certified pet chiropractor. |
| Nikki Frost is a veterinary technician member recommended by her friend and predecessor and owns a vet clinic with investigator Cameron Dow's wife. |
| Robyn Jaynes is a veterinary member, former Arizona Humane Society VP, Petsmarter, and Pet Clubber who operated Maricopa County Animal Care and Control. |
| Sarah Heinrich was a veterinary member with possible political ties who went from an emergency animal clinic to working inside a PetSmart. |
The Board relies on two Investigative Committees (AM and PM) to investigate most incoming complaints. The Board reviews applications and then votes on Committee members during their normal meetings. Aside from a brief mention in the meeting minutes when they get voted on, they're phantoms. Here you can review their bios, their voting history, and even review the fruits of their collective efforts in their reports and discussions.
| Adam Almaraz is a public member and animal science student with a JD who handled UArizona law admissions and then went to work for Amazon HR. |
| Alex Casuccio was a veterinary member, radio show host, and former Banfield regional manager who has his own high-class private pet clinic. |
| Amrit Rai is a veterinary member and sole owner-operator of a vet clinic that does endocrinology, ophthalmology, tail removals, and more. |
| Brian Sidaway was a veterinary member, AzVMA Director, Midwestern University founding dean, mobile surgeon, and a whole lot more. |
| Cameron Dow was a veterinary member, AzVMA Director and Secretary-Treasurer who was replaced on the Committee by his own dad, Steven. |
| Carolyn Ratajack was a public member. |
| Christina Tran is a veterinary member, AzVMA Director, and UArizona professor cautioned by the Board for her alleged attendance problems. |
| Christine Butkiewicz was a veterinary member with public health and library sciences degrees who studies Valley Fever at UArizona. |
| Donald Noah was a veterinary member, equine/bovine guy, and One Health paradigm-promoter from Midwestern who moved on to LMU. |
| Ed Hunter was a public member and pharmacist who previously honed his regulatory jiu-jitsu at the Arizona and Texas boards of pharmacy. |
| Gregg Maura is a public member, former cardiac cath lab director, construction consultant, and HOA President who loves animals and fairness. |
| Jarrod Butler was a veterinary member and toxicologist who previously worked for Banfield and the ASPCA Poison Control Center. |
| Justin McCormick is a veterinary member who has firsthand experience of investigations after being investigated himself several times. |
| Mary Williams was a public member, former senior-level insurance executive, and cattle enthusiast who enjoys volunteering a lot. |
| Robert Kritsberg is a veterinary member and trifecta winner who made rounds on the Board and both Investigative Committees for decades. |
| Ryan Ainsworth was a veterinary member who later made the local news when a veterinarian he hired mutilated a cat in a fatal surgery. |
| Steve Seiler is a high-rolling health exec and Banner man who was told to apply for this job by friend and investigator Robert Kritsberg. |
| Steven Dow is an early-2000s veterinary board member who returned to take the investigator slot that his son Cameron kept warm for him. |
| Tamara Murphy was a public member. |
| William Hamilton was a public member. |
While not a part of the Board, the respondent attorneys—the legal beagles who represent veterinarians during the investigative process and at board meetings—merit a mention as well. You'll be running into them a lot; some of them, typically from Beaugureau, Hancock, Stoll, and Schwartz, appear so frequently they're basically a fixture at Board meetings.
| Andrew Plattner of Sherman and Howard defended PALS Crematory's operator in a case involving a dead dog swapped with a dead cat. |
| Artie Eaves is a senior owner at Sanders and Parks specializing in protecting medical providers and governments in trouble. |
| Ashley Fitzwilliams of Altman Law and Policy assisted in representing a veterinarian charged with animal neglect by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. |
| Barbara McCloud is an attorney for Midwestern University who has (thus far) represented every single Midwestern veterinarian named in a complaint. |
| Clarissa Reiman of Jones, Skelton, and Hochuli once defended a veterinarian who slowly killed a cat with a misplaced feeding tube. |
| David G Derickson defended a Pet Urgent Care veterinarian in an interesting case that went all the way to a (denied) Arizona Supreme Court appeal. |
| David Potts represented a Phoenix Veterinary Referral and Emergency veterinarian in a rather heartbreaking complaint about yet another dead dog. |
| David Stoll is Arizona's premier veterinary defender with Beaugureau, Hancock, Stoll, and Schwartz, representing veterinarians both on and off the court. |
| Jay Jacobson defended an overworked Banfield vet whose Active Care Plus Wellness patient almost died from poorly handled cardiogenic pulmonary edema. |
| Josh Bendor of Osborn Maledon defended frequent respondent Virginia Kern in a complaint involving inaccurate records and out-of-date vaccines. |
| Kurt Altman of Altman Law and Policy represented a veterinarian charged with animal neglect by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. |
| Larry Cohen was one of the three lawyers on the Refaat Reed Ishak legal dream team and also later defended him in a case regarding use of his legal name. |
| Logan Elia once represented Santis Pet Clinic's Hugo Santibanez in a single complaint regarding an undiagnosed case of canine diabetes. |
| Rita Bustos defended a respondent veterinarian from Sahuaro Vista Veterinary Clinic in a case alleging an expensive "shotgun" approach to a dog's skin problems. |
| Suzie Irwin represented a Veterinary Specialty Center of Tucson veterinarian and her boss in a case involving grass stuck up the nose. |
| T Scott King defended an overworked Banfield vet before helping out another Banfield vet caught up in a very close shave. |
| W Reed Campbell is one of David Stoll's colleagues from the veterinary-famous Beaugureau, Hancock, Stoll, and Schwartz law firm. |
No discussion of the above would be complete without mentioning the world of politics. It's truly impossible to list every politician who voted a vet board nominee or related piece of legislation here, but we can certainly focus on some of the best examples.
| David Farnsworth is an Arizona senator who once shared his concerns about the government cracking down on veterinarians for "mistakes." |
| John Kavanagh is Arizona's most humane state legislator and has routinely received awards and endorsements from humane organizations. |
| John Nelson was a state legislator who removed a public vet board position to give a carveout to some well-connected vet techs. |
| Matt Heinz was a state legislator and doctor who worked on legislation that would have hidden dismissed complaints against health professionals from the public. |
| Nancy Barto was a state senator and Health and Human Services Chair who made it even harder for you to learn about your vet's (or doctor's!) history. |