Together we are building a community of hospitals united by clinical excellence.
We will achieve our vision and mission with Integrity, guided by the principles of Empowerment, Support, and Unity.
Our team has the freedom, opportunity, and encouragement to achieve personal excellence, career growth, job satisfaction, and self-fulfillment.
We rely on one another, helping each other flourish through compassion, mentorship, accountability, and technology.
We are a loving family of diverse individuals, creating an inviting, inclusive, and collaborative culture to fulfill our common mission.
We are veterinary professionals, just like you. Our support team is full of accomplished veterinary professionals who have been in every role in the hospital, from the front desk to the surgical suite. Our experience helps us achieve excellence in clinical operations, team development, client experience, and the medical care we provide.
United Veterinary Care is a national group of general, specialty, and emergency veterinary practices united by our vision of improving the lives of all pets and people.
Explore where our general practice, emergency, and specialty referral hospitals are located — partner with us to see your practice join our rapidly growing network of passionate veterinary professionals.
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At UVC, we firmly believe in unleashing the potential of the next generation of veterinary professionals. By empowering them, we’re not just shaping careers; we’re sculpting a future where innovation and compassion redefine the standards of the veterinary industry.
At UVC, we support the future of veterinary medicine and are honored to host both veterinary students and technician students for externship opportunities.
Rich Roskell boasts an impressive track record as a seasoned executive in the animal health industry, coupled with over two decades of overarching experience in healthcare. Throughout his career, Rich has spearheaded pivotal business development initiatives and led teams at well-known companies such as VCA Antech and Trupanion. With UVC during its inception, Richard played a pivotal role in charting its course for success by formulating a strategic blueprint that united founding members, private equity partners, and his wealth of expertise in steering enterprise-level animal health organizations. His passion lies in empowering veterinary professionals to devise innovative solutions, thereby enhancing patient outcomes and elevating the overall customer experience.
Dr. Michael Tuder was born and raised in Jersey City, and after becoming a veterinarian, he returned to the area to begin practicing. A warm and caring veterinarian, Dr. Tuder has been practicing in Hudson County since 1982. He is always interested in advances in veterinary medicine; he trained and became a Fellow of Veterinary Laser Surgery. Dr. Tuder is an honorary Professor of Surgery at PHU National University, School of Veterinary Medicine in the Dominican Republic. He introduced the use of Laser surgery to the veterinary community there. Dr. Tuder is also accredited by the US Department of Agriculture for International Animal Transport and is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), and the NJ Veterinary Medical Association (NJVMA).
Dr. Tuder is married with two grown children and a grandson. In his retirement, he is enjoying the extra time to play golf, travel, and, of course, spend time with his family and moyen poodle, Winnie.
Matt Lender was literally born into the veterinary profession; both his sister and late father are/were renowned veterinarians. Growing up around a successful veterinary practice, Matt went on to become a lifelong student of business, finance, and the law.
Matt earned his BA from McDaniel College with a double major in Economics and Business Administration. He went on to earn both an MBA and JD from Quinnipiac University School of Business and Quinnipiac University School of Law, respectively. Matt also earned a Master of Law (LLM) in Taxation from the University of Alabama School of Law. He is a licensed CPA in Maryland and Connecticut.
Coming back full circle to his beginnings in animal health, Matt effectively leveraged his business and legal training and his expertise as a financial services executive to build upon his father’s legacy, Orange Veterinary Hospital. Together with Dr. Scott Crawford, they grew that one hospital to 16 practices in a very short amount of time. From there Matt, Scott and Dr. Michael Tuder became the founding members of United Veterinary Care.
Dr. Crawford has over 20 years of experience in the animal health space and an impressive track record of supporting the veterinary profession and veterinary practices across the United States.
Dr. Crawford graduated with his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in North Grafton, Massachusetts. A true entrepreneur, Scott became a veterinary practice owner less than a year after graduation.
Always the champion for independent veterinary hospitals, he co-founded Veterinary Purchasing Group (VPG). With VPG, he built an animal hospital client base of over 3,000 independent hospitals in less than five years with over $300 million of industry purchasing power, helping local veterinary hospitals compete better in a rapidly changing landscape.
More recently, Scott and his partner, Matt Lender, amassed a group of 16 veterinary hospitals, which they leveraged to form United Veterinary Care (UVC). Together, he and Matt, along with Dr. Michael Tuder, became the founding members of UVC.
Steve Collins joins UVC as the Chief Information Officer (CIO). In his role, Steve will work closely with shared service and hospital leadership to upgrade our digital capabilities and make secure all aspects of UVC technology. He will develop an Enterprise Architecture to optimize UVC PIMS systems, improve quality of service, reduce IT costs, improve cybersecurity, and set us up for continued growth.
Steve has over 25 years of leading institutions on developing distinctive IT capabilities across multiple industries. He brings a consultative approach from his consulting time as well as a practical and thoughtful investment approach from his time working with Private Equity companies. Steve’s calling card is working closely with the frontline to develop a compelling vision, developing the plan, and bringing the right clinical, operations and support teams together to execute the vision.
Prior to joining UVC, Steve led the digital transformation and establishing a shared service organization, for 4 years, as CIO at Great Expressions Dental Centers. He led the migration to a single PMS system across 300 locations, launched Teledentistry, introduced AI to improve diagnostic capability, and dramatically improved the data and advanced analytics capabilities. Prior to Great Expressions, he served as Chief Information Officer for Driven Brands and led technology and operational improvement at Burroughs, Marlin Equity Partners, PricewaterhouseCoopers, General Motors, Grainger, and Deloitte Consulting. Before Steve embarked on his professional career Steve served in the United States Marine Corps as a Signals Intelligence Analyst.
Steve and his wife Kim live in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan and his son David is in college. Steve enjoys the outdoors and working on various trucks the family owns.
Janice joined UVC with 20+ years of experience in multi-site Human Resources with oversight of all things HR, Payroll and Talent Acquisition. Janice has spent most of her career in retail and healthcare, in which the last decade has been devoted to the veterinary field. Most recently she served in various HR leadership roles at Mars Veterinary Health including Antech Diagnostics, VCA, and Pet Partners. She has an immense passion for enhancing the lives and careers of veterinary professionals and aspires to ensure that UVC is the destination employer.
Janice is native to the Northeast, residing in upstate New York with her husband and young adult children. She has a beloved German Shepherd, Stella, and recently added two beautiful ginger kittens, Hazel and Violet, to the family. Outside of work, Janice enjoys spending time in the beauty of the Adirondack Mountains, reading, traveling, cooking and decorating cakes.
Kristan brings 10 years of public accounting experience, and most recently, Kristan was a partner at PwC’s Deals practice. Kristan also worked for 3M for eight years, where her roles included corporate development, business development and strategy, global business director, debt capital markets and global treasury operations. Kristan specializes in the health services, pharmaceuticals, and life sciences industries. Kristan lives in Minnesota, with her husband Jed, and two children, Maddie and Flynn. Outside of work, Kristan spends as much time as possible outside hiking and skiing.
Paula Bamford has joined our UVC team in the capacity of Chief Operating Officer. Paula has more than 20 years in building operational strength in organizations like UVC. Paula comes from Petco, where she spent the last 6 years as their operations leader building and managing 280+ Pet Care hospitals. In her role with UVC, Paula will work closely with Dr. Hutchins to rapidly build our operations capabilities so we can grow faster and profitably.
Paula comes to us with a demonstrated reputation for implementing and enhancing operational procedures and efficiencies in both public and private companies. Paula is a dynamic and persuasive communicator who is respected for establishing and sustaining loyal professional relationships. She is known as an inspirational leader and motivator with impressive emphasis on quality, accountability, and performance excellence.
Prior to joining UVC, Paula most recently led the Veterinary Services expansion at Petco, as the SVP of Vet Services and Retail Operations. She oversaw both the de novo and M&A growth of 280 GP Veterinary hospitals, 1,200 weekly vaccination clinics, and retail operations of 440 Pet Care Centers on the west coast. During her time at the helm of Veterinary Services she built the infrastructure of corporate support center and field operations in partnership with her Medical Operations counterparts. Prior to spending the past 6+ years with Petco she spent her first 17 in the convenience and fuel industry with Sunoco and global brand 7-11 in field operations and communications roles.
Paula and her partner, Keith live in a suburb of San Diego, and enjoy all that the outdoors of SoCal has to offer.
Dr. Hutchins has 23 years of experience in the animal health field, over 10 of which she spent practicing as a veterinarian and board-certified internal medicine specialist.
Dr. Hutchins received a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Chemistry from the University of North Carolina and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from North Carolina State University. She completed a rotating internship and small animal internal medicine residency at North Carolina State University and went on to become board-certified by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. Dr. Hutchins served as Medical Director of a large, multi-specialty hospital for 3 years prior to transitioning into hospital operations. She maintains an adjunct faculty position at North Carolina State University and has 6 peer reviewed published scientific articles.
Prior to joining UVC, Dr. Hutchins served as Group Vice President at VCA’s Animal Hospital Division. In this role, she was responsible for promoting and coordinating streamlined operations to support and enhance the experience of teams in more than 100 general practice, hybrid, and specialty hospitals. She was previously the Chief Operating Officer for Pet Partners, a community of over 90 general practice and specialty hospitals across the U.S.
Dr. Hutchins joined the United Veterinary Care team in 2021, crediting a shared belief in empowering and supporting the incredibly resilient and talented people who make up the veterinary profession with drawing her to our organization.
Dr. Hutchins lives in North Carolina with her family, which always includes a rescued beagle! When she’s not working, she enjoys paddle boarding and sharing her love of the outdoors, music, and animals with her family.
Joseph M. Garcia has a broad range of healthcare experience. Over his career, Joseph has led teams at high growth provider-based healthcare companies.
Previously, Joseph was the Chief Executive Officer at Gastro Health. Over the course of six and a half years, Gastro Health grew from 60 physicians in one state, to nearly 400 physicians and 200 advanced practitioners in seven states. This growth allowed Gastro Health to recapitalize in 2021 and partner with OMERS Private Equity. Previously, was the CEO at Sage Dental. While at Sage, Joseph oversaw the rapid expansion of the group from twenty, to over sixty practices in Florida and Georgia. Prior to Sage, Joseph was the Chief Operating Officer at 21st Century Oncology, which he helped to grow into the largest provider of Radiation Oncology in the United States and Latin America. Prior to Joining 21st Century Oncology, Joseph was a Division Vice President at DaVita. At DaVita, Joseph honed his multi-site experience and recognized the power of culture. Prior to DaVita, Joseph was a Vice President of Operations at Sterling Healthcare, iHealth Technologies and Vivra Specialty Partners.
Joseph has a BSBA and M.B.A. from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.