Dr. Mary Beth Leininger made history in 1996 when she began a one-year term as the American Veterinary Medical Association’s first female president. She later held jobs in industry and organized medicine. Before Dr. Leininger’s AVMA service, she and her husband, Dr. Steve Leininger, owned and operated Plymouth Veterinary Hospital in Plymouth, Michigan. The couple now live in Kansas.
1. What are you doing these days?
Not very much. It took me four jobs to finally retire. When I finished up at ASPCA Pet Health Insurance a number of years ago, I decided, “It’s time for me to back away and just live a normal life and not worry about making huge impacts in my profession,” which is what I’ve done pretty much most of my professional life. Today, I’m enjoying life, spending time at home with my spouse, and keeping caught up with reading and those kinds of things. My husband says having me at home rather than gallivanting across the country is nice.
2. Was retirement a difficult transition, or were you ready for it?
I was ready for it. My husband and I were in practice together for nearly 30 years in Plymouth, Michigan. During that time, I was very involved in our state association and the AVMA. Next, I decided to run for AVMA president and was successful in doing so. I considered that position and serving on the AVMA Executive Board as jobs even though they were volunteer positions. I then spent 10 years with Hill’s Pet Nutrition as director of professional affairs, which was the liaison between the company and veterinarians. After my involvement with Hill’s, I spent a couple of years working with the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges on an educational consortium to try to make education more effective for young people so that when they graduated, they were practice-ready. And my final job was with ASPCA Pet Health Insurance.
3. You wrote a Today’s Veterinary Business article a few years ago addressing the student debt issue [go.navc.com/debt]. What are your current thoughts?
I talked about working with the colleges to keep the costs down for students. My husband and I were very fortunate to have graduated from the veterinary college at Purdue University. The Purdue president, who retired last year, Mr. Mitch Daniels, was determined to keep tuition costs flat. He did it for 10 years, which I think is astounding, as most veterinary colleges are dealing with continual tuition increases. While I’m not saying it was easy to do, and I know it was tough for the dean, Willie Reed, to manage, it made a huge difference for the veterinary students. Ten years of flat tuition is pretty amazing when you’re talking about a university.
4. Do you appreciate how your contributions impacted veterinary medicine?
My involvement with veterinary organizations wasn’t intended to make me visible. That was not the point. All of us with experience owe it to our colleagues and future colleagues to try to make a difference in a profession we have grown to love.
5. What do you think about your service as the first female AVMA president?
People said, “Well, you’re the first woman.” I said, “But that wasn’t the point.” The point was, how do you make a difference for your colleagues? The deal for me was to help my colleagues connect better to AVMA and get their voices heard when there were troubles or when they had ideas they wanted to bring forward. My goal was to be a conduit between the association’s leadership and people not necessarily involved with AVMA.
6. How and when did you know you wanted to be a veterinarian?
My father was a fireman for the city of Cleveland, Ohio. In between his shifts, he built houses to help pay for his four children to go to college. I went to a Catholic elementary school, and I wasn’t fond of my first-grade teacher, a nun. That’s terrible to say when you know that the sisters dedicated their lives to teaching. I went from wanting to be a nun in first grade to deciding I wanted to be a veterinarian in second grade. I think a lot of veterinarians chose their path very young in life, knowing they loved creatures and wanted to be involved with them. As I got older, I understood it wasn’t just a matter of wanting to help animals but also wanting to help people.
7. What were the next steps in your professional journey?
We had a horse when I was in high school in Cleveland, and I indicated to the veterinarian who took care of her that I was interested in going to veterinary school. He advised, “There’s a new veterinary school at Purdue. I’m an Ohio State grad, but they’re really not taking women there, so maybe you need to apply to Purdue.” I never applied to Ohio State. I went to Purdue for my undergrad and then applied to Purdue for graduate school and was fortunate enough that they said yes. There was never any question in my mind that was what I wanted to do. My parents were very supportive, even though it was a big financial challenge for them. But I was lucky to be able to get into the college.
8. Which memorable mentors supported your veterinary journey?
My parents. They never questioned what I wanted to do and what I would do, even though, at the time, not many women went to veterinary colleges. Did another mentor encourage me to do that? I’m not sure there was. Parents make the biggest difference in a young person’s decision.
9. Do you have any special animals in your life?
We recently had to put our 13-year-old miniature poodle, Jenny, to sleep. That was quite traumatic. I wasn’t ready for her to be gone. So right now, at this very moment, we are without pets. The house is very empty. We’re still in the discussion phase of adopting another dog. However, my husband and I are both in our 80s now, which is hard for me to believe. So he’s not sure we want to take on another puppy. Fostering an older dog is a possibility we’re thinking about.
10. What’s the first thing you do in the morning?
Until recently, I would’ve gotten up and fed the dog, but now, I just get my coffee going and read the newspaper and online news and that kind of thing. Take an hour or two to get started and then get going with doing errands and taking care of things around the house.
11. What is a typical day in your life?
We live in a senior subdivision, and I got started in a book club, which a lot of seniors do. After I’d been involved with it for a couple of years, they asked me to take over running it. For almost two years now, I’ve arranged what books we read and got people together. It’s a small project, but it keeps me connected with the outside world.
12. What are your favorite books?
I’ve always been a voracious reader, particularly mystery stories and now a lot of nonfiction. I’m currently reading about the time between Abraham Lincoln’s election and when he was inaugurated, which was a very troublesome time going into the Civil War.
13. Do you binge-watch anything?
I had never heard of Outlander until I saw the first episode, and it hooked me right away. We’re waiting for the next episodes to come out.
14. How did you manage during the early days of the pandemic?
It was tough because we were pretty isolated. My husband and I decided we would be very careful about where we went or didn’t go. We didn’t really go anywhere. The pandemic taught us to pay more attention to what’s happening around us rather than just focus on what’s important only to us.
15. How do you practice self-care?
I always try to do some exercise every day. When we had Jenny, we’d be out walking with her three or four times a day. And that’s interesting because when you’re out with a dog, you meet all the other people with dogs in the neighborhood.
16. How do you define leadership?
It’s helping other people succeed. If there has ever been a time when I was effective, it wasn’t that I made a difference but that other people did. Leadership is about helping others to achieve what they want to achieve.
17. What is your hope for the veterinary profession?
Interesting that you should ask because I was thinking about something I had written a long time ago. I was concerned about fragmentation within the profession, about how people would be separated and not pulled together. I think that’s still an issue for us. That’s where veterinary organizations come into play because they make it possible for people to pull together in the same direction and accomplish things that maybe individuals could not do. That’s why it’s so important for people to be a part of veterinary organizations, not only AVMA but also local and state associations. In many cases, your success as a practitioner has a lot to do with what goes on in your state and how the laws and rules impact how you practice. You can’t impact that unless you’re working with a group or working with your association as a whole. It makes much more sense for people in charge of legislatures and regulations to hear from a group that believes in a certain way rather than just one person. I would like to see more veterinarians become involved in veterinary associations.
18. Would you like to share anything with the next generation of veterinarians?
They’re lucky to be veterinarians. Those of us who found our niche can do nothing but be grateful for the opportunity. I hope that people who follow in our profession feel the same way.
19. Any goals for the remainder of 2024?
I hope we can continue to travel. I love to travel, but we’ve been slowed down a bit after the pandemic. I try to stay healthy and active. And for those of us in our senior years, we want to stay active because it helps us keep going and keeps things interesting in life.
20. Any last thoughts?
There’s always new information out there, and I like to continue to learn. One thing I’ve never lost is the ability or interest in learning new things. That goes along with having networking connections. I met so many people when I was involved at the AVMA. It made a huge difference in my life and changed my life, I would say. I will always be grateful for meeting people in the veterinary world and world at large who thrilled me.
MORE FIRSTS
In 1937, Dr. Helen S. Richt was named secretary of the American Veterinary Medical Association’s section on small animals. The appointment made her the first woman to hold an AVMA office. Five years earlier, in 1932, Dr. Richt became the first female graduate of the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine.
Dr. Mary Beth Leininger as AVMA president in 1996-97.