Dr. Jennifer Brown, DVM, DVSMR

Dr. Jennifer Brown became involved in disaster response as a member of the Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams in 2005. After spending 5 weeks in Mississippi and Louisiana in response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, where she helped in with the veterinary care of the FEMA US&R dogs, she developed an interest in expanding her knowledge of the training and care of these important assets. Dr. Brown began providing canine veterinary care and training for MD TF-1 in 2006 and became a task force member as the team veterinarian in 2007. While becoming a canine handler was not in her plans, she ultimately acquired and certified her first US&R live find canine Phanesse in 2009. After moving to Florida in 2010 she became a member of FL TF-2. Since 2010 she has certified 4 Live Find and 2 Human Remains Detection canines. Her deployments as a canine handler include Hurricanes Irma, Florence, Dorian, Michael, Ian, and Helene (NC), the Puerto Rico earthquakes, Oregon Wildfires, Surfside, FL Champlain Towers condominium collapse, and the Texas 7/4 Floods. Dr. Brown is also a member of the FEMA US&R Incident Support Team and has deployed as the IST Veterinarian to Hurricanes Matthew, Ida, and Ian as well as the Maui Wildfires. It is in Maui where she really earned her title of “canine foot-wear expert”. She is a strong proponent of providing veterinary pre-hospital care education to first responders through the Medical Team Training as well as other seminars and workshops.