This article was originally printed in the Sept/Oct 2025 issue of the California Veterinarian magazine.

Dr. Kelly Byam serves on the CVMA’s Board of Governors, representing District III (Kern County VMA and Orange Belt VMA). If you are a member of District III, you may contact Dr. Byam at kbyam@cvma.net.

Where did you graduate from?
I spent undergrad at Fresno State, post-grad at Lincoln University in Christchurch, New Zealand, and veterinary school at UC Davis.

What was your first job?
My first job overall was as a kennel attendant, then veterinary assistant, at Acacia Animal Hospital in San Jose. My first job as a veterinarian was at Mueller Animal Hospital in Sacramento, where I did general practice and emergency medicine.

Where do you currently work?
I’m retired but got “back in the game” this last year. I do occasional relief shifts at a private practice in Palm Springs in the winter and spring. In the summer and fall, I volunteer as the shelter veterinarian for the Wild Rivers Animal Shelter in Gold Beach, Oregon, where we provide no-cost veterinary services to those in need. I’m also a consultant for a veterinary PMS company, NectarVet.

How do you spend your free time?
In the winter and spring, I do all things Palm Springs. In the summer and fall, I relocate to Oregon, where I spend most of my days salmon fishing in the Rogue River and rock fishing in the Pacific Ocean.

Do you have a family?
I have a spouse, Deborah, and we have been together since my last year of veterinary school. She’s the reason I started my career in Sacramento instead of Santa Cruz. I am originally from the Bay Area and had intended to return home. But I ended up making Sacramento my home for over 30 years!

Do you have any pets? If so, what are their names?
I have three rescues. Delta is an old, semi-feral Tuxedo lady (who’s only still alive because of monthly Solensia injections that aid her arthritis pain). Aurora Font is a young Bichon, and Kiki is a young Poodle mix.

What is your favorite movie?
Young Frankenstein. I have watched it probably a hundred times.

If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
“Ojos Así” by Shakira.

If you could go back and talk to your younger self, what’s one thing you’d say?
That you were destined to be the first person in your entire family to graduate from college.

What’s your favorite thing about being a veterinarian?
Relationships with wonderful people—which I didn’t expect. I thought it would be all about the animals.

What’s your least favorite part?
Relationships with horrible people—ha!

Why did you get involved in organized veterinary medicine?
When I bought my practice after working at a large, multi-doctor practice, I felt so alone starting out and wanted to connect with colleagues. The work I have since done in organized veterinary medicine feels like my true legacy and the best way I can give back to the profession that gave me everything.

What topics in veterinary medicine are you most passionate about?
Because of my work in organized veterinary medicine, I am most passionate about combatting legal threats to the profession by wealthy or activist individuals and corporations and scope creep by non-veterinarians. Additionally, I am alarmed by the cost of education for newer veterinarians, and I feel like college debt is predatory in the U.S.

What area of veterinary medicine are you still interested in learning about?
High-Quality, High-Volume Spay/Neuter.

What goal are you working towards now?
Becoming a better District Governor and creating a VMA in the Coachella Valley. It is a desert in more ways than one, and we have no CE opportunities locally.

What would you like people to remember you for?
That I beat the odds of most kids with teen parents and literally willed myself into the greatest profession on Earth.

What do you want people to know about the CVMA and organized veterinary medicine?
If you aren’t involved in CVMA, you literally don’t know what you don’t know. We are working tirelessly to fend off legislative threats to the profession, and it would be great if more veterinarians (especially those who know local, state, or national legislators, even in passing) could join us in our fight to protect our profession. Veterinarians, ALL of us, have huge credibility with legislators, and the smallest of connections with them can have tremendous impact. The CVMA’s lobbying budget is directly tied to its income, and if more California veterinarians joined CVMA, we could have more impact fending off hostile legislation that affects all of us—CVMA members or not.

“Veterinarians, ALL of us, have huge credibility with legislators, and the smallest of connections with them can have tremendous impact. The CVMA’s lobbying budget is directly tied to its income, and if more California veterinarians joined CVMA, we could have more impact fending off hostile legislation that affects all of us—CVMA members or not.”

Meet the rest of your CVMA Board of Governors here.