As a student at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Kate Hurley won the Theodora Peigh Award for Academic Achievement four years in a row. This fall, some 25 years after graduating, she was humbled to accept the Distinguished Alumni Award from Dean Mark D. Stetter.

Dr. Hurley first donned the uniform of an Animal Control Officer for the Santa Cruz SPCA in 1989. While she loved the work helping animals, life was hard for shelter animals and staff alike in those days. Without a veterinarian on staff, or really any reliable source of veterinary information tailored to shelter animal care, staff struggled to care for the animals as best they knew how. Even a simple sneeze or cough meant euthanasia, the only way staff believed they could protect the rest of the population. Only 1 in 4 cats Hurley brought in would leave the shelter alive, mirroring the grim odds experienced at most shelters at the time. Six years later, Hurley enrolled in veterinary school with a desire to change those odds. 

Graduating in 1999 was just the beginning. That year, more than 25,000 animals were euthanized in shelters within thirty minutes of UC Davis, surpassing the entire small animal caseload of the veterinary teaching hospital.

Hurley knew professionals responsible for shelter-housed animals needed a home for credible, evidence-based information to keep more of those animals alive. Maddie’s Fund is known for fueling innovation, and the story of shelter medicine is not an exception: It was the support and foresight of Maddie’s Fund that allowed Hurley to return to UC Davis in 2001 to become the world’s first Shelter Medicine resident, beginning the journey of bridging that gap.

Hurley prioritized getting lifesaving information to those doing the work. Even during her residency, she helped the UC Davis Shelter Medicine Program build the website www.sheltermedicine.com, the first authoritative repository of free shelter expertise, leveling up the standard of care for all homeless pets.

Immediately after completing the residency, Hurley became the director of the shelter medicine program at UC Davis. With generous support from foundations and donors, the early work of the program included training the first handful of additional residents to study this emerging field. Hurley also served as co-chair of the organizing committee for a new specialty in Shelter Medicine Practice through the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners. Today we celebrate more than 35 boarded specialists.

By 2012, Hurley was ready to go from moment to movement. Together with Dr. Julie Levy (University of Florida), she launched the Million Cat Challenge. The world’s largest feline lifesaving initiative, the challenge is responsible for bringing together more than 1,500 animal shelters that together have saved 5.3 million (and counting) cat lives!

Most recently, Hurley’s program was awarded $50 million in funding for California animal shelters, an unprecedented move by Governor Gavin Newsom to support the paradigm shift in sheltering.

Many are familiar with the phrase “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” but Hurley lives that advice. Her dedication to advocating for shelter animals her entire career earned Hurley the university’s Alumni Achievement Award, the highest honor bestowed by the school.  

In nominating Hurley for the award, Dr. Patricia Pesavento wrote, “Kate is a soft-spoken, humble, powerful, and generous colleague, who has advocated, initiated, and heralded permanent new expectations, globally, to raise every possible facet of care for sheltered animals.” 

“I feel so humbled by the kind words of my colleagues and this recognition of all the work that’s moved shelter medicine from a twinkle in a few peoples’ eyes, to a boarded specialty in veterinary medicine with a robust body of research, teaching, and practice,” Hurley said. “In truth I don’t think I deserve any kudos as it has been simply an honor and joy of a lifetime to be able to do this work with such amazing colleagues and friends on all sides, and of course for all the short-legged dogs, one-eyed cats, and other temporarily displaced creatures that look to us for care in the most vulnerable moments of their lives.”