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Development professional joins college fundraising team

Katie Boudreau

Seasoned development professional Katie Boudreau has joined the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine’s fundraising team and will oversee support for the Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program at UF.

Boudreau’s appointment was effective Sept. 24. Prior to joining the college, she worked for two years as director of development in the UF Smathers Libraries and as a patient advocate/community liaison with the UF Byrne Orphan Disease Lab from 2011-2013.

Her previous experience includes serving as a clinical coordinator for the UF department of vascular surgery from 2009-2010, as director of medical alumni affairs for the UF College of Medicine from 2007-2009 and as an associate director of development for that college from 2006-2007. Prior to that, she directed development for the Catholic Schools of Gainesville and for the St. Patrick Interparish School.

Boudreau said the job of directing fundraising for the Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program at UF was a great fit for her.

“I own a beautiful rescue kitty named King George and two Yorkies, Molly and Coco,” Boudreau said, adding that she has fostered several dogs, cats and litters of puppies and kittens through area rescue groups. She has also lived in California, Arizona, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands, where she had a rescue animal in each location.

“That includes a three-legged kitten named Peggy and a swimming cat named Gato,” Boudreau said.

Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program at UF is a comprehensive educational program that addresses the critical shortage of skilled shelter veterinarians and knowledge of best practices in shelters through three core strategies. Those include the training of veterinary students and practitioners in the problems of homeless animals, the animal sheltering system, shelter medicine, and opportunities for careers in the field; providing extension services in the field, including shelter consultation, disaster response, disease outbreak intervention, and veterinary care of victims of animal cruelty and neglect; and conducting research to develop and disseminate new knowledge to solve existing and emerging threats to successful sheltering programs. ​

Since its inception in 2008, the program has grown to become the largest educational program of its kind in the world, training hundreds of veterinary students and veterinarians who in turn have saved thousands of animals.