Meet Our Veterinary Team

Meet the Veterinarians & Team of Wilvet Salem! We’re pleased to provide exceptional vet care for your pets!

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Get to know our veterinary team!

We are solely dedicated to your pet’s care! We look forward to getting to know you, and we hope you’ll take the time to scroll down and get to know us.

Meet Our Doctors

Dan Lewer, DVM

CEO and Owner

Emily Kalenius, DVM

Chief Medical Officer and Owner

About Emily
Emily attended Oregon State’s College of Veterinary Medicine, graduating first in her class in 2008. A private practice small animal internship in Los Angeles rounded out her training. Emily worked for 8 years in private practice as an associate veterinarian, mostly in emergency and critical care. In 2017 she partnered with Dr Dan Lewer to purchase Corvallis’ Willamette Veterinary Hospital. During that time Emily developed and implemented an Veterinary Intern Program, which satiated her interests as a lifelong learner and teacher.

Since then, she has partnered to design, recruit, and execute the startup of two other Wilvet emergency clinics — Salem and South.

Her professional interests include, emergency medicine, cardiology, internal medicine and mentorship of new graduates.

As a longtime Pacific Northwest resident, Emily enjoys an active, outdoors lifestyle. After running collegiate cross country in Santa Barbara while completing degrees in Biology and Chemistry, she has since naturally gravitated towards trail ultramarathons and mountaineering. Calling Corvallis, Oregon home, she now enjoys backpacking and hiking with her two daughters and husband, and skiing in the winter.

Kristin Peterson, DVM

Medical Director and Owner

About Kristin
Kristin has always loved animals and loves the challenge of medicine. Her favorite part of working in this field is the wonderful team. In her free time, she participates in horseback riding, camping, fishing, and waterskiing

Brittany Gardner

Veterinarian

Dr. Ebert

Crystal Ebert

Veterinarian

About Crystal
Crystal decided to work in this field because she is happy to be able to help pet families through any obstacles. Her favorite part about working here is practicing high-quality medicine with a compassionate, caring team. In her free time, she enjoys reading, playing video games, tabletop role-playing games, and hanging out with friends, family, and her own critters at home. Something she has learned since working here is abdominal ultrasounds.

Emi Menzen

Veterinarian

Anna Wepprich

Veterinarian

About Anna
Anna decided to work in this field because she loves the variety of cases, and the people she gets to meet and work with every day. Her favorite part about working here is working with the amazing team. In her free time, she enjoys playing with her toddler and senior dog. Something she has learned since working here is facts about porcupines and salmon poisoning.
Lea

Lea Hayes

Veterinarian

About Lea
Lea decided to work in this field because she loves being able to provide comfort and care to animals and their owners during what can be a very scary and stressful time. Her favorite part about working here is the continued commitment to providing the best medicine to patients. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, reading, and riding her horse. Something she has learned since working here is learning how to provide the best medicine and how to provide that to patients.
Wilvet Vet Team - Dr Nicole

Nicole Rando

Veterinarian

About Nicole
Nicole decided to work in this field because she loves not knowing what her day is going to look like and that every day is different in emergency medicine. In her free time, she enjoys spending as much time outsides as possible, whether it is rain or shine.

Rachel Gray

Veterinarian

About Rachel
Rachel has a deeply rooted compassion for animals, along with immense respect for the role pets play as members of the family. She loves medicine and advocating for patients to ensure they are happy and healthy. Rachel loves being part of the compassionate and energetic Wilvet team. Also, collaborating on cases with the other, talented doctors has helped her continuously learn and provide the best possible medical care for pets. When she’s not at the hospital, she can be found crocheting, playing video games, baking bread, and hanging out with her senior cat, Carl. On a Sunny summer day, she can be found fishing in lakes or rivers from her stand-up paddle board. In addition to sharpening her clinical skills, every day, she learns new and creative solutions to provide care to pets in a way that works for them and their families.

Sarah Burns

Veterinarian

About Sarah
Sarah loves emergency medicine because it offers the perfect balance of surgery and medicine. For her, it is so rewarding to be able to offer pet parents a helping hand in their greatest time of need. Sarah believes the camaraderie and teamwork between support staff and doctors are unmatched, and it allows patient care to be top-tier. In her free time, she love camping, backpacking, and hiking with her dog as well as kayaking. She is a water lover so you can find her at the river or a lake all summer swimming. Sarah has learned to never trust a case that you suspect will be an easy “slam dunk” diagnosis because they tend to end up with the most unexpected findings.

Dr. Hovenden

Veterinarian

About Dr. Hovenden

Bio coming soon!

Coming Soon

Sarah Giambuzzi

Veterinarian

Meet Our Administrative Staff

Amanda

Amanda Koeble

Hospital Administrator

About Amanda

Amanda decided to work in this field because she wanted to be a part of an industry she has always valued. Her favorite part about working here is watching staff grow into their roles and expand their skills. In her free time, she enjoys entertaining her own animals and working on her old house.

Jess

Jess Lawrence

Medical Operations Manager

About Jess

Jess enjoys ER medicine and likes saving critically injured animals. She loves the bond between humans and animals and likes to learn about veterinary medicine. She especially likes the culture and the mindset of the doctors and their willingness to work with clients. In her free time, Jess likes to listen to audiobooks and clean!

Tia

Office Manager

About Tia
Tia joined our team here at Wilvet Salem at the end of 2023. She started her career out cleaning kennels at age 16. She worked on her skills and became a nurse and spent 16 years helping animals throughout the Salem-Keizer area. In her free time, Tia likes to spend time with her 3 boys, her golden retriever (Jenna), and her 5 cats. She enjoys live music, books, cleaning/organizing, and always finds the time to hit up the beach!

Meet Our Nurses

Janene Stovall

Certified Vet Tech

Jason Glick

Veterinary Nurse

About Jason
Jason decided to work in this field because he was working at an AKC Certified Labrador Retriever Breeding and Training facility where he fostered a 2-year-old Lab named Lexi. He was always plagued with hotspots and skin/allergy type issues. While he fostered her, he helped her recover from her health issues and then started doing basic obedience with her. He was then sold to a couple in Santa Cruz, California, and began her new career working with kids with special needs. He was blown away at how amazing and how much a Labrador Retriever can do. They are amazing. After moving to Oregon, Jason found a lot of employment opportunities in Veterinary Medicine and devoted himself to obtaining a job as a Kennel Technician and has been in this field ever since.
Cassie

Cassie Cosler

Veterinary Nurse

Leilani Chock

Hospital Aid

Marisa Varga

Veterinary Nurse

About Marisa

Marisa finds fulfillment in veterinarian medicine. She loves the criticals and surgeries the most. She enjoys the team as everyone is close and they all feel like family. In her free time, Marisa likes to hike, camp, go to the gym, and dance. 

Heather Roarke

Veterinary Nurse

Deborah Easterhoff

Certified Vet Tech

Rebecca

Certified Vet Tech

Kristene Fast

 

About Kristene
Kristene decided to work in this field because she loves animals and enjoys the challenge of helping creatures that can’t tell you what’s wrong. Her favorite part of working here is the emergency clinic which is fast-paced while still providing quality care to patients. In her free time, she enjoys crocheting and spinning yarn. Something she has learned since working here is placing nasogastric tubes and jugular catheters.
Stetson

Stetson

Veterinary Nurse

About Stetson

Stetson loves being a part of everything surgery and loves his team. Stetson enjoys spending time with family in the great outdoors.

Coming Soon

Natasha

Veterinary Nurse

Miguel Pedro

Vet Assistant

Shannon Conners

Vet Assistant

Kody

Vet Assistant

Jenna

Vet Assistant

Jim

Vet Nurse

Evelyn

Vet Nurse

Katrina

Vet Nurse

Katie

Certified Vet Tech

Kevin

Vet Nurse

Jeff

Vet Nurse

Hayley

Vet Nurse

Kyla

Vet Nurse

Ana

Training Coordinator

Meet Our Supporting Staff

Bertha Mendez

Client Service Representative

About Bertha

Bertha decided to work in this field because she has loved animals since she was young. Her favorite part about working here is getting to help or save lives every day. In her free time, she enjoys reading, baking, and going on walks/ hikes. Something Bertha has learned since working here is that pets are like family, and owners will go to great lengths to help or save them.

Dani

Client Service Representative

Tattum

Client Service Representative

Tristany

Client Service Representative