At Family Veterinary Care Center, we think we have the best team of veterinary professionals around. We hope that you’ll take a few minutes to get to know us better.
Our Veterinarians
Dr. Scott Bernick
Dr. Scott Bernick was born and raised in the Quad Cities. He grew up on a dairy farm in Walcott, Iowa. Scott had several animal care duties on the dairy farm, and it was here that he began working with animals. He developed an interest in companion animals during high school when he began to raise German shorthair pointers.
Scott graduated from Davenport West High School in 1987. He attended Iowa State University and received his Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine in 1994. Scott joined Animal Family Veterinary Care Center in July 2002. He enjoys life with his wife, Jeanne; daughters, Emma, Sarah, and Lucy; Daisy, their Shih Tzu; and guinea pigs, Siren and Stinky Pete. One of our assistants, Jenna, rescued the guinea pigs, nursed them back to good health, and gave them to Scott’s family for a new home.
Scott is a member of the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association and American Veterinary Medical Association. He has a special interest in preventive veterinary medicine, senior pet care, and veterinary dentistry.
Dr. Rob Garro
Dr. Rob Garro is an Illinois native, born in Chicago and raised in the western suburbs. Growing up he had a variety of small pets ranging from canaries and turtles to a guinea pig and a ferret. Dogs and cats did not appear in his life until many years later.
Dr. Rob graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in accounting in 1994 and then as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1999. After graduation, he worked at a practice in Dundee, Illinois, for 3 years. There he had the opportunity to work alongside specialists in internal medicine, dentistry, radiology, and surgery. He then worked at a small animal hospital in Janesville, Wisconsin, for over 5 years. Dr. Rob joined the team at Animal Family Veterinary Care Center in January 2008, bringing his family back to the Quad City area where his wife, Dori, grew up. Their sons, Donovan and Griffin, enjoy being close to Grandma and Grandpa. Doc the Lab, Capone the Boxer, Harry the Cat, and Louie the Cockatiel round out the Garro family.
Dr. Rob has special interests in pet dentistry, senior cat care, and veterinary dermatology. In 2007, he participated in the first Annual Advanced Gerontology Training for DVMs at Purdue University. Dr. Rob sees some of the exotic pets that are patients at Animal Family Veterinary Care Center.
Dr. Kathy Van Buer
Dr. Kathy Van Buer graduated from Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 1984. She began her veterinary career specializing in small animal medicine in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In addition to more typical pets, she also began to see a large number of non-traditional animals. Word spread quickly that she had both the interest and willingness to work with unusual animals, and she has been kept quite busy ever since.
Both she and her husband, Lyle, grew up in Clinton, Iowa. She will see most anything that isn’t poisonous! She also provides veterinary care for the big cats; birds, including raptors; and reptiles for the local zoos (Niabi Zoo and Fejervary Children’s Zoo) and volunteers her veterinary services to the local wildlife rehabilitators.
She and her husband have two sons. Ryan is a St. Ambrose graduate with a degree in mass communications and a minor in music. Chris attends Iowa State University, where he is majoring in aerospace engineering, hoping to work for NASA in the future. He is currently interning at Rockwell-Collins in Cedar Rapids. Kathy and Lyle enjoy geo-caching, cooking, and reading when they have the time. They also enjoy movies, hiking, traveling, and spending time with friends and family. Kathy really enjoys visiting schools, where she is joined by our current resident zoo critters: Miracle (female box turtle), Checkers (female corn snake), Queenie (female king snake), and Wilbur (her cat). Abigail, a darling papillon, has recently joined the VanBuer family and can be seen at Animal Family Veterinary Care Center in a variety of dresses and coats. Dr. Kathy belongs to a variety of organizations, including the American Veterinary Medical Association, Association of Avian Veterinarians, Association of Small Mammal Veterinarians, Association of Reptilian and Amphibian Veterinarians, American Association of Zoo Veterinarians, National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association, and International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council.
Dr. Meredith Evans
We’d like to introduce the newest member of our Veterinary Team, Dr. Meredith Evans. Dr. Meredith attended high school in Muscatine, Iowa, and graduated from the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine in 2006. Her interests are veterinary surgery, pet dentistry, and preventive pet health care.
Dr. Meredith is “owned” by two cats—Jasmine and Willy—and her dog, Barkley.
When the pets allow it, she travels, enjoys the outdoors, and loves horses.
Our Veterinary Staff
Our Receptionist Team
Left top to bottom right: (Patti, Jacobi, Lacey, Mindy, April, Amanda, Claire)
Michelle
Michelle is new to the Animal Family Veterinary Care Center team, but has been an animal lover all her life. She has had a wide variety of pets throughout her life and has even worked at a zoo. She was born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was married in 2007, and moved to the Quad Cities in August 2008. She enjoys the outdoors and being around all the creatures nature has to offer. Michelle’s best friend is a yellow lab named Kaiah.
Mindy
Mindy has been working in the veterinary business for 10 years. She joined Animal Family Veterinary Care Center in July 2008. She enjoys helping clients and their babies when they come in for visits. Her babies at home are a dog, a cat, and a 9-year-old daughter.
Lacey
Lacey has been a member of the Animal Family Veterinary Care Center team since July 2008 and has been working in veterinary medicine since 2006. She is both a receptionist and a lover of animals. She has two dogs at home: Sportster, a golden retriever, and Carmen, a Jack Russell terrier. Lacey enjoys spending time with her family, boyfriend Mike and their twins Ayla and Dalton.
Patti
Patti was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She relocated to the Quad Cities from Georgia with her husband, Jarrod, in 2009. Patti started out as a client but fit in so well that she joined our family last year. Her four-legged family includes her four dogs, Sadie, Aries, Zena, and a big goofball named Knute. She has also owned numerous exotics, including ferrets, snakes, hamsters, and fish. Patti has great compassion for all animals and has been a wonderful addition to our staff.
Our Veterinary Technician Team
Left to right (Melanie, Ann, Jesse, Maribeth, Faris)
Ann
Ann has been a part of the veterinary profession since 1991. She appreciates the wide variety of pets Animal Family Veterinary Care Center sees. You can see some of Ann’s pets in our photo gallery . You can generally find her surrounded by her extended family, Scout, Tracker, Liz, Emily, Parker, Bella, Ace, and Crew. Ann also assists with our puppy obedience classes.
Maribeth
Maribeth received a bachelor of science in marketing at Chapman University in Orange, California. She also graduated from Bel Rea Institute in Denver, Colorado, as a veterinary technician.
After working in market research and public relations in commercial real estate, she started her career at Alameda East Animal Hospital in Denver, Colorado, followed by veterinarians in this area, including the Animal Emergency Center in Bettendorf.
Maribeth is welcomed home at the farm by 8 dogs (all of which are rescues), 6 cats (mostly rescues), 14 horses (breeding, show, and rescues), and a sheep named Bob. She had llamas and a flock of 42 sheep at one time, but could not stand sending them to market so she sold them to the neighbor.
Melanie
Melanie is a licensed veterinary technician. She graduated from North Dakota State University in 2001. She happily resides with her husband, Brent, and their two children, Wyatt and Anissa. Their family also includes lots of four-legged children: Marty the poodle, Charlie the labradoodle, Goober and Jade the cats, turtle Cruiser, and Licorice and Butterscotch, their guinea pigs. Melanie really enjoys her work, especially with the exotics.
Shawn
Shawn graduated from Kirkwood Community College with an associate of applied science in veterinary technology in 1995. After interning with us in 1994, she joined the staff the following year. Shawn is also a room assistant at Animal Family Veterinary Care Center. In 2006, her online studies were rewarded when she received a bachelor of science degree with honors from Charter Oaks State College. This degree included concentrations in leadership and management.
Jesse
Jesse is happy to reside in Davenport with her husband, Bryce, and son, Blaine. Ellie Mae, a red bone coonhound, rounds out their family.
She graduated from Kirkwood Community College in 2003. Jesse has worked in the veterinary medicine field since 2000.
Jesse joined the Animal Family Veterinary Care Center team in 2006. She enjoys her daily experiences with the staff, clients, and pets. She feels that working at Animal Family VCC has been a positive career choice because of the many awesome and unique experiences it has provided for her.
Our Animal Care Team
Top left to bottom right (Catie, April, Sam, Stacey, Colleen, Donna)
Donna
Donna is a long-standing member of our animal care team. Her extended family includes two dogs and five cats. Prior to joining Animal Family Veterinary Care Center, she spent 7 years caring for and training greyhounds on a farm in Kansas. She loves taking care of the animals that stay at Animal Family Veterinary Care Center, and they love her, too. Her greatest joy is when a pet returns and recognizes her and wants to spend time here.
Stacy
Stacy was born in California and moved to Iowa more than 12 years ago. She is currently studying to be a veterinary technician. Stacy has a 4-year-old boxer mix named Max and a 10-year-old Chihuahua mix.
April
April is a recent addition to the Animal Family Veterinary Care Center family. She is a talented artist with a genuine love for animals. In addition to her kennel duties at Animal Family Veterinary Care Center, she is attending school at Scott County Community College.
Room Assistants
Top three left to bottom 4 right (Jacobi, Jenna, Christa, Amanda, Amber, Faris, Shannon)
Amber
Amber is a Quad Cities native. With her family, she has been bringing her pets to Animal Family Veterinary Care Center since she was 10 years old. After graduating from Pleasant Valley High School, Amber took a few years off from school to travel, returning home recently to attend St. Ambrose University. It is fitting that Amber now works part time at her childhood veterinary clinic and hopes to make a career in the animal health care field.
Amanda
Amanda is a 2006 graduate of the University of Iowa with a bachelor of arts degree in psychology. Upon graduation, she and her husband, Seth, moved to the suburbs of Chicago for 2 years, where she worked as an administrative assistant for a large real estate company. In March 2009, she and Seth moved back to their home state of Iowa and she began working at Animal Family Veterinary Care Center at the end of April. They have a beloved 9-year-old German shepherd named Atlas, who gets around these days using a wheelchair for his back legs. He was recently diagnosed with spinal stenosis. Amanda and Seth are expecting their first baby soon and are very excited.
Jenna
Jenna has lived in the Quad Cities area her whole life. She has worked in the veterinary field since 1996, and we were lucky enough to have her join our family 2 years ago. Jenna has a passion for with all animals. She is the official “cat whisperer” at Animal Family. Jenna’s family includes dogs, cats, and exotics.
Groomers
Left to right grooming (stacey, Kim, Claire)
Kimberly
Kimberly has been a pet groomer since 2000, and joined the Animal Family Veterinary Care Center team as our groomer in 2007. She has been an animal lover since the beginning and would bring a pet home every time she turned around. She enjoys working with the different types of pets, especially those needing a little T.L.C. She is well versed with the many breeds and coat patterns, as well as cats. Kimberly strives to continue her education every summer to keep improving her skills.
