Introducing our New Vet Sustain Directors!

It’s a privilege to have recently welcomed our four new Directors to the Vet Sustain Board. Jen Gale, Justine Shotton, Nathan Rhys Williams and Stephanie Sanderson join our existing directors. We know the expertise and enthusiasm of our new board members will strengthen our work, and further inspire and enable the veterinary professions to be leading forces for sustainability, and we wanted to tell you more about them.

Image: Jen, Nathan, Justine & Stephanie

Jen Gale

Jen qualified from the RVC in 2004 and spent over 10 years in small animal practice in the South West. Towards the end of that time, she decided it would be a ‘fun challenge’ to spend a year buying nothing new with her young family. Jen describes that year as her ‘ecopiphany’ and it transformed her from ‘concerned on-looker’ to someone who realised and recognised the power that we can all have to make a better world.

The blog that she kept during that year led Jen to found Sustainable(ish) - a platform all about empowering and inspiring individuals to take eco-action, and the opportunity to publish two books with Bloomsbury: The Sustainable(ish) Living Guide and The Sustainable(ish) Guide to Green Parenting.

Jen is a qualified coach, speaker and Carbon Literacy trainer and runs the Vet Sustain Carbon Literacy for the Veterinary Profession course, which has had nearly 100 participants from all around the world.

Jen lives in Wiltshire with her husband and sons (who are still talking to her after their year buying nothing new!), Spud the Border Terrier, and Speedy the 85 year old tortoise!

Justine Shotton

Justine has been a vet for over fourteen years. She initially worked with farm animals, horses and domestic pets and now works as the Head Vet for Wildlife and Exotics at the RSPCA, following eight years as a zoo vet in Hampshire. Justine is passionate about environmental sustainability, conservation and improving the welfare of all animals, both wild and domestic. She was BVA President from 2021-2 and chose Sustainability as her presidential theme, working on a variety of resources to help ensure actionable change to help the veterinary profession become more sustainable.

As well as her veterinary degree, Justine has a BSc in Veterinary Pathology and an MSc in Wild Animal Health and she continues to champion One Health and the interplay between human health, animal health and environmental health.

In her downtime, Justine loves wildlife photography, travelling, learning Italian, dancing, baking and pretty much every sport she can try!

Nathan Rhys Williams

Nathan Rhys Williams is Head of Food and Health at Chronos Sustainability, a specialist advisory company working to drive transformative, systemic change in the social and environmental performance of key industry sectors. In this role, he leads a team delivering corporate sustainability and responsible investment projects on food and health topics, including major multi-stakeholder programmes such as the Global Coalition for Animal Welfare, the CCLA Mental Health Benchmarks and the Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare.

The Global Coalition for Animal Welfare is an industry-led initiative, bringing together major global food companies and animal welfare experts with the aim of advancing animal welfare standards throughout the food supply chain. Founded in 2018, GCAW’s member companies represent some of the largest names in the food industry, including Kroger, Nestlé, Sodexo, Tesco, Tyson Foods and Unilever.

The Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare is the leading global measure of company performance on farm animal welfare. Conducted annually since 2012, the benchmark enables investors, companies, NGOs and other stakeholders to understand the policies and performance of 150 of the world’s largest food companies.

Nathan originally qualified as a veterinarian from the University of Liverpool and has now spent over ten years working with leading international food companies to improve their farm animal welfare performance and reporting. Prior to taking up his position at Chronos Sustainability, Nathan has worked in roles at the Humane Slaughter Association and Compassion in World Farming International. Nathan also has a degree in veterinary conservation medicine, an interdisciplinary field focused on the interplay between human, domestic animal and wild animal health.

Stephanie Sanderson

Stephanie is a vet with a passion for wildlife conservation. After a couple of years in general practice, she undertook a residency at the RSPCA rehabilitating British Wildlife, an MSc in Wild Animal Health at the institute of Zoology in London and then moved to Chester Zoo. Stephanie was their first full time vet and set up the veterinary and science departments from scratch. In 2017 she was appointed Chester Zoo’s Director of the Living Collection, Science and Education and led transformative initiatives, achieving significant growth, fostering visitor engagement in conservation and achieving ISO14001, marking the zoo's commitment to sustainability.

In her recent role as Executive Director of the European Association of Zoo and Wildlife Veterinarians (EAZWV), she served over 700 veterinary professionals with a mission to "help vets help wildlife." Stephanie has also been involved in not for profit governance having been a Trustee of the Zebra Foundation for Zoological Education, and the Centre of Alternative Technology and has also contributed to policy development both at nationals and EU level serving on numerous committees and working groups.

Beyond her professional achievements, Stephanie is committed to sustainability in her personal life, actively reducing her environmental footprint. She lives on the Wirral, a stone’s throw from the beach and heath, along with her husband, young son, dog and 3 chickens.