{"id":5547,"date":"2016-10-17T17:10:46","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T06:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/?p=5547"},"modified":"2018-10-30T16:53:44","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T05:53:44","slug":"unreal-veterinary-careers-an-interview-with-dr-helen-fairnie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/unreal-veterinary-careers-an-interview-with-dr-helen-fairnie\/","title":{"rendered":"Unreal Veterinary Careers! – an interview with Dr Helen Fairnie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Main photo credit:\u00a0Helen Fairnie – Dr Helen Fairnie and Dr Brian McErlean.<\/p>\n

Today Michele and I\u00a0have the honour of showcasing an interview with Dr Helen Fairnie, someone who has been a great influence in my (Emma’s) career since we re-started\u00a0the Vets in Public Health Special Interest Group (AVPH SIG) of the AVA together around 2007 – Helen is a huge contributor to our profession and is someone I personally find very\u00a0inspiring… \u00a0Emma<\/p>\n

\"helen-5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Hi Helen – What are you working on at the moment?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Working on at the moment? I am officially retired, however: \u00a0 a b** book on women vets- trying to get it published; the Wellness Centre at AVA Conference; stress and suicide in veterinarians; Rotarian secretary \u00a0 (I used to run an Arts Market for Rotary once a month but found it hard to get volunteers); 100 Women- a philanthropic giving circle of 100 women supporting projects involving women- we try to give 3 grants of $40,000 each year. \u00a0 Saving African Rhinos from poaching. \u00a0 \u00a0Am on subcommittee of this and also lead safaris to Zimbabwe.\u00a0 I am also supervising two students from Georgetown University who want exposure to Aborigines.\u00a0 I will mark their assignments.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"helen-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"helen-2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Photo left: 2016, With colleagues at the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust\u00a0and Sanctuary<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Photo right: 2016, with a village leader at Kariba Village.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    2. What drives you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    I have always been driven to help my colleagues. I remember being cross when Doug Blood, our former Dean at Melbourne, wrote me a reference which said I was more interested in people than animals.\u00a0Consequently I have an interest in preventing injury, disease and stress in veterinarians. Also reducing suicide in veterinarians.<\/p>\n

    3. What have been the major transitions in your path?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Getting married to Ian Fairnie<\/p>\n

    Running a veterinary practice in Northam WA and having two children. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I found I couldn\u2019t cope with son #2 who screamed. \u00a0 \u00a0 Had to close the practice down. Probably had a nervous breakdown because I had little contact with veterinary colleagues. \u00a0 Ian sent me off to a Practitioners Branch meeting while he would babysit. \u00a0 We were 1 1\/2 hours from Perth. \u00a0 \u00a0First meeting there were about 20 vets there and me, the only woman. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0If I recollect, it was the Annual General Meeting and they dobbed me in a secretary. \u00a0 \u00a0I was such a mess I didn\u2019t say no. \u00a0 \u00a0Came home and told Ian I would call them and decline but he (the bully) wouldn\u2019t let me. \u00a0 \u00a0After a couple of years, I became President of Perth Branch. \u00a0 \u00a0That got me onto the Divisional Committee of AVA. \u00a0 \u00a0I became secretary and then President which put me onto AVA Council and ultimately I became President of the AVA National body. I was the first female president of the AVA.<\/p>\n

    I did a Master of Philosophy at Murdoch and got a job at Curtin (then WAIT) and was there for 31 years. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I because involved with international students and recruited from Asia mainly. \u00a0 \u00a0Led study tours for 10 years to every Asian country you can think of. Ultimately I did a PhD on Stress, Suicide and Disease etc. at Curtin.<\/p>\n

    \"Dr<\/a><\/p>\n

    4. What goals are you working towards?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    My main goal is to publish the bloody book on women vets, stop vets killing themselves, stop rhino killing and have a long rest.<\/p>\n

    5. What advice would you provide a younger you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Advice for a younger me: \u00a0 \u00a0Don\u2019t bite off too much. \u00a0 \u00a0Take it easy. \u00a0 \u00a0Probably wouldn\u2019t change much. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I blame my husband for my AVA activities.<\/p>\n

    Photo Courtesy of Helen Fairnie: Comment \u2013“this is me and Mike Bond receiving a kangaroo from Perth Zoo to send to Russia as a gift for the previous World Veterinary Congress. We ran the XXII in Perth. Mike Bond was Secretary and I was Vice Chair.”<\/em><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Thanks for your time today Helen.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    …ends….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Main photo credit:\u00a0Helen Fairnie – Dr Helen Fairnie and Dr Brian McErlean. Today Michele and I\u00a0have the honour of showcasing an interview with Dr Helen Fairnie, someone who has been a great influence in my (Emma’s) career since we re-started\u00a0the Vets in Public Health Special Interest Group (AVPH SIG) of the AVA together around 2007 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5552,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2025],"tags":[709,814,142,141],"class_list":["post-5547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career-profile","tag-dr-cotton","tag-dr-helen-fairnie","tag-dr-m","tag-veterinary-careers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5547"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5564,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5547\/revisions\/5564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}