Dr. Bruno & Youth Pathways Featured in Diversity in Action Magazine
Aug 01, 2024
Dr. Nicole Bruno was naturally drawn to caring for animals growing up, and now she makes sure children with that same love get to realize their dream of becoming veterinarians like she did.
"I grew up in an apartment in Queens where we weren't allowed to have pets," Bruno says. "There were a lot of stray animals around our neighborhood and I would just want to take care of them.
"I would take my allowance and go to the bodega or the corner store and buy cat food cans. I would have a little parade of animals that would just wait by our car for us to feed them," she remembers. "I would get sad when they were sick."
She and her sister were a team caring for the neighborhood strays and both of them went on to become veterinarians out of their love of animals.
Bruno practiced as a vet in New York and Texas after earning her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 2006 from Cornell University. The lack of racial and ethnic diversity of the other students and then other veterinarians was a concern for her, not only as an Afro-Latina wanting to see others like her, but for the pet owners seeing providers who looked like them, too.
"I was very fortunate that Cornell had prioritized diversity my class year. By Cornell standards, I had a pretty diverse class," Bruno says. "That class really helped me to see myself in this profession."
Ninety percent of veterinarians in the U.S. are white, according to 2023 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics. As few as 1.3% of vets are Black. According to a 2022 Petco Love and Human Animal Bond Research Institute survey, 53% of pet owners of color agree that it is important that veterinarians and their office staff reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of the communities they serve. Black and Latinx pet owners were more likely to report that they experienced discrimination, were treated as naïve or uniformed, or judged by staff or other customers. The survey also showed that Black and Latinx pet owners would be more likely to visit veterinary clinics that have more diverse staff or if they felt more heard, respected and welcomed.
"Trust is a foundational piece of a veterinary client-patient relationship," Bruno says. "When you trust your health care professional, you will trust them with your life or you will trust them with the life of your pet. There can be a lack of trust when vet professionals are not able to connect with clients because they're not hearing them or they do not understand what their economic situation is."
"As a veterinarian, there have been times where I've walked into examination rooms and I have seen the visible sigh of relief from clients because they at least feel comfortable enough to share with me what the barrier could be, whether it be a financial barrier, whether it be a lack of education ... and we are able to have more in-depth conversations about it."
