Dr. Stefanie Hansen earned her DVM from the University of Copenhagen. She completed internships at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital and Donnington Grove Equine Hospital. She later completed a residency in large animal surgery at Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine, where she also earned a master's degree in veterinary clinical sciences.

Dr. Adrienne Rhodes is a Michigan native who was born and raised in the Upper Peninsula. After graduating from veterinary school at Michigan State University in 2018, Dr. Rhodes headed out West and completed a private practice internship at Countryside Large Animal Veterinary Services, a mixed large animal practice in Greeley, CO. It was at this point in her career that she committed to the path of becoming a large animal surgeon. She returned to academia and completed two more internships at the University of Illinois including an equine surgery internship and a rotating equine medicine and surgery internship. She remained at the University of Illinois and completed an equine surgery residency. During her time at Illinois, Dr. Rhodes was involved in research that she presented at IVECCS in 2022 and was later on published, as well as graduating with a Master of Science degree in May 2024.

Dr. Frank Nickels earned his DVM and MS degrees from Washington State University in 1969 and 1974, respectively. While working on his master’s degree, he became one of the first people in the country to do arthroscopy on horses. There were only a handful of people doing work on arthroscopy at that time, and most of them were in human medicine. He had an internship at WSU and then stayed on as an instructor and worked his way up to associate professor with tenure. He was certified as a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons in 1980 and came to MSU in 1981, where he has been ever since. He is now a full professor.

He has wide clinical interests, including orthopedic, upper airway, and urogenital surgery, and is especially interested in equine podiatry. He runs a laminitis rehabilitation program at the MSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital on Fridays and will probably open a podiatry clinic there soon. In 2007, Dr. Nickels was inducted into the International Equine Veterinarians Hall of Fame at the International Hoof Care Summit in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Dr. Ashley VanderBroek joined the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences in 2020 as an Assistant Professor of Large Animal Surgery. She obtained both her bachelor’s and veterinary degree from Michigan State University. Following a large animal rotating internship at the University of Georgia, she completed a surgical residency at New Bolton Center, the University of Pennsylvania’s large animal hospital. After her residency, she became a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons (Large Animal) and remained at New Bolton Center as a Lecturer in Large Animal Surgery until coming back to Michigan State University.

Originally from San Diego, Dr. Crosby attended veterinary school at St. George's University, in the class of 2020. She has completed internships at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky as well as at the University of Pennsylvania New Bolton Center before beginning her surgical residency at Michigan State. Her main focus is equine orthopedics with strong interests in emergency/critical care and farm animal surgery.

Dr. Hilliard is a surgery resident in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences.

Dr. Tukdarian is a surgery resident in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences.