Episode 2 – Leadership with Julie Crosby

Julie Crosby is the Hospital Steward for Partner’s Frederick Hospital. In our interview, Julie tells us what a Hospital Steward does, how her time in the veterinary profession has shaped her, and how her moment of fame led to the adoption of her sweet dog, Emma.

What You’ll Learn…

What a Hospital Steward is and does.
Why Julie chose Partner.
The impact Julie wants to leave on the veterinary profession.
The adoption of Emma and her amazing story.

But before we dive into the deep stuff, here are some quick facts about Julie ….

What was your first job? La Baguette – a French bakery and cafe!
What makes you laugh the most? My kids, my husband, my silly dogs, and The Office. 🙂
What’s one thing that can instantly make your day better? Hearing a positive story or encouraging feedback… and coffee!
Who do you admire most in the world (past or present)? My Grammy! She turned 100 in February. She is the most positive person I’ve ever known and loves unconditionally. She is my hero!
What’s your spirit animal and why? Cat – Curiosity, love, independence

[Music]

Narrator:

Welcome back to “Did You Know,” a new series by Partner Veterinary Emergency and Specialty Center. In this series, we’ll explore all things veterinary medicine and all things Partner. In each episode, we will answer some of the most common questions we’re asked—from neurology to emergencies and everything in between. If it happens at Partner, we’ll cover it. We have got a great episode for you today featuring Julie Crosby, Hospital Steward of our Frederick location. Find out what a Hospital Steward is and does, why Julie chose Partner, and so much more.

Julie Crosby:

“My name is Julie Crosby. I am the Hospital Steward for the Frederick location at Partner Veterinary, and I have been in veterinary medicine for over 20 years now, which is hard to imagine. I started as a customer service representative at my family veterinary practice where all of my pets went when I was growing up, which I feel like is a similar story to many people who get into this field. I quickly decided that I wanted to become a veterinary technician after experiencing the practice as an employee, so I went to tech school in Denver, Colorado, and did my internship at a large emergency mixed specialty practice that actually is quite similar to the layout of Partner, which is neat to kind of connect the dots there.

So that’s where I started—loved being a veterinary technician, really connected to the work early on. Then I moved to Ohio and worked in Internal Medicine there. I really enjoyed the specialty aspect of medicine: the clients, the pets that we would help, and the level of medicine we were able to provide was really remarkable and such a great thing to be a part of.

Very early on in my veterinary career, I was drawn to the leadership side of things. I really connected to how important it was to have healthy, functioning teams behind the scenes. It makes such a difference in overall patient care, overall client satisfaction, and at the end of the day, the team itself. An unhappy team does not sustain for long in a hospital—that’s really important.

I quickly involved myself as a trainer and became a supervisor. Early on, I was on my pathway to being on the management track in the veterinary field. After a few years in Internal Medicine in a leadership role, I had a unique opportunity to move back to Colorado, which was home for me at the time. There was a brand new veterinary clinic being built as part of the shelter in Colorado, and I thought that was such a unique opportunity to be part of something from the very beginning. At the time, I felt like it was the opposite end of the spectrum because I had only worked in specialty and emergency practices, and now going to a nonprofit shelter, I thought was such a great opportunity—and it certainly was.

I got that job in Colorado, and that was 14 years of my life in that role. I became the Director of Veterinary Services for a very large shelter organization, providing a huge scope of services to a community in need. Starting from just me and a couple part-time team members, we grew to a team of over 50 with multiple locations and a mobile clinic, as well as services for the community in addition to providing services for the shelter animals.

It’s work that is very near and dear to my heart. I certainly adopted some wonderful pets along the way. I learned a lot—it really shaped my perspective. I worked with incredible people and have stories that will stay in my heart forever. I really just became very connected again to the importance of the team at the core. That’s been consistent in all of my roles and in all of the different hospitals where I’ve worked.

That brought me to Partner, actually. It was the mission of Partner that really caught my eye because I had been in nonprofit and shelter medicine for a long time and had grown with an amazing team. We had some huge successes with what we were able to do for the community in providing access to care, and I saw the same thing coming from the vision of Partner—wanting to do things differently. One of their core values being Community Care really connected with me because it shouldn’t just be on the nonprofit shelter side where there’s a community focus. It should be coming from all aspects of veterinary medicine, and I loved that that was part of their vision and mission.

Most importantly, again, what really connected to me as a leader is the importance of taking care of the team and that team-first approach. When I met with Christine and Katie, our founders and owners, I immediately knew it was a great fit. Talking with them felt like I had known them my whole life, and we definitely shared the same vision and approach to taking care of the team and really doing things differently.

This field has a lot of burnout—it’s tough work, it’s emotional, and it’s hard sometimes. There are really rough days, and sometimes it feels like the rough days outweigh the positive days. But it’s important to have a team that can understand that and feel supported, and will bring you back the next day to do it again and make a difference.

So I moved across the country here to the East Coast. We’re loving it out here, and it’s hard to imagine it’s been almost a year now. What I’ve loved about this team is that with that mission and vision front and center, we’ve really pulled people that share those same goals and values. You can feel it in the atmosphere of the team. You can feel it even on the hard days—everyone’s talking to each other and supporting one another, reminding each other that this is what we’re here for, even when we have a tough day.

One of the things I really love is being able to connect with each and every individual team member and make sure they all know that they have a voice, they’re supported, and they’re a part of the team. Every single person plays a vital role in the hospital, regardless of where they’re working or what their position is. I think that’s why we’ve really been successful in these first opening months—we’ve grown together as a team, and every decision, every change that we’ve made along the way has been a result of feedback from the team. They feel like they are a part of that because they’re the ones doing the work every day.

Most importantly, that translates to the actual pet families that are coming to us. It’s so important that they feel that compassion and care because bringing your pet in, especially for an emergency visit, is really scary. It’s very emotional, there are a lot of unknowns, and to feel a team that is just so dedicated and full of compassion for the work we do is really what makes a difference.

Jen Mellace:

You’re the Hospital Steward in Frederick. What does that role entail?

Julie Crosby:

My role as Hospital Steward—which is known more externally as hospital administrator—is unique to Partner. The title, like many things at Partner, uses language more thoughtfully to really capture the intent of the role. Being a Hospital Steward is really all about service to the team and supporting them, which really resonated with my style of leadership.

As a Hospital Steward, I am the primary person leading the team. I’m the hospital and clinical team members’ point of contact for pet families if needed, really just overseeing emergency specialty, the clinical teams’ daily flow and operations, and being there for whatever they need. That really is my role in a nutshell.

Jen Mellace:

What made you choose Partner?

Julie Crosby:

Like I mentioned before, my 14 years in shelter medicine and nonprofit work really opened my eyes to how important access to care is. That looks different for every individual depending on their situation. The thing that I love about Partner is it’s all about “Can Help,” and that really clicked with me.

I know we’ve all heard stories where people felt like they didn’t have options, whether because of finances or because a hospital couldn’t keep their doors open due to staffing, and they were turned away. It’s heartbreaking to hear stories where people literally could not access care for their pet—what a horrible situation to be in. I loved the simple message of “We Can Help,” and that’s something we talk about often. Even if we can’t help within the walls of our hospital, we can always help connect people to resources and help them find a way to get help. There’s nothing that feels worse than feeling like you can’t do anything for your pet, who’s a member of the family.

Right away, that community focus—coming from a large specialty and emergency hospital that had this perspective about really putting the team first, making sure we could provide help regardless of what that looked like—it might look different in every situation. Really taking that approach of care and compassion at the forefront of everything made me excited to join the team. It’s been true from the very beginning and still is today—that is really at the foundation of what we’re all about, and it shows.

Jen Mellace:

What gives you the most joy in your day-to-day life at work?

Julie Crosby:

I love seeing the success stories. It’s so amazing to see an animal come in sick, ill, or hurt and watch them leave wagging their tail—or for cats, not necessarily wagging their tail, but healthy and whole—and seeing a pet family that’s just so relieved and thrilled to have their pet back and doing well. That’s what it’s all about.

But even beyond that, I love going around and checking in with the teams. I love seeing excitement from the team when they got to be a part of that. To me, that’s what takes it to a different level—it’s that connection and engagement to the work that really keeps people coming back every day and feeling fulfilled. That’s how it should be. We want this to be a long-term career for people, not just a job where they come in day in and day out. It really makes a difference when the team can feel and see the difference they are making, because they are absolutely making a difference every day.

Jen Mellace:

What impact do you want to leave on the veterinary profession?

Julie Crosby:

If I can help people see beyond some of the day-to-day stresses and make that connection to the bigger picture—that’s my goal. If we were to look at even one day, even if we saw 20 to 30 patients, and really isolate each individual patient and connect that patient to their family, we’d see what a difference we made for that one dog or cat and that one family. There’s such a big connection to every single patient we see in our hospital.

To me, it’s that bigger picture that keeps me going and keeps me fueled. It’s easy to get bogged down in sometimes feeling overwhelmed, busy, and stressed—that’s the nature of working in a busy hospital. But my goal is to help teams feel connected to the work they’re doing and really see the bigger picture so they can feel that engagement and fulfillment. They’re making a difference in so many people’s lives because we’re not just helping the animals, we’re helping the people as well.

Jen Mellace:

You had a moment of fame working at the rescue. Can you tell us about that?

Julie Crosby:

Absolutely! One of the unique parts of my story when I was at the shelter is that we had a reality TV show that followed us for several months—it felt like longer, really—highlighting the important work we were doing for those animals in the community. The show primarily followed the Veterinary Hospital team as well as our Animal Control and Animal Law Enforcement team, and many of the cases we would work on together. It was quite an experience doing my job with microphones and cameras all day long!

My favorite story of all is, of course, the dog that we adopted who was also featured on the show. Her name is Emma, and she’s still with us today. She’s amazing—we love her so much! Emma is a great example of the incredible resiliency of animals and what we can learn from them.

Emma was found on the side of the road, curled up against a restaurant. The owner of the restaurant was opening for the day, and when he arrived with his keys, he saw Emma against the side of the building. She was dying—it’s incredible that she survived. The Animal Control officer was called, rushed her to the hospital, and my team in Colorado jumped into action and saved her life.

She had multiple injuries: a skull fracture, hip fracture, significant internal damage, and was covered in lacerations. She was even missing teeth. From everything we could gather, based on how she was found on the side of the road, it was a hit-and-run. But she was a survivor. She had multiple surgeries and was in foster care for a while.

Working in the shelter for 14 years, I constantly had to have my “blinders up,” as I used to say—I would have adopted every animal if I could, but I had to really not get too attached. That was just the reality. But something about her really struck me. After her recovery in foster care, she came back and was out on the adoption floor with her little bandana. I can still picture her adoption photo because she has this huge scar on her forehead, and her eye is just a little off-center as a result. But I think she’s perfect and beautiful just as she is.

She was on the adoption floor for just one day and had no visitors. That broke my heart. Sadly, there are so many animals in shelters—too many animals and not enough adopters. That’s just the hard reality of the shelter world. We would do everything we could to promote these animals, but at the end of the day, we were just waiting for the right adopter to walk through the door. While it wasn’t uncommon for a dog to not have a visit in one day, this was Emma, and that wasn’t okay. The thought of her sitting in that kennel after all she’d been through, having been in a foster home and now back in the shelter—I couldn’t imagine what she was feeling. So, of course, she came home with me that night, and the rest is history.

She met my husband and kids, and we just clicked immediately. I have pictures of her on that first night at home—my kids were pretty young at the time, and they were just snuggling with her watching TV. She immediately knew she was home with us. She’s incredible, and she’s an example of how just one animal’s story can be so amazing and make such an impact on a family. It’s that big picture that really keeps me going, and she’s a great example of that.

[Music]

Narrator:

Thank you for listening to “Did You Know.” Is there something about Partner that you want to know? Email us at [email protected] who knows, we might turn your question into an entire episode! Make sure to follow us on social media to stay updated on upcoming episodes.