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Meet the Executive Board
Kelly Ferguson, AAS, CVT
President
Kelly is a Certified Veterinary Technician in Casper, WY. She is a fear-free certified veterinary professional with a passion for anesthesia and emergency critical care. She is also part of our legislative committee, putting forth her best efforts to pass legislation that would provide title protection for veterinary technicians in Wyoming.
She spends most of her time in the great outdoors with her dogs, Dottie and Maximus. They love to go hiking, snowshoeing, backpacking, and camping together.
Kelly also enjoys photography. She owns and operates Wag the Dog Photography, LLC. She specializes in pet photography, portraits, and adventure photography.
Taeha Collins, CVT
Past President
Taeha has been a member since 2005 and has served as Member at Large and 3 years as President.
She has been at The Stock Doc in Riverton Wyoming for the last 11 years,currently the Lead Technician and HR director.She is passionate about animal care, family, outdoors and art. Taeha runs a ranch on her own on the Wind River Reservation in central Wyoming. She has 48 cows, 2 horses, 7 dogs(rescues 2 indoor cats, 5 barn cats and 7 chickens.
As Past President in 2026, she looks forward to Title Protection in Wyoming and new members to the WyVTA.
Tom Page, AAS, CVT
Member At Large
Tom has been a Certified Veterinary Technician for 30 years, and has been involved with the Wyoming Veterinary Technician Association for many of them. He has most recently served as the association's Vice President, and continues to lend a hand as often as possible to help with our annual continuing education conference. He has also been quite involved in our legislative committee to help draft and introduce legislation that would award CVT's with title protection in Wyoming.
Tom has a particular passion for veterinary dentistry. He also enjoys hunting, the great outdoors, and long-distance running.
Nanette Walker-Smith, MEd, FVTE, RVT, CVT, LVT
Founding Member, Administrator
Nanette is a native Coloradoan, loves nature, animals, and the outdoors. Her early career started at the University of California Davis studying Zoology; how animals live together, communicate, their habitats, and activities. Veterinary anatomy made an impact early and she was encouraged to mentor her peers. Following her Bachelor's degree in Zoology in 1986, she quickly progressed to becoming a Registered Veterinary Technician (RVT) in 1988, followed by a degree in Architecture-Environmental Design in 1991, and a Master of Education in 2006. Her first job as an RVT, was at a growing general, 24/7 emergency, specialty surgery, and internal medicine practice in Sacramento, CA. Over the next 12 years, Nanette gained the experience of all aspects of the growing practice and incorporating techniques to work in a privately owned, small animal & exotic practice. Patients exhibited all levels of stress from basic care and pet parent separation to serious wounds requiring significant patient involvement. Because the standard of the practice included rounds with the all the veterinarians and their head RVTs morning and evening, the patients received input regarding more than just their medical condition, but their comfort level and insight into their behavior based on the amount of fear, anxiety, and stress they were experiencing due to hospitalization, pain, being away from home, etc. As her first practice standard, the methodology made a significant impression on patient care. Every team member's input is critical for care; even some small symptom can become a larger issue, but its harmful effect can be limited if communicated early. Mentoring her coworkers and others increased as Nanette and her veterinarians added continual education seminars to in-house staff and veterinary conferences on proper wound care and bandaging among other topics. Other veterinary practices, teaching positions, and conservation/habitat work followed, allowing Nanette to include experience such as team building, patient health and wellness, education, and more to the repertoire. In addition, management of practical veterinary medicine has morphed several times in the past 3 decades not always considerate of those most important to a successful private practice. From the push to have veterinarians rush through the 'quick' 15-minute exam to see more clients to make more money to the young veterinarians shying away from standard and large animal practice to work 3 12-hour emergency shifts so they have a life/work balance, to large corporations buying up several small clinics or single vet practices in order to make veterinary medicine pay for itself, the main focus of patient care and animal advocacy has often been skirted. The launch of Fear Free(TM) in 2016 rejuvenated the importance of animal care and welfare. In early 2018, Nanette completed her first of several levels of certification as a Fear Free Professional. In 2021 she attained ELITE Status and has been a member of the Practice Certification Consultant team for Fear Free since December 2021 helping certify veterinary practices and coaching practices and individuals on the finer points of Fear Free. Paying attention to a patient's Fear, Anxiety, and Stress, (FAS) has allowed veterinary teams, trainers, shelters, and animal parents bring Fear Free(TM) full circle to advocacy for the patient/animal and all of those involved with it. Nanette is distinctly interested in providing safe and habitable areas for all creatures whether it is a short or long term stay. Just because it looks pretty doesn't mean it works well or decreases FAS! Clients and veterinary teams are realizing how important this is for a pets' (large, small, exotic) health and healing as well as it's livelihood. Being a Practice Consultant, Coach, and an Elite Fear Free Professional has added another exciting role in Nanette's ever growing credentialed veterinary technician career. She continues to stay active in the veterinary technician association she helped start in Wyoming where there was no representation in 1998-99 and also continues to use her Master's in Education as an active substitute teacher in her local public school system at the middle and high school level. The Association of Veterinary Technician Educator's bestowed the rank of Fellow on Nanette in 2025 for her contributions and continued activity in education, veterinary medicine, and community.