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Dr Elizabeth Thrift is dedicated to driving real change in Australia’s veterinary industry. She says more supportive specialisation pathways, compassionate leadership, and embracing a collaborative, transdisciplinary framework are needed to keep driving the profession forward. By Shane Conroy
When Dr Elizabeth Thrift was in her late 20s, her GP asked if she’d thought about freezing her eggs. Dr Thrift was deep into the long, gruelling years of an internship and residency training to become an internal medicine specialist and wasn’t thinking about starting a family. But that conversation with her GP made it suddenly clear to her that the traditional pathway to specialisation wasn’t built for women who wanted a family as well.
That’s why, today, as president of the Small Animal Medicine Chapter of the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists (ANZCVS), and head of Internal Medicine and director of Clinical Improvement and Innovation at The Pet Specialists, she’s so passionate about championing more supportive specialisation pathways for women and better systems for veterinary teams.
“We can’t pretend it’s easy,” she says. “But we can be honest about what it takes, and build systems that don’t ask people to sacrifice everything to do the work we love.”
Finding a place to thrive
As a child, Dr Thrift found comfort in the quiet companionship of animals. When family life got complicated, her golden retriever and the family cat became confidants—a safe place to talk through feelings she couldn’t yet voice elsewhere.
That early bond meant she set her sights firmly on veterinary practice. But when Dr Thrift landed her first job at a Double Bay vet clinic straight out of the University of Sydney, she discovered surgery wasn’t for her. “Surgery is so much about acting in the moment, but my brain’s wired for puzzles, not snap decisions,” she says.
She worried this meant she wasn’t cut out for practice. But a perceptive mentor, feline specialist Dr Richard Malik, pointed out that her deep-thinking approach was ideally suited to specialisation in internal medicine.
“That moment changed everything,” she recalls. “It gave me permission to specialise—to own what I was good at instead of forcing myself to be a surgeon.”
Dr Thrift thrived in the next stages of her career: an internship at SASH, then a residency that cemented her love of internal medicine. But the path to specialisation was demanding, and for Dr Thrift, that meant postponing starting a family.
“Specialisation is competitive, and you end up putting your life on hold,” she says. “Years later, I had my son at 39, but it took IVF to get there. If I’d known in my 20s what I know now, I don’t think I’d have made different choices, but I would have been kinder to myself.”
This personal experience drives Dr Thrift’s current-day advocacy for more practical support to help women specialise without sacrificing everything else.
There’s this idea that compassion and commercial success are opposites. They’re not. If you care for your people, your people will care for your patients—and the business benefits.
Dr Elizabeth Thrift
“We need to build pathways that don’t punish women for wanting families too,” she explains. “We need residency programs to be more flexible so women can have babies during training if they choose. We need supportive employers who understand that life and career shouldn’t be at odds. And we need more women in leadership making these decisions so the system works for the next generation.”
Learning to lead
Dr Thrift’s day job at The Pet Specialists on Sydney’s Northern Beaches is complex. In addition to clinical practice, she’s involved in rethinking the systems and culture that shape daily operations. That includes practical, evidence-based improvements like infection control protocols, antibiotic stewardship, and formal mental health policies to support staff wellbeing.
This work started while Dr Thrift was deep in her fellowship exams. “I kept finding these big ideas—things we should be doing better,” she says.
But she discovered that driving improvement takes more than good intentions.
“I thought if I just explained the benefits, everyone would get on board. But it didn’t work that way. I had to learn to make the business case for why these changes mattered, not just ethically but practically,” she explains. “You’re not a leader if no-one’s following you.”
So Dr Thrift went on to complete a formal change management training program and studied at the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD) to complement her clinical skills with the practical tools she needed to lead with structure, intention, and real impact.
Now, Dr Thrift brings that approach to every improvement project. She says effective leadership is about balancing clinical evidence with the human reality of change, and understanding that good culture and good business go hand in hand.
“People need to feel safe and supported before they can change the way they work. And leadership needs to show how it makes sense for the business too,” she says. “There’s this idea that compassion and commercial success are opposites. They’re not. If you care for your people, your people will care for your patients—and the business benefits.”
Driving real change
Yet Dr Thrift knows that the behind-the-scenes work that drives this kind of systems improvement and cultural change is often overlooked.
“So much of the glue that keeps a veterinary team strong is invisible,” she says. “The mentoring, the committee work, the extra time spent listening. It’s not always recognised the way surgical numbers or billables are.”
But she says being named GOVA Woman Veterinarian of the Year 2025 felt like a nod to that hidden labour.
“It shines a light on the idea that leading with compassion and driving real change aren’t opposites. They’re what keeps this profession moving forward.”
Today, Dr Thrift’s impact stretches far beyond her exam rooms. As president of the Small Animal Medicine Chapter of ANZCVS, she is helping guide a new generation through the specialisation journey she knows so well.
She also hopes more vets will see their work in a broader context. She champions the One Health approach that proposes a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary framework that recognises animal health, human health, and the environment are deeply connected.
“We can’t just work in silos,” she explains. “If we want to make things better for our patients, our people and our planet, we have to see how it all fits together.”
This means understanding how issues like population growth and habitat loss affect animal behaviour and disease risk.
“If we’re all living on top of each other, infections spread more easily. If we encroach on native habitats, we change how wildlife interacts with us,” she explains. “And it’s not just about disease. Pets play a huge role in human mental health too. I’ve lived that myself. Talking to my pets was how I made sense of things as a kid.”
But putting One Health into practice requires a clear network of real-world pathways.
“We need better connections between vets, human health professionals, and environmental groups, and ways for everyday vets to contribute without burning out,” Dr Thrift says. “It can’t just be talk. We need to see more education in clinics and more industry leadership to make those links real.
“We all have a part to play, but we shouldn’t feel we have to save the world alone,” she concludes. “When we connect the dots properly, that’s when real change happens.”
