DrJulie Levy

My work focuses on the health and welfare of animals in shelters, feline infectious diseases, and humane alternatives for cat population control. I joined the UF College of Veterinary Medicine in 1997 as a specialist in small animal internal medicine. A year later, I founded Operation Catnip, a community cat trap-neuter-return program that has spayed, neutered, and vaccinated more than 100,000 cats in Gainesville since 1998. In addition to providing a vital community service, the program serves as the largest surgery training opportunity for our veterinary students.

A decade later, I joined Dr. Cynda Crawford to launch the Shelter Medicine Program at the College of Veterinary Medicine. This educational and discovery initiative has a global impact on the care of homeless animals and is the academic home of the Fear Free Shelters program. Later, I teamed up with Dr. Kate Hurley for the Million Cat Challenge, a shelter-based campaign that saved more than 5 million cats in shelters across North America. Our current project, Maddie’s Million Pet Challenge, aims to create transformative “communities of practice” that deliver access to care through humane community-centric programming—inside and outside of the shelter—to achieve the right outcome for every pet.