Dr. Ken Schoolmeester
As he grew up, Ken’s mom would tell him time and again that he should be a veterinarian. As usual, Ken ignored his mom’s good advice. Then one day, while mindlessly stocking shelves in a drugstore for his summer job, a dog nosed up to Ken and planted a wet one on his cheek. Surprised at seeing a dog in the store, Ken jumped up to follow the dog around the end of the aisle. When he got there, the dog had vanished. No one else had laid eyes on a dog in the store, and they silently wondered whether Ken had eaten the fruit from the party juice the night before. However, the incident crystallized his mother’s advice in his mind and led him to finalize his veterinary science major at Ohio State.
Even though Dr. Schoolmeester will always be an Ohio State Buckeye fan at heart, he left Ohio for greener pastures in Greensboro, where he worked at a practice for a year and a half. Knowing that he wanted to be on his own, he started his private veterinary practice. Dr. Schoolmeester practiced for 23 years in Greensboro before coming to Charlotte where today he successfully, gratefully, and happily owns the two locations of Mixed Pet in Stonecrest & Ballantyne.
He and his wife, Holly have two playful cats at home - Marmalade and Sterling as well as the "lioness" Tweed whom many of you have seen at the Stonecrest location. Rumor has it that Dr. Schoolmeester is an exceptional cook and a cork dork; we wonder if that's an urban legend since we're still waiting on our invitation to dinner...
Dr. Lauren Hessey
She like many passionate veterinarians knew she wanted to be a pet doctor at a young age, but wasn't sure how she was going to pass organic chemistry at the all-knowing age of four. Her career also started young as she volunteered at a vet clinic by the age of thirteen and then worked as a veterinary assistant/technician through high school and on into college. Her volunteering didn’t stop there as she donated her time and skills to animal shelters as well as for Heroes on Horseback, a non-profit therapeutic riding program for special needs kids. For spending money she also waited tables at Italian restaurants – but don’t ask her to make spaghetti!
She attended the University of South Carolina where she graduated with honors with a BS in Biology. That is where she fell in love with college/SEC football!! She was accepted into Auburn University, yet it was very hard for her to wear orange and cheer for tigers, but she had a strong alliance to SEC football so she coped.
A resident of Charlotte since the summer of 2010, she resides with three fur-babies. Angus a big goofy black lab, Brice a tuxedo kitty, and Chester an orange tabby. She loves everything about the outdoors and enjoys baking cupcakes on her free time. Maybe we’ll all be lucky enough to taste one someday…
Dr. Josh Humphrey
Yearning for interaction with something other than binary numbers and error messages, he volunteers at an animal shelter where this “user-friendly” industry quickly becomes his “default directory”. He pursues his veterinary studies at NCSU and then follows up with a small animal internship at the University of Minnesota. He finishes with a fellowship back at NCSU in spinal cord injury.
Until now, his veterinary career has consisted of complexity, uniqueness, diversity, multi-tasking, anxiety, and little-to-no sleep as a nighttime ER doctor. Luckily, this has also prepared him for fatherhood. Happily, he is at Mixed Pet Veterinary Hospital –Ballantyne living normal hours and enjoying the sunshine instead of bedtime. This time shift has also given him more treasured moments with his wife Liana, their 5.5-year-old son Nate (the .5 is very important) and beautiful, little Elias who is 18 months. The family adores the aloof companionship of both Indigo and Fatboy, two cats who rule the roost even though they don’t contribute to the mortgage. Unbeknownst to his mother, it’s probably a given that Nate will add a frog or an anole to the household pet collection.
Currently, Dr. Humphrey is coaching Nate's soccer team, playing golf and home brewing beer. The assumption is that the beer eases the high golf score. We’ve given him daylight, what more can we do for him? Stop by the Ballantyne location and ask how the brewing, golf, soccer team is doing or if that frog has shown up yet in Nate’s hamper.
