Q&A With Chelsie Estey, MSc, DVM, DACVIM (Neurology)

The 2025 Hill’s Global Symposium is now underway! To begin dvm360’s coverage of the event, our team sat down with Chelsie Estey, MSc, DVM, DACVIM (Neurology), US chief veterinary officer of Hill’s Pet Nutrition, to learn more about her journey to taking on this new position, from pursuing fish medicine to then neurology, as well as advice she has for anyone interested in transitioning from a clinical to a business setting.

Chelsie Estey, MSc, DVM, DACVIM (Neurology): I'm the chief veterinary officer [CVO] at Hill's Pet Nutrition US. I'm a veterinary neurologist by training. I spent time in private practice in both New York and in Colorado before ultimately making the transition to industry, where I was in the animal health pharmaceutical industry for about 5 years before joining Hill's as the CVO about 6.5 months ago.

dvm360 staff: You stepped into the role as Hill's US [CVO] earlier this year. What has your journey been like to get to this point in your career?

Estey: If I looked back and I thought 10 years ago I would be the US [CVO] at Hill's Pet Nutrition, I most certainly would have probably said, 'No, I couldn't conceive of that being in my career path.' And I think that's one of the most exciting things about veterinary medicine: You never know where it's going to take you.

When I went to [veterinary] school, I planned to be an aquaculture veterinarian. I had worked with fish in graduate school, and that was my plan. Ultimately, I fell in love with neurology because I really liked both the medical and surgical aspects of that. Then after being in practice in a couple different states in the US, I decided to transition to industry when I joined a large animal health manufacturer.

Similarly, I would never have guessed that was going to be the path that I was going to take. But I think being open to those opportunities and thinking about different ways to use the skill set that veterinarians have...there are so many doors that can open. So [although] I would say it's been an interesting route, and probably not the one I would have thought I was going to take on the first day I entered veterinary school, it's been a really exciting and rewarding one. I love the role that I'm in now, and I'm so thankful for that journey.

dvm360 staff: What inspired you to get into fish medicine?

Estey: I was doing fish toxicology in graduate school. I am from Canada, so I did undergrad, grad school, and veterinary school in Canada. I really enjoyed working with fish at that time. And one summer during veterinary school, I spent a bit of time working on the Atlantic salmon sea cages, and I enjoyed that experience a lot, but I realized that probably wasn't for me long term. Later in my fourth year, I found neurology and really became passionate about that, so [I] ultimately decided to go in that direction.

dvm360 staff: Do you have advice for somebody [who] is interested in maybe transitioning out of clinical and moving into more of a business veterinary setting?

Estey: Leadership opportunities typically exist within the medical director space or hospital administrator space. But then outside of the clinic, there are lots of areas of interest, potentially within industry.

One of the common paths for veterinarians will be to start in a field-based role, depending on the company. It may be a professional services veterinarian or professional consulting veterinarian, but those are often roles where veterinarians will join industry, start in a field-based position, and then from there, so many doors open up, whether it's in nutrition or pharmaceuticals. I think that being willing to try new things and use your skill set in different ways will allow you to move into some of those nontraditional roles within the industry.