8 Jul 2020
Mandisa Greene will become the RCVS’ first black president at the college’s annual meeting on 10 July.
James Westgate
Job Title
RCVS president Mandisa Greene.
The new president of the RCVS has promised to do everything she can to encourage more diversity in the veterinary profession.
Mandisa Greene will become the RCVS’ first black president on 10 July and part of her agenda is to become someone “to see and to be” for young people of all racial backgrounds.
The veterinary profession is one of the least ethnically diverse of all and Dr Greene is happy to be seen as a highly visible role model in the push for increased diversity.
Dr Greene (pictured) works as a locum, and has worked for many years in small animal and emergency practice, as well as lectured undergraduate and postgraduate students at Harper Adams University.
Elected to council in 2014, she chairs the practice standards group, which coordinates the RCVS Practice Standards Scheme, and is a member of the primary qualifications subcommittee and the legislation working party.
She is also a member of the college’s diversity working group.
She said: ”First of all, I would like to say I am absolutely honoured and delighted to have been elected and selected by my peers for this job.
“I think being the first of anything, there is always a bit of excitement and a little bit of trepidation. The first woman president of the RCVS must have felt a lot like I do now – it is a huge honour and you know it is something that is different for the organisation.”
Dr Greene continued: “What I would like to do is to be what I had when I was growing up. As a child in Trinidad, there were black vets and medics all around me.
“I grew up in a multi-ethnic society, which meant I could see these role models and, as a result of that, I could see no barriers to me following the same career path in my life.
“There seemed no barrier to me being a vet as I saw people who looked like me who did it – people need to be able to see it to be it.”
Dr Greene said she hopes to use her platform to underline the importance of the role of the general practitioner in veterinary medicine.
She added: “We want to encourage new graduates out of vet school to consider a career as a GP, as opposed to it being a means to something else. We also want to highlight the range of careers you can have with a veterinary degree.
“It is important we have a crop of home-grown vets coming through as we have relied quite heavily on EU vets, so it is important we have a space for everyone to be able to exist and work.
“It is going to be a lot of work, but I am looking forward to it – it is a great honour.”
