While you won’t find her in a typical clinic setting, the work that veterinarian Jessi Coryell does every day has an impact not only on the health of the animals she cares for but also helps create a brighter future for people who rely on medical devices.

For the past four years, Coryell, ’21 DVM, ’24 MPH, has worked at Medtronic in its preclinical medical device research division, which tests the performance and safety of devices before their use in humans, often using animal models. 

As an attending veterinarian for its animal care program, she oversees the laboratory animals—primarily pigs and sheep— and ensures compliance with federal and other regulatory standards governing their care. 

“It's a big responsibility, but one that I'm super proud of as a veterinarian,” she says. “It’s an honor to be able to give these animals the best life that we can while they're serving such a tremendous purpose.”

While a lifelong love of animals helped fuel Coryell’s pursuit of a veterinary degree, an undergraduate job caring for animals in a University of Minnesota laboratory planted the seed for a career that bridges human and animal medicine.

To prepare for this career path, Coryell pursued both a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) and a Master of Public Health (MPH) from the University of Minnesota, made possible through a dual-degree program facilitated by the School of Public Health. The program is designed for DVM students to complete an MPH within the same four years they earn their veterinary degree. 

Coryell joined the program during her second year at the College of Veterinary Medicine. She credits a course taught by Joni Scheftel, a College of Veterinary Medicine alum and former state public health veterinarian for Minnesota, for bolstering her interest in the public health field. 

“She was a huge asset to me and understanding the impact veterinarians can have when it comes to serving not only the veterinary population but also the broader human population through the One Health approach,” Coryell says. 

One Health refers to the concept that the health of people, animals, and the environment is interconnected and is part of public health’s approach to tackling systemic issues such as food safety, zoonotic diseases, and ecosystem damage. 

The combination of training in both veterinary medicine and public health equipped Coryell with a deep understanding of biosecurity, biosafety, and animal welfare, and with a set of skills that she says allows her to solve problems in situations where there may not be an established path forward outlined in previous research publications.

“Having a public health degree in the context of the work that I do has strengthened my ability to pivot in situations and, more importantly, do things like design and evaluate preclinical programs,” she says. “That's important for minimizing risk, that's important for improving the research that you're doing, and ultimately, it's supporting safer medical devices that are reaching human patients.”

Through her work, Coryell has had the opportunity to travel abroad and support international veterinary teams working on projects within Medtronic. This opportunity to collaborate with these teams and make recommendations on biosecurity and animal welfare is part of a career made possible by the University’s DVM/MPH program.

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