Veterinary Teaching Hospital Expansion and Renovation

Bill Tyrrell

Class of 1992

Bill Tyrrell has given decades of volunteer leadership to the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine — as Alumni Society president, dean's advisory council chair, and recipient of the college's Lifetime Achievement Alumni Award. Now he and his wife, Jennifer, are adding a milestone financial commitment: a $1 million gift to the planned Veterinary Teaching Hospital renovation and expansion, which will carry their name on the hospital's cardiology service.

The gift reflects Tyrrell's belief that the facility — largely unchanged since he graduated 33 years ago — is overdue for transformation. "Bricks and mortar aren't fancy," he said, "but it is nice to have something that you know is going to be there."

Tyrrell, co-founder and co-chief medical officer at CVCA: Cardiac Care for Pets in Leesburg, Virginia, sees the expansion as touching far beyond the college itself — helping treat and cure pets who are, as he puts it, members of our families.

Courtney Conroy

Class of 2013

Courtney Conroy grew up in Chesapeake, Virginia, earned her bachelor's degree in Animal and Poultry Sciences from Virginia Tech in 2013, and her veterinary degree from Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine in 2017. She is an associate veterinarian at Clevengers Corner Veterinary Care in Amissville, Virginia — one of five college alumni at the practice. Her professional interests include minimally invasive procedures, education, and nutrition. She serves as immediate past-president of the college's Alumni Board of Directors and as secretary-treasurer of the Virginia Veterinary Medical Association, where she co-chairs the Power of 10 program for emerging veterinarians.

"The vet school is a gem — there just aren't many in the country," Conroy said. "When the hospital is built, it will mean a better-equipped and more efficient space for my patients, and it will enable the college to produce graduates who are even better prepared for the future of this profession."

Nina Prill

Class of 1991

Nina Prill DVM '91 still remembers the professor who told her, early in veterinary school, that family comes first. Thirty-five years later, she traces her entire philosophy of practice back to that moment.

A small animal veterinarian for nearly four decades, she launched a mobile rehabilitation practice serving the greater Washington, D.C., area in her 50s — and describes her work simply: quality of life for her patients, their families, and herself. Certified in Rehabilitation Medicine from the University of Tennessee, she has returned to Virginia Tech to teach, giving back to the institution that first shaped how she thinks about medicine.

"Whether it's a medical case, orthopedic, neurologic, or geriatric — care doesn't stop with the diagnosis or the treatment," Prill said. "It carries through with support of the patient and their family."

For Prill, the teaching hospital is where that kind of doctor gets made. "I'm hoping the expansion gives people a reason to come to Blacksburg."