Meet Our Speakers

Susan Swendsen Harris, MSSW, SCSW, VSW, originally attended school to enhance human-animal re-lationships, focusing on the animal. She attended workshops through Cornell University and APDT while running her own full-service animal care business. After 21 years, she shifted attention to the other end of the leash, attending the University of Louisville to earn her Master of Science in Social Work, receiving high honor for her work in creating trauma-informed community initiatives, and the Jeannette Comer Noell Award for Outstanding Advocacy. She completed her LCSW while pursuing her Veterinary Social Work certification through University of Tennessee. She serves on the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s Trauma-Informed Care Steering Committee and is trained in implementation of trauma-informed care practices in service delivery settings. She joined the BluePearl Team as an intern in the Louisville location and transitioned to a role as Regional Social Worker. She has had the opportunity to develop and deliver trainings on many veterinary-related Health & Well-Being topics, including but not limited to Compassion Fatigue, Psychological Safety, Boundaries, Trauma-Informed Care in Veterinary Care Settings, and Client De-escalation for BluePearl’s Con-ference Trax, Royal Canin, IVECCS, VMX, and Dr. Andy Roark’s Uncharted conference. She is also a certified Mental Health First Aid instructor. Through her work as a Regional Social Worker with BluePearl Veterinary Partners and Open Harmony, LLC, she is passionate about enhancing relationships for both the animals and the people who give their all to care for them. Susan can be best reached by emailing her at: openharmo-nyllc@gmail.com