House Officer Highlight: Following in Her Mother’s Footsteps, 34 Years Later

Veterinary medicine had always been such an innate part of Dr. Emma Hendrix’s life that she initially hesitated to make it her career.

As a child, Hendrix was the youngest student in her mother’s ophthalmology lectures at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine. Hendrix and her older sister would accompany their mother, Dr. Diane Van Horn Hendrix, to work and quietly complete puzzles as Van Horn Hendrix taught DVM students the eye structures of different species.

On a few occasions, Hendrix and her sister, Anna Burroughs, would even tag along to the clinic for overnight emergency surgeries. The girls would zip up “bunny suit” coveralls over their pajamas, don surgical masks and bouffant caps and sit at a safe distance while their mom worked.

Yet Hendrix considered becoming a math teacher, an engineer or an actuary before acknowledging the pull she felt toward veterinary medicine and following in her mother’s footsteps.

Both Hendrix and Van Horn Hendrix earned their DVM degrees from the University of Tennessee. After graduating this spring, Hendrix began a one-year small animal rotating internship at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine, 34 years after her mother started in the same program.

As similar as the women’s paths have been, Hendrix has made the journey her own as she works toward a career in veterinary neurology.

“I didn’t want people to think that just because my mom was in the field, that was the only reason I got to where I was,” Hendrix says. “She made me work hard from a young age so I could earn that myself, but it’s definitely been helpful having her guidance.”

Her mother takes a more effusive perspective. Van Horn Hendrix says she feels honored that Hendrix’s chosen path mirrors her own.

“We’ve always been very close, and so it’s just really special to have that bond with Emma and then continue to have that as she progresses,” says Van Horn Hendrix, interim department head of the UTCVM’s Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences.

A Precocious Talent

Hendrix, from Maryville, Tennessee, learned from a young age that veterinary medicine was a fulfilling career but never felt pressured to pursue it herself. Her mom, however, says she recognized that Hendrix had that spark.

“We’d foster baby squirrels and rabbits, and Emma had no fear,” Van Horn Hendrix says. “She would always catch skinks at the beach. She has just always loved animals.”

Around late high school, Hendrix began shadowing veterinarians in different services of Tennessee’s College of Veterinary Medicine to see how she liked it. She began college at the University of Tennessee as a math major on the pre-veterinary track but soon switched her major to biological sciences and began working as an assistant at a local small animal practice.

Hendrix enrolled in the 3+1 Program, an accelerated bachelor’s curriculum that admits students to the university’s professional programs in their fourth year, and graduated in 2021.

“I didn’t walk at graduation because I had two huge vet school finals the next day,” Hendrix says.

The University of Tennessee’s veterinary school felt like home after she’d spent so much of her childhood there. Hendrix still took chocolate from her mom’s office but also started using the space as a quiet area to study for classes — including her mom’s ophthalmology course.

“She’s a really good teacher, so that was amazing to have her for class,” Hendrix says, adding that a different professor graded her assignments and exams. “At first, it was kind of awkward to hear my mom up there lecturing, but it was great.” 

Van Horn Hendrix says she was far more nervous about teaching her daughter’s peers: “Emma has to love me no matter what,” she jokes. “I just really wanted her friends to think, ‘Your mom’s so cool. She’s a good teacher.’”

Hendrix explored her internship options as she completed her DVM, knowing that, like her mother, she wanted to go into academia as a specialist primarily within small animal medicine.

“I definitely considered ophthalmology,” Hendrix says, “but I ultimately kept getting excited about all my neurology cases.”

A neurology resident mentor at the University of Tennessee, Dr. Kiley Johnson, had completed her internship at NC State and highly recommended the program.

“NC State definitely has a well-known internship program that prioritizes interns’ learning and development,” Hendrix says. “There’s also the aspect that my mom went here, but that was over 30 years ago. She told me, ‘Figure out how it is now.’”

Chatting with Dr. Sandra Tou, an NC State assistant clinical professor of cardiology, about the program sealed the deal. Hendrix was thrilled to match at NC State this spring and moved to Raleigh just weeks after her mom hooded her DVM class at graduation.

‘Bright and Motivated’

Like most veterinary specialty training programs, neurology residencies require applicants to complete a one-year rotating internship before entering into specialized training. At NC State, rotating interns spend varying blocks of time in different areas of the Veterinary Hospital, learning about core areas of care, like emergency and internal medicine and surgery, and completing elective rotations in clinics of their choice.

Hendrix has already completed her first neurology rotation, in addition to stints in internal and emergency medicine. She appreciates that NC State prioritizes giving interns clinical time in their specialty of interest before residency applications open in November.

“It’s only been three months, but I feel like I’ve already become more of a competent and thorough doctor,” Hendrix says.

After adjusting to full-time medical practice, Hendrix is enjoying mentoring fourth-year students and guiding them on their paths to becoming clinicians. She hopes to continue that work by enrolling in NC State’s neurology residency program next year.

“I know how much of an impact doctors who would teach me during cases made for me as a student,” she says. “I only hope that I can give that back to students and facilitate learning for them.”

Hendrix still receives plenty of guidance from faculty, including her program mentor Dr. Melissa Lewis. Lewis says it has been a pleasure to see Hendrix grow her skills and naturally integrate into the hospital and college community.

“She is bright and motivated with an easygoing style, which makes my job easy as her mentor,” says Lewis, an associate professor of neurology. “While she has a particular interest in neurology, Dr. Emma Hendrix is excelling as a well-rounded clinician and showing a particular aptitude for student teaching.”

Hendrix often calls her mom and sister, a pediatric resident in human medicine, to share her successes and challenges. It helps that her mom knows exactly what she’s going through, even if the cases sometimes look different — Van Horn Hendrix recalls performing a wellness exam on a pet lion at NC State, while Hendrix describes recently draining fluid off a dog’s heart.

“I can be there for her, support her and literally know where she’s walking when she calls me on her lunch break to check in because I was there,” Van Horn Hendrix says. “I think it just deepens our relationship to have this shared history.”

This article is part of a series featuring house officers across the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine and Veterinary Hospital. Click here to find previous House Officer Highlight stories.