Our VP of People, Laura Alarcon, has been a pet lover since birth. She fondly remembers all of the adventures (and trouble) she and her childhood German Shorthair Pointer, Chewy, got into together. Her bond with Chewy led to her being an avid dog lover and snuggler. Her love for dogs is abundantly clear when she gravitates towards any dog in the room or on the street. She promises she is working on being better at acknowledging the human with the dog prior to getting down on the ground with her new doggie friend. Her love for dogs continued throughout her pursuit of a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts in Photography where she photographed and exhibited images of local shelter pets to bring awareness to all the amazing pets that could be adopted. While in college she adopted a toy poodle named, Roxanna (Roxy for short). Little did Laura know in 2007, after Roxy had a Femoral Head Ostectomy (FHO), a bad car accident that luckily both Roxy and Laura survived, and a boss that caused Laura to swear to herself that she would never treat any person the way they did to her, Laura left retail management and got a job at Roxy’s veterinarian’s office as a veterinary assistant all in the same day. It’s a long, whirlwind of a story, and Laura truly believes all these events happened to help her find her way to an industry that she is truly passionate about and strives to make a difference in for all pets and humans involved.

Laura Alarcon comes to us with over fifteen years of veterinary and HR leadership experience. During her time as a Practice Manager in corporate medicine, she discovered her true passion for developing individuals which ultimately led her to specializing in Human Resources. In 2015, Laura stepped out of the veterinary hospitals she managed in South Florida and started working with a startup veterinary management services company based out of Portland, Oregon. During her time there she helped build and lead the HR & Training department, created training content for their Learning Management System that she also helped build, and worked alongside private practice leaders across the nation on how to solve their various HR implementation gaps. Laura is passionate about finding resources and solutions for burnout, compassion fatigue, and employee retention within our industry which is why she most recently expanded upon her Human Resource Management certification and became a certified Workplace Mental Health Ally.

Currently Laura resides in the Bothell, WA area with her husband, Eddie, and their two daughters. When her toddler fraternal twin daughters finally go to bed, Laura enjoys a good Netflix binge but can also be found in her kitchen baking a dessert of some sort to satisfy her never-ending sweet tooth. Laura brings to our growing family of four-legged team members, two toy Poodles, Gin & Tonic, as well as her hairless cat, Peach.