Heather Kennedy, DVM

Director of Feline Operations, KC Pet Project

Dr. Kennedy is currently serving as the Director of Feline Operations at Kansas City Pet Project in Kansas City, Missouri. Her role at KC Pet Project encompasses all aspects of feline operations including animal care, health and enrichment, behavior, and feline fostering. Her career helping cats started as an experienced cat trapper, colony caregiver, and foster caregiver before attending U.C. Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, where her singular commitment to cats earned her numerous scholarships, as well as the AAFP Outstanding Scholar Award. In 2017, after 4 years in feline-only private practice, Dr. Kennedy decided to focus on the welfare of shelter cats by working first at FieldHaven Feline Center in Lincoln, California, and now in the newly created role of Director of Feline Operations at KC Pet Project. Dr. Kennedy’s is recognized as an expert on the humane care of feral cats and is currently sits on the AAFP Committee on free-roaming cats and speaks at national conferences on the work that she is doing in sheltering. She was mentored by Dr. Niels Pedersen, a nationally-recognized expert on Feline Infectious Peritonitis, and she often provides consults to other veterinarians on the diagnosis of the disease. She managed the Alley Cat Allies emergent shelter after Hurricane Katrina and was instrumental in helping Santa Barbara County become no-kill through TNR (Trap Neuter Return) and RTF (Return To Field). She started and managed a feral cat clinic in Yolo County where she mentored students on TNR and the humane care of feral cats.She graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Philosophy from Wellesley College, she has an M.B.A. from Mississippi State University, and is proud to have served as a Supply Corps officer in the United States Navy (Reserve Component).