Welcome Back, Dr. Nicole Freeman, V02

“It feels a little like coming home. Everyone is very welcoming, and it’s exciting to be in a thriving academic community,” says Dr. Nicole Freeman (she/her), V02, on returning to her alma mater as an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. In July, Dr. Freeman started treating patients and training veterinary students, interns, and high school students at Tufts at Tech Community Veterinary Clinic.

“I’m happy to be in an environment where I can put the real-world experience I’ve had to use benefiting students—to be part of the process of teaching students to feel less like a student and more like a doctor, giving them the tools to help make that change.”

Dr. Freeman took a circuitous path to becoming a veterinarian herself. From a young age, her passions were reading and science. In her hometown of Richmond, Virginia, she often visited the science museum and especially liked holding the snakes and tarantulas there. Her mother insists her career path was set in elementary school when she interviewed a local veterinarian for career day, but Dr. Freeman claims her calling came after college. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan, while also completing all pre-medical science requirements.

After graduation, she volunteered as an intern at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Sarasota, Florida, where she began to take note of her growing interest in animal science. When she moved to Milwaukee the following year, she walked into the Animal Emergency Center and asked if they would take her on as a volunteer. They hired her on the spot. She worked there for the next year and a half as an on-the-job trained technician before landing at Cummings School.

“I had such a roundabout history, but Tufts likes non-traditional students,” recalls Dr. Freeman. “I thought I would do wildlife medicine and maybe work with marine animals. As I got through the vet school curriculum, I fell in love with small animal medicine.”

After earning her D.V.M. in 2002 from Cummings School, Dr. Freeman gained practical experience in medicine and surgery while interning at the VCA South Shore Animal Hospital in Weymouth, Massachusetts. The following year, she jumped right into general practice at a local privately-owned small animal hospital.

“I was keen to be in general practice, happy to do different kinds of surgery, medicine, dentistry—I was happy doing it all,” she says.

Her initial tug back to Cummings School came in 2019, when Kate Zukowski, a certified veterinary technician and veterinary technician specialist (dentistry) in the Department of Clinical Sciences, reached out to see if she would volunteer in a new dental lab being offered to students. Dr. Freeman agreed to help teach the week-long lab, a mix of didactic curriculum and wet labs with cat and dog cadavers. She returned to teach at all the subsequent dental labs that now happen annually and have become part of Cummings School’s D.V.M. curriculum.

“There’s not always enough education coming out of veterinary school for dentistry. Cummings School created the dental lab to provide better support for students to practice dentistry hands-on,” she explains. “For me, it was a good slow burn, sparking an interest in teaching.”

Dr. Freeman augmented her general practice work by studying traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture, earning her certification in Veterinary Acupuncture from the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society. She went on to practice both conventional and integrative medicine.

“Taking care of older pets became a passion of mine within general practice, trying to offer alternatives for pain relief and mobility support for an aging population of pets. It’s a good tool to be able to offer.”

After more than 20 years in private practice, Dr. Freeman felt ready to pass along the knowledge and experience she gained to the incoming generation of future veterinarians.

“Recognizing that my time in providing primary care had come to an end, I wanted to focus on teaching and giving back to the veterinary community,” says Dr. Freeman. “It’s impossible to turn down the opportunity to get involved in community medicine. It’s nice to give back to students who are learning to be veterinarians and the community that needs better access to care, and Tufts at Tech is a great place to do that.”

In addition to serving the surrounding community with affordable veterinary care, Tufts at Tech, in Worcester, Massachusetts, also provides a training ground for veterinary students at Cummings School and Worcester Technical High School, who work alongside Cummings School faculty and veterinary technicians.

“My role is primarily to teach students to develop the critical reasoning skills required to transition from student to practitioner,” says Dr. Freeman. “Mentoring has been an enjoyable, natural transition for me, both providing education about general practice to students and becoming part of a really great and motivated team.”

Since she started working at Tufts at Tech this past July, Dr. Freeman’s days run the gamut of veterinary medicine—from wellness care to surgeries to administering vaccines—and she’s found that her days never look the same twice. She’s impressed by the community’s commitment to their pets and finds that the special bond between owners and their pets is a very rewarding part of the job.

Outside of her work, Dr. Freeman spends her time with her husband and two teenagers and enjoys being outside, biking, gardening, and hiking. “I am a typical busy mom with a lot of sports in the background. I spend most of my downtime herding teenagers.”

Just two months in, Dr. Freeman is acclimating quickly to her new role as a mentor to veterinary students.

“Tufts at Tech is an environment where everyone is excited about learning. I get a lot of one-on-one time with veterinary students, helping them bridge the process from following guidelines to making clinical decisions on their own. Tufts at Tech is mission-driven to teach students and provide access to care for the surrounding community. It’s a united team to serve those missions. It’s very fun. I’m happy to be here.”