Our Board Of Directors

Eleanor M. Green, DVM, DACVIM, DABVP
Senior Advisor and Consultant, Animal Policy Group
Professor Emerita & Dean Emerita, College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University

Dr. Eleanor Green, has been actively involved with horses, the horse industry, and equine veterinary medicine for a lifetime. She has owned and shown horses, primarily Quarter Horses, since her youth.
Dr. Green has delivered lectures across the nation and internationally on subjects related to her clinical and research interests, as well equine welfare issues. She has given keynote addresses on welfare of performance horses to Grayson Jockey Club Research Foundation and to the city of Siena in Italy pertaining to its historic horse race, the Palio. She has also given equine welfare lectures at the national conventions of the American Quarter Horse Association and the National Cutting Horse Association. Her invited lectures include other topics, such as leadership, innovation, the future of and innovations in veterinary medicine, and diversity and inclusion in our world.
Dr. Green has found many avenues for service, both in her profession and in her community. She has served as president of 4 national organizations and was the first woman president of 3 of them:

• American Association of Equine Practitioners
• American Board of Veterinary Practitioners
• American Association of Veterinary Clinicians
• Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges
• She has contributed actively to numerous veterinary and animal industry organizations, including Boards of Directors of:
     o Lead Changes
     o American Association of Equine Practitioners
     o American Board of Veterinary Practitioners
     o American Association of Veterinary Clinicians, the Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges
     o North American Veterinary Medical Education Consortium
     o American Quarter Horse Association
     o Florida Quarter Horse Association,
     o National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame,
     o NAVC Veterinary Innovation Council
     o Veterinary Virtual Care Association (founding board member and co-chair)
     o PetDesk
     o VetGuardian
• She has been a member of the AQHA Animal Welfare Commission since its inception and currently serves as chair.

Some of her awards include:
• 2013 induction into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame
• 2004 Award of Distinction from UF College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
• 2011 Wilford S. Bailey Distinguished Alumni Award from Auburn University
• 2012 Women’s Progress Award for Administration at Texas A&M University
• 2015 Distinguished Achievement Award for Administration at Texas A&M,
• 2019 Billy Hooper Distinguished Service Award by the Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges
• 2019 recognition as an ICON in veterinary medicine by the North American Veterinary Community

She has also been successful in the show ring, earning numerous FQHA year-end high point awards, circuit championships, and AQHA reserve world championships in Working Hunter, Hunter Hack, and Pleasure Driving. She is currently showing in the AQHA ranch horse division.

Kristen Monson

After working in institutional asset management for over 31 years, Kristen Monson now focuses her time on giving back and living a more impactful personal live. In her philanthropy, her passions are with improving the lives of young people and animals through education and interaction.

Kristen is a UCI Foundation Trustee, serving on the Investment Committee and the Nominations and Governance Committee. Additionally, she is on the Dean’s Advisory Board at The Paul Merage School of Business, having served as it’s Chair from 2015 to 2019. In 2006, UC Irvine honored Kristen as a recipient of the UCI Distinguished Alumni Award presented at the annual Lauds & Laurels Ceremony, and in 2016 she was the Merage School’s Distinguished Executive Commencement Speaker.

In addition to her service to the UCI community Kristen:

• Is a Board Member for the Orange County Animal Allies
  (formerly known as the OCSPCA), where in addition to her board responsibilities she volunteers with their PAWS program, taking her Corgi to provide therapy to mental health patients and children of domestic abuse; their PANDA program, providing animal therapy to sexual assault victims with the OC District Attorney’s office; and the Orange County Airport AirPAWS program which provides therapy to our flying public at SNA.
• Is on the board and on the investment committee of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, which provides funding to support young scientists and their future breakthrough discoveries
• Is on the board and chair of the investment committee for Lead Changes, a Texas and Wyoming based charity, which uses horsemanship to build our youth into successful, confident leaders.
• Serves on the Investment Committee for the Orange County Community Foundation.

In her prior life, Kristen was an Executive Vice President at Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO), retiring in 2012 after helping to grow the firm from $11 billion to $2 trillion in assets under management. During her twenty-six year tenure, Kristen was a client portfolio manager, responsible for some of firm’s largest global corporate accounts, in addition to Taft Hartley, foundations & public plans. She founded and developed the PIMCO Institute, a client investment educational program, offered to PIMCO clients globally. As the firm grew its international presence, she led efforts to develop the PIMCO culture and investment standards in its London, Munich and Asian offices. She was also a member of the company’s investment strategy group, and responsible for reporting on U.S. productivity at the firm’s in-house economic forums.

Kristen lives in Newport Beach with her husband Brad Horner. An avid horse rider, she provides wrangler support for Brad as he competes in rodeo team roping events throughout the southwest.

Kristen received both her bachelor’s degree in economics in 1982 and her MBA in 1986 from the University of California, Irvine

Amy Wandel MD FACS

Dr. Amy Wandel has always been driven by a desire to help others. During her college years at UC Berkeley, she volunteered at the regional burn center which fueled her interest in reconstructive surgery. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a BS in biology and Native American History. She went on to medical school at Chicago Medical School on a military scholarship, earning her M.D. and her Lieutenant bars in 1983. As a medical student she volunteered to work at the local free clinic in south Chicago. She went on to complete her general surgery training through the Navy- East Bay Surgical program.

After receiving board certification in general surgery, she served in Subic Bay, Philippines. While at Subic Bay, Dr. Wandel participated in many medical missions through the military outreach program, travelling deep into the jungle to treat the local population that had no access to care. The many hand and facial deformities she saw on these trips furthered her desire to pursue a career in reconstructive surgery.
She returned to the U.S. to enter Plastic Surgery residency at Brown University and after completing her training in plastic reconstructive and hand surgery and obtaining board certification, she served at the Naval Hospital Oakland. In 1994, Dr. Wandel was transferred to the Naval Hospital San Diego where she served as a plastic surgeon until her retirement in 2006. During her naval career, Dr. Wandel served on multiple hospital committees, deployed multiple times as a surgeon, served as department head of Plastic Surgery and Director of Surgery (temp). Dr. Wandel formed the first wound center at Naval Hospital Balboa with support of multiple departments. She also played a significant role in creating the limb salvage program for returning servicemen and women during the Iraqi war.

After retiring from the Navy, Dr. Wandel was asked to start the reconstructive department for Mercy Medical Group in Sacramento. She led the department through several years of growth, expanding the department to three surgeons and three mid-level providers. She also developed the wound center for the group, taking on the complex non healing wounds. Dr. Wandel was elected to the Board of Directors Of Mercy Medical Group in 2010 and served as a board member until her retirement from practice.

Throughout her surgical career, Dr. Wandel continued to volunteer for medical missions with Interplast and Operation Smile, using her vacation time to go to underserved areas to perform cleft lip and palate, burn and hand surgery. In 2008, Dr. Wandel co-founded the non-profit, Women for World Health, whose mission is to work with local doctors in underserved areas of the world, providing both reconstructive surgery and whenever possible, training for the local surgeon(s). Dr. Wandel continues to volunteer for surgical missions in her retirement.
“I have travelled all over the world to provide needed surgical care to those who have no options. But right here in the United States we have young people who because of their circumstances, feel they have no options. We can help these young people find themselves and a direction in life that will lead them out of poverty, away from gang violence and into a life of purpose. I have experienced first-hand how the horse can literally change your life and I truly believe that the horse can help these young people in their development into responsible, self-aware, respectful young adults. Lead ChangesSM provides these young people with the opportunity to learn self-respect, respect for others, accountability and a work ethic. These are real life skills.”