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Q: When did you first know you wanted
to be a veterinarian?

A: My mother was a veterinarian back in Croatia. I always loved animals,
but it wasn’t until I decided to end my first career as a classical ballet
dancer that I considered veterinary medicine. When I imagined
something I loved and I could do every day without losing my passion
for it, it was caring for animals.

Q: Why did you decide to study nondomestic animals?

A: While earning my undergraduate degree, I completed a research
internship studying dolphin cognition and language in Hawaii.
Itwas as though a switch was flipped—one of the greatest things
ever to happen to me. I knew I wanted to work with them, to be
aveterinarian with a marine mammal specialty.

Q: What about the road to radiology?

A: At first, I didn’t really like radiology in veterinary school! But I did
love dolphins, and working with them at the Navy Marine Mammal
Program in San Diego, I realized I couldn’t conduct a physical exam
on these 600-pound marine mammals the same way I could with acat
or dog. I needed ultrasound. I knew I had to be good at radiology, at
diagnostic imaging, if I was going to be able to care for them. Ispent
summers studying imaging of marine mammals on my own. Iwas From left: Dr. Marina Ivančić performs an
ultrasound exam on a California sea lion,
fortunate to have an incredible mentor—a radiologist—during my positions a tiger for a CT scan, and gives
internship. He encouraged me to become both a radiologist and abottlenose dolphin an ultrasound scan.
amarine mammal vet, even though it hadn’t been done before.

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