When Dr. Elizabeth Cox talks to veterinary students at her alma mater, the University of California, Davis, she often shares a message shaped by a career that rarely followed the script:
“Veterinary medicine can take you in a lot of different paths.”
For Cox, that path has led from dairy practice to animal health industry roles, from calf nutrition to animal welfare leadership, from government regulation to entrepreneurship. Today, she leads California’s Animal Care Program within the California Department of Food and Agriculture, overseeing implementation of Proposition 12 and helping shape conversations around animal welfare. She is also the creator of Calf Milk Calculator, a software tool designed to help producers simplify milk-feeding programs. Neither role was part of a carefully designed career plan.
Path to Dairy Veterinary Medicine
Cox did not grow up knowing she wanted to become a veterinarian. Raised in Sacramento, Calif., she describes herself as someone who loved animals but did not have the lifelong certainty many veterinarians describe.
“I guess I’m unique in that I didn’t realize I wanted to be a vet,” she says.
While studying animal physiology and neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego, she took a job at a small-animal clinic. The work introduced her to veterinary medicine, but something felt incomplete. She enjoyed the profession, yet found herself wondering what other opportunities might exist within it. That curiosity led her to spend time riding along with veterinarians in different fields, including dairy veterinarian Dr. Gary McArthur in California’s Central Valley.
The experience changed everything.
“I really liked that mission and the role of a dairy veterinarian,” she explains.
For Cox, dairy medicine offered something bigger than treating individual animals. It connected animal health, food production and family farming. She was drawn to the idea that veterinarians could play a role not only in caring for cattle, but also in supporting the people and systems responsible for feeding millions of consumers.
Building a Career
After earning her veterinary degree from UC Davis, Cox moved to California’s Central Valley and joined a traditional dairy practice. The work was exactly what many people imagine when they think of large-animal veterinary medicine: early mornings, large herds, physically demanding procedures and long drives between farms.
“You help a lot of cows and drive a lot and that’s your life,” she recalls.
The pace could be relentless. Dairy practice demanded technical skill, stamina and a willingness to return to the same farms week after week, helping producers navigate the daily realities of managing cattle and running a business.
“That is a challenging life. And I don’t think anyone could have told me any different until I finally did it,” she says.
Those years became the foundation of her career. They taught her production medicine, strengthened her problem-solving skills and deepened her understanding of the dairy industry. They also introduced her to veterinarians whose careers looked very different from her own.
Veterinary Career Paths Beyond Private Practice
Representatives from animal health companies regularly visited her practice, and one industry veterinarian in particular became an important mentor, Dr. Sam Barringer. Cox respected Barringer because he consistently provided practical advice and brought a broader perspective from working with producers across the country.
More importantly, he saw potential in her before she fully recognized it herself.
When Barringer later joined Merck Animal Health, he encouraged Cox to consider a position on the company’s cattle technical services team. It was a role she had never seriously considered, but his confidence gave her the courage to explore a different path.
That experience left a lasting impression.
Throughout her career, Cox has remained grateful for mentors willing to invest in younger veterinarians. Looking back, she credits much of her willingness to take risks and embrace new opportunities to people who challenged her to see possibilities beyond any traditional career path she may have imagined.
At Merck, Cox traveled extensively, working with veterinarians and producers across the western United States. The experience exposed her to dairies in California, Texas, Idaho, Washington and Oregon, among other regions. Everywhere she went, she encountered different management styles, different challenges and different solutions.
Through these experiences she learned “there’s more than one right way to do it”.
She was speaking about dairy management, but the observation became one of the defining lessons of her career. There was more than one right way to raise calves, more than one right way to run a dairy and, she would learn, more than one right way to be a veterinarian.
As her career progressed, Cox continued to follow opportunities that allowed her to learn and grow. She later joined Purina Land O’Lakes, where she expanded her expertise in calf nutrition and management.
That experience would eventually spark another unexpected chapter in her career.
While consulting with calf operations, Cox repeatedly encountered feeding challenges that traced back to a surprisingly simple problem: math. Feeding programs often involved multiple ingredients, varying solids concentrations and complicated mixing instructions. Small mistakes or inconsistencies could have significant impacts on calf performance.
She found herself having many of the same conversations from farm to farm. Producers wanted to feed calves correctly. Employees wanted clear instructions. Nutritionists and veterinarians wanted consistency. Yet translating feeding goals into practical, repeatable protocols often proved challenging.
Rather than simply identifying the problem, she decided to build a solution.
Drawing on her experience in calf health, nutrition and dairy management, Cox developed Calf Milk Calculator, a software platform designed to help producers formulate milk-feeding programs and generate clear feeding instructions for employees. The goal was straightforward: Remove the guesswork, simplify the math and help calf-feeding teams execute programs consistently.
“I didn’t know I would be a quote-unquote entrepreneur,” she says with a laugh.
Yet entrepreneurship proved to be another example of the way veterinary medicine continued to open unexpected doors. The project allowed Cox to combine years of field experience with a practical tool designed to help producers solve real-world challenges. It also reflected a pattern that had emerged throughout her career: When she saw an opportunity to improve outcomes for calves and producers, she was willing to step outside the traditional boundaries of veterinary practice to pursue it.
Supporting Animal Agriculture Through Industry, Welfare and Regulation
By that point, Cox had worked in private practice, animal health and nutrition. Her next transition would take her into government service.
Along the way, another important part of her life was evolving. As she became a mother, the extensive travel associated with industry roles became increasingly difficult to balance with family life. Twice she found herself reevaluating her professional future, and twice she chose a new direction.
Importantly, she never viewed those decisions as stepping away from agriculture. Instead, she viewed them as finding new ways to contribute.
In 2020, she joined the California Department of Food and Agriculture, where she currently leads the state’s Animal Care Program. The role allows her to remain deeply involved in animal agriculture while focusing on animal welfare, public policy and regulatory implementation.
The move may have surprised the younger veterinarian who once imagined spending her entire career in practice, but by then Cox had learned careers rarely unfold exactly as planned.
Her mission, however, remained unchanged:
“I want to be a part of animal agriculture. I want to make it better. I want to help it. I want to support it,” she says.
That commitment serves as the thread connecting every chapter of her professional life. Whether she was treating dairy cattle, teaching calf health, advising producers, developing software or implementing state regulations, the goal was always the same: helping animal agriculture succeed.
Gender Bias as a Woman in Veterinary Medicine
Along the way, Cox also navigated challenges familiar to many women working in veterinary medicine.
When asked whether she had experienced obstacles because of her gender, her answer was immediate.
“Definitely.”
Early in her career, she often found herself facing two hurdles simultaneously: She was young, and she was a woman. Some producers questioned her experience. Others made assumptions before she ever had an opportunity to demonstrate her skills. Rather than allowing those experiences to derail her confidence, she focused on earning trust through competence, preparation and consistency.
Over time, she came to view those situations with a pragmatic perspective:
“People do have biases. They have things they’re going to come in with to you. It’s totally outside of your control.”
Rather than spending energy trying to change every mind, Cox concentrated on what she could control: her knowledge, her professionalism and her commitment to doing good work. The approach reflects a quiet confidence that appears throughout her story. She does not frame her career as a series of barriers she has overcome. Instead, she speaks about opportunities seized, relationships built and lessons learned.
The Importance of Mentorship and Professional Networks
Cox stands firmly behind the importance of professional relationships. Some of the most important opportunities in her career came from people who believed in her potential before she fully recognized it herself. Mentors helped her see possibilities beyond private practice. Colleagues provided support during career transitions. Friends within the profession offered perspective and encouragement.
Today, she remains connected to veterinary colleagues across the country through friendships, professional networks and group chats that help her stay in touch with both the profession and the people within it.
For Cox, success has never been a solo effort:
“I think it’s important to not feel like you have to do it alone.”
It is fitting advice from someone whose career has repeatedly evolved through the encouragement of mentors, colleagues and friends.
Lessons for Future Veterinarians
Looking back, Cox’s resume is difficult to summarize in a single title. She has been a dairy practitioner, industry veterinarian, calf health specialist, nutrition consultant, welfare advocate, regulator and entrepreneur. Yet reducing her story to a list of positions misses the point.
The most remarkable part of Elizabeth Cox’s career is not how many times she reinvented herself. It is that every reinvention remained connected to the same purpose.
Whether she was treating cattle on California dairies, advising producers across the country, developing software to improve calf-feeding programs or helping implement animal welfare regulations, the goal remained the same: supporting animals, producers and the future of animal agriculture.
The college student who stumbled into veterinary medicine, the dairy veterinarian driving between California farms before dawn and the regulator overseeing animal care policy today are all pursuing the same mission. Each role has looked different, but each has been rooted in a commitment to dairy cattle, animal welfare and the future of animal agriculture.
