MeetOur Veterinary Team
Meet the Veterinarians & Team of Bear Creek Veterinary Hospital! We’re pleased to provide exceptional vet care for your pets!
Get to know our team!
Our team members are all pet owners themselves, and we know how important your pet’s health and well-being are to you. We constantly strive to improve our customer service and provide quality medical care every visit. Your concerns and satisfaction are of the utmost importance to our doctors and staff.
Due to the increased caseload and number of patients added to the Bear Creek Family daily, we are constantly growing. Our staff has to reflect on that growth. You may notice new faces on your next visit, but this practice aims to seek out and retain above-average staff members to join our team. Our priorities include attention to detail, compassionate care, excellent communication skills, and a desire to take ownership of the practice. We encourage each team member to look at this practice as if it was their own and take ownership of its reputation and place in the community.
Our Staff
New and updated staff pictures are on the way! We hope to showcase our new and smiling faces.
At Bear Creek, the priority is on patient care and customer service. We take great pride in caring for your pets as we care for our own, making sure they receive the special attention to detail you would want for them. We smile with them and cry with them. Never will your beloved be alone in their time of need.
Our staff takes great pride in presenting a clean and loving environment when you walk through the door. We want you to enjoy your time at our hospital regardless of the time you spend with us or for what reason. We want your experience to be something you would not hesitate to recommend to a friend or family member.
We sincerely hope that our staff takes care of your needs in a manner that makes you feel as though we are a part of one family and that you are a part of our family.
Rose Leisch
Customer Service Representative
Rose recently moved here from Indiana and now resides in New London and is loving it! She’s very excited to start her journey here at Bear Creek Veterinary Hospital. She has worked in the Vet field for about six months but has truly found her calling working with animals and hopes to start her career here. She has three fur babies, two cats and a bunny. Her cats are Henry and Ozzy, and her bunny is named Princess Peach. The rest of her family is her Fiancé and her one year old son. In her free time Rose likes to spend time with her son and take him to the park. She looks forward to meeting you and your fur babies!
Pokita Craig
Veterinary Assistant
Pokita has worked in the Veterinary field as an Assistant since 2020. She’s a wife and mom to a perfect little boy and lots of fur children, including horses, pigs, dogs, and cats. In her spare time, she loves spending time with her family, friends, and her pets. Pokita says the best part of working in the Veterinary field is the new knowledge and education she gains every day.
Myia Swink
Veterinary Assistant
Myia has three years of Veterinary care experience and has loved every moment of it! She tends to spend any bit of her free time with close friends, family, and animals! She has a Miniature Schnauzer named Cash and a Boxer named Roxie!
Tonya Almond
Veterinary Assistant
Tonya has been practicing as a Veterinary Assistant since 2006. Tonya says her favorite part of the job is the puppies and kittens, of course! She has two wonderful children, a thirteen-year-old son, and an eight-year-old daughter. She also has four cats and three dogs. When she’s not working, Tonya loves spending time with her kids and fur babies on the couch watching a good movie!
Dr. Amy Jordan
Founder and Medical Director
Dr. Amy Jordan began this practice to provide quality medicine and service to the community. We want that commitment to show through in the faces of our team members. They are the face of Bear Creek Veterinary Hospital. We offer above-and-beyond benefits and strive for a positive working environment that allows our staff members to better care for you and your animals.
Amy grew up in a small farming community near the Outer Banks. After graduating from Manteo High School, she went to NC State University, where she graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in Animal Science in 1998. She went to Vet School at NC State, where she graduated with her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 2002. In April 2006, she decided the time was right to start her practice.
She has an 18-year-old son, Joshua, that is so sweet and smart. Dr. Jordan is married to her high school sweetheart, Tommy, who acts as the practice IT professional and serves as Commissioner to Stanly County. Dr. Jordan has an Irish Wolfhound named Banshee, a famous and photogenic rescue dog named Ghost, a German rescue Shepherd named Drei, one cat named Nadia (that now resides at Bear Creek as the clinic cat, a Honduran milk snake named Paco that keeps watching upstairs.
Dr. Amy currently serves on the Health and Human Services Board as their veterinary professional member and as the veterinarian on record for our county’s Animal Protective Services (formerly known as Animal Control). She has an 18-year-old son named Joshua, that is so sweet and smart. For Dr. Amy, there is nothing better than spending a week at the Outer Banks with her toes in the sand or watching the sunrise in Key West. Snow skiing is always fun when not in the sun, but quiet time on the couch with Banshee and a good book is more commonplace than swooshing down on the slopes.
Dr. Jessie Whitfield
Associate Veterinarian
Dr. Jessie Whitfield moved to Mint Hill, NC in the summer of 2006 from a small town in Florida called Brandon. Mint Hill is where she found her devotion to helping animals. To further stoke this passion, she started her studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and earned her B.S. in Biology with a minor in Psychology. Upon graduation, she continued her journey by getting accepted into St. George’s University School of Veterinary Medicine located on the beautiful island of Grenada. While enrolled, she received high honors by getting inducted into the Veterinary Alpha Delta Chapter of the Society of Phi Zeta. Amid her final year at St. George’s, Jessie studied at the University of Georgia.
Dr. Whitfield enjoys spending time with friends playing semi-competitive card and board games. She is passionate about fitness and outdoor adventures, including scuba diving, kayaking, and hiking. Jessie lives in Locust with her significant other, Michael, and their three cats, Justice, Bella, and Blink.
Dr. Katharine Pike
Associate Veterinarian
Dr. Pike grew up on a dairy farm in rural Maine, where her family still resides. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Dairy science from Virginia Tech in 2010 and graduated with her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine in 2014.
After working at an extensive animal ambulatory practice for a year, she joined Bear Creek, where she initially practiced both small and large animal medicine but now spends her time working hard at small animal medicine and oral surgery. Dr. Pike enjoys spending time with her family and pets outside of work, traveling to new places, and watching or playing sports. While in the veterinary field, her particular interests include dentistry, soft tissue surgery, and internal medicine.
Dr. Pike has a genuine love of veterinary medicine and is motivated by a desire to better her patients’ lives and the lives of their owners. Her joy in seeing her patients thrive and interact is second to none. She is currently focusing her efforts on providing top-notch dentistry to Bear Creek patients as our oral surgeon, as well as seeing appointments.
Kristen Morgan
Lead Veterinary Technician
Kristen graduated from Central Carolina community college with an associate’s degree in veterinary technology. She is a registered veterinary technician. Kristen has been in the field for eight years. She has four canines. Three Pitbulls (Bella, Roxie, and Rumble) and one Frenchie (Shrimp). In her free time, she loves spending time with her family, spending time outside, fishing, hunting, and crafting.
Bailey Thomas
Veterinary Technician/Client Liaison
Bailey has been in the veterinary field for about seven years. She has been a technician at Bear Creek for a little over five years. Bailey has a cute Australian shepherd mix who thinks he is a professional cow herder and a lovely, sassy old lady calico. Bailey and her husband raise pet goats and beef cattle, and most of her time off from the clinic includes lots of farm chores, such as feeding and making hay! In the fall, she helps his family run a corn maze on the weekends.
Dr. Ann Yowell
Associate Veterinarian
Dr. Ann Yowell was raised in central Kentucky on a large cattle farm that her family still owns. She graduated summa cum laude from Morehead State University and, in 1985, graduated with honors from Auburn University School of Veterinary Medicine.
Dr. Yowell lives with her husband Mike, and they share their home with their Labrador retriever Cutter, a loveable mutt named Emma, a blue and gold Macaw, nine cats, and three Icelandic horses (they stay in the barn, however). In her spare time, who are we kidding? She does not have extra time – she enjoys going for walks, tai chi, spending time with her horses, working in her yard, and being surrounded by her “fur” family. She and Mike are avid Carolina Panthers fans and attend most home games.
Dr. Yowell has been a member of the veterinary community in this area for the past decade or more. She is a well-respected member of this profession and has dedicated her expertise to serving on the Stanly County Board of Health for the maximum number of terms allowed. She is also instrumental in keeping our K9 officers up to speed by working with the Stanly County Sheriff’s Dept on training to handle health issues or medical disasters when in the line of duty. Dr. Yowell is our resident “cat lady” and is responsible for making our practice an official Gold-level “Feline Friendly” hospital. Her experience, endless positivity, and calm personality make for an excellent addition to our clinic.
Ashley Tyson
Customer Service Representative
Ashley has worked at Bear Creek since March of 2022 and has worked with animals for about eight years in various ways. She has three dogs: Bonnie, Scarlett, and Nitro. Besides spending time with her daughter, she enjoys traveling, fishing, wood burning, and going to concerts!
Miranda Miller
Veterinary Technician
Miranda is a Registered Veterinary Technician here at Bear Creek. After graduating from the VMT program at Central Carolina Community College in 2019, she obtained her RVT license and landed here in small animal medicine. Miranda has two horses. She loves to ride in her spare time and take her dogs, Lena and Callie, hiking. She is thankful to be able to work with animals and truly enjoys caring for your babies!
Maddie Sehen
Veterinary Assistant
Maddie has been with Bear Creek as a vet assistant since 2022. She has two kids: one with two legs, a beautiful baby girl, and one with four legs and fur, and he is as spoiled as they get. She enjoys hanging out with her family and friends and riding her horse in her spare time. Maddie states the best part of her job is that she gets to do what she loves with the people she enjoys!
Miranda Galloway
Veterinary Assistant
Miranda has been practicing as a Veterinary Assistant since 2014. Her favorite part of Veterinary medicine is dentistry and surgery. She is a proud mother to her beautiful daughter and her animal babies, including a dog, cat, turtle, hermit crabs, and fish. When she isn’t spending time loving on your fur babies like they are her own, she enjoys spending time with her family and participating in and watching a variety of 4×4 truck events.
Angelia Piojda
Veterinary Assistant
Angie has worked in the veterinary field for more than 25 years. She truly enjoys caring for animals. She has a horse and a dog named Daisy. In her spare time, she enjoys horseback riding and other outdoor activities.
Rachel Efird
Lead Customer Service Representative
Rachel has been working at Bear Creek since March 2022. She has one pup, a Moyen Poodle named Franklin. Rachel also has two cats, Talulah & Trooper, who do not like their pictures being taken. You will most likely find her hanging out with her boyfriend and Franklin in her free time. She enjoys spending time with her loved ones, Marvel movies, and shopping.
Bethany Barbee
Client Service Representative/Social Media Coordinator
Beth has been at Bear Creek since March 2022. She currently resides in Anson county, where her boyfriend Colton and fur baby Bella live in their recently built “tiny” house! She has been an avid animal lover since a young age, and her love grows for them daily. Around the clinic, you can typically find Beth cracking jokes or making someone laugh. Out of work, you can find her traveling, reading books, or trying out a new recipe.
Lindsey Alfrey
Practice Manager
Lindsey has worked in the Veterinary field since 2008. She has two precious pitbulls named Eva and Ellie and an orange tabby cat named George. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends, being outdoors, trying out new restaurants, traveling, and hiking with her pups
Tasha Schrimpsher
Customer Service Representative
Tasha came to Bear Creek from another animal hospital in July 2022. She loves working around animals and is known as the crazy cat lady. Nothing makes her happier than snuggling up with her fur babies. When she isn’t working, you can find her curled up with a good book, taking trips with her kids, or enjoying girl time with close friends and family.
Danielle Furr
Veterinary Assistant
Danielle was born and raised in Stanly County. She graduated from West Stanly High School. She has a ten-year-old son named Blake. She came from a very large family; she is the third of eight kids! Danielle came to Bear Creek in 2018. She loves working with animals because it’s a different adventure every day; you never know what the day holds.
Kristen Likes
Veterinary Assistant
Kristen came to Bear Creek in February of 2022. She is grateful to be able to work with such brilliant, and amazing people every day. She has learned so much and continues to do so daily. Kristen has been a Veterinary Assistant for only a few years, but she is a lover of all creatures, whether they are furry, scaly, or feathered her whole life. Before coming to Bear Creek she had the privilege of working at an aviary with exotic birds. She currently resides in Midland with her cantankerous feline, Juno. When not at work she enjoys hiking, reading, and being with family and friends.
Julie Lowder
Veterinary Assistant
Julie has worked in the Veterinary field since 1995. She is certified in K-laser therapy treatment. Julie and her husband own a small farm called “The Muddy Mule Farm.” She and her husband recently adopted their beautiful daughter. They love taking short vacations and camping. They currently have four mules, chickens, four dogs, a cat, a bunny, and a blue and gold Macaw.
Ashley Russell
Veterinary Assistant
Bio- Coming Soon
Crystal Shaver
Veterinary Assistant
Bio- Coming Soon
Tiffany Hazelwood
Lead Veterinary Technician
Tiffany is a Registered Veterinary Technician here at Bear Creek Veterinary Hospital. She graduated from Central Carolina Community College in 2015. Tiffany has five dogs, two cats, a leopard gecko, and a horse. She looks forward to meeting you and your fur babies!
Dr. Reynolds Gray
Associate Veterinarian
Dr. Gray grew up on her family’s horse farm in southern Durham. She obtained a Bachelor of Animal Science Degree from NC State in 2011 and graduated with her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from NC State College of Veterinary Medicine in 2016. She then completed an internship at Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine.
Some of you may recognize Dr. Gray already, as she previously worked here at Bear Creek Veterinary Hospital providing mixed animal services for 2 years after her internship. Although she left BCVH to gain additional small animal experience, she is excited to be back home and serving the local community again.
Outside of work Dr. Gray enjoys spending time with her family, fishing, exploring with her dogs Magpie and Maverick, and searching for antiques (let her know if you have a great antique spot!).