Instructors:

Renee Poirrier, DVM

Dr. Renee Poirrier is the owner of Acadiana Veterinary Clinic, a small and exotic animal private veterinary practice in Lafayette, La. She received her DVM degree from LSU School of Veterinary Medicine in 1988. She was certified in veterinary acupuncture in 1992 by the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society.

She is currently the volunteer director of the Louisiana State Animal Response Team, as well as the statewide unit leader for the Veterinary Medical Reserve Corps. Dr. Poirrier is the Co-Chair of The NASAAEP Evacuation and Transportation Best Practices working group and serves as the Chair of the Louisiana Veterinary Medical Association’s Emergency Management and Disaster Preparedness committee.

As LSART director, Dr. Poirrier has responded to several hurricanes including Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and most recently Hurricane Laura and Ida as well as train derailments and several floods. She assisted state and local officials with developing the current protocols for evacuation and sheltering of pets. She responded to the 2010 Haiti earthquake as an IFAW response partner and oversaw the integration of 214 local Louisiana animal responders over a 5-month period into the 2010 BP oil spill wildlife response.
 

Suzanne Brevelle

Suzanne Brevelle began her disaster response career as the administrative assistant and grant writer with the Louisiana State Animal Response Team (LSART), in 2016. She continues to work in support of animal emergency response locally, statewide, and nationally as the LSART Administrative Specialist, whose duties include as a technical subject matter expert, providing animal emergency response training for government and non-governmental responder groups and agencies, maintaining the training calendar, volunteer database, finance tracking for response, training, and equipment maintenance support. Suzanne has provided dedicated and experienced support in response to animal emergencies from 2016 to date.

Robbie Averett

Robbie Averett is a retired Planning Section Chief for the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry‘s Incident Management Team. She has responded at the state level to every disaster in Louisiana from 2005-2022.

She managed the Plans Section of the Emergency Programs Division to support the agency’s State ESF-11 role and responsibilities to support and protect the citizens of the state of Louisiana during disasters. Duties include writing emergency plans, standard operating procedures (SOP), protocols, agency timelines, tabletop and functional exercises, and planning the agency’s role and response during statewide exercises as well as real-time emergency response and support to the overall state disaster response.