Even though he grew up in North NJ with animals, Dr. Jim Ferrara did not decide to apply to veterinary school until his first year of college at the University of Colorado Boulder. Until then, he always wanted to be a film director.

“I use to volunteer at the Boulder Humane Society and I often filmed my adventures with shelter dogs as I walked them around in the woods… I realized there was a huge difference between documenting the human-animal bond and experiencing it every day,” he says.

After earning a degree in ecology and evolutionary biology and a minor in public health, he went on to attend the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, graduating in 2020. He received the Provost’s Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Innovation with which he completed One Health research on Campylobacter in Katmandu, Nepal.

Dr. Ferrara, who prior to attending veterinary school also volunteered in the Cook Islands at the Esther Honey Clinic, worked with wildlife at the Clinic for Rehabilitation of Wildlife in Florida and at the Tristate County Bird Rescue in Delaware. He finds the community surrounding veterinary medicine -- both his colleagues’ dedication to their work and owners’ bonds with their pets -- to be the most satisfying aspect of being a veterinarian.

He shares his life with three cats: Midori, Princess Mononoke and Dewey; and a border collie mix named Dottie.

In his free time, he enjoys ultrarunning, triathlons, backpacking, filmmaking, and cooking.