Dr. Kristin MacDonald is the clinical cardiologist at VCA Animal Care Center of Sonoma, where she has a thriving cardiology practice including medical and interventional cardiology, as well as participation in heart failure clinical trials.  She is a national lecturer in cardiology for VCA and launched State of the Heart 2.0 in 2023 for online cardiology education in VCA. Dr. MacDonald enjoys lecturing both nationally and internationally in veterinary cardiology, with particular interest in the integration of general practitioners and cardiologist. Dr. MacDonald has been an active author of book chapters for highly respected textbooks, served as section editor for Handbook of Small Animal Practice, published a multitude of original research papers, and is coauthor of The Textbook of Feline Cardiology, the only text of its kind available.  

Her veterinary education consists of earning a doctorate of veterinary medicine in 1998 from Auburn University, and then completion of an internship in small animal medicine and surgery at Michigan State University in 1999. She finished a residency in veterinary cardiology at University of California, Davis in 2001 and became a board certified veterinary cardiologist in the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine in 2002. She continued her education by earning a PhD at UC Davis Comparative Pathology graduate group in September 2005 on hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in Maine Coon cats, and the effects of ACE inhibitors. Dr. MacDonald taught on faculty at UC Davis for a year, then pivoted to clinical cardiology practice at VCA Animal Care Center of Sonoma County in Rohnert Park, CA.  

Living in Sonoma County, she enjoys spending time outdoors hiking, skiing, and being mom of two daughters, two Tonkinese cats and a black Labrador Retriever.