CROW announces staffing promotion, creation of new position
Dr. Robin Bast has joined the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife as a full-time staff veterinarian. With the addition, Hospital Director Dr. Heather Barron has transitioned to a newly created position as CROW’s medical and research director.
Staff veterinarians are tasked with overseeing the day-to-day operations of CROW’s hospital facility, while working with staff, students and volunteers to treat Southwest Florida’s sick, injured and orphaned native and migratory wildlife.
“By adding another veterinarian to our staff, CROW will be able to continue to improve the care our wildlife patients receive,” Executive Director Linda Estep said.
Bast completed her undergraduate studies at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, and received her doctorate in veterinary medicine from the University of Florida. In addition to a previous internship at the Florida Veterinary Referral Center in Estero, Bast has a wealth of experience at CROW. As a student, she completed all of the offered programs, including a six-month fellowship and year-long wildlife and conservation medicine internship for doctors of veterinary medicine.
Barron has served as the hospital director and head veterinarian since 2011.
“The new position will allow Dr. Barron to focus her efforts beyond the hospital toward conservation, research and growth of our organization,” Estep said. “She will be able to strengthen our current partnerships here in Lee County and keep us on the front lines of research, advancing the field of conservation medicine.”
Barron received training in exotic and wild animal medicine and surgery through a residency at the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine, where she later became a tenured associate professor on the Zoological Medicine Service. She obtained further international experience as a professor and department head of clinical medicine at St. Matthew’s University’s School of Veterinary Medicine in the Cayman Islands, where she was also the veterinarian for the Cayman Turtle Farm and Cayman Wildlife Rescue. She has authored or co-authored over 100 scientific publications in her field.
CROW is at 3883 Sanibel Captiva Road, Sanibel.