ANIMAL EMT
Our Team
Learn from veterinarians and veterinary technicians with veterinary and EMT experience.
Heather Becker, DVM
Founder and Training Coordinator
Dr. Becker is a Nebraska native. She received her B.S. in Veterinary Science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1996, and her D.V.M. from Kansas State University in 2000. After working for a year in private practice, she opted to get more advanced training by completing a small animal rotating internship at the Metropolitan Veterinary Hospital in Akron, OH. During her internship she acquired her love for emergency and critical care medicine and upon its completion she followed her dream to live and work in Colorado. She is currently an associate emergency veterinarian at Animal ER Care in Colorado Springs. Dr. Becker has always been passionate about CPR, both in the emergency care setting as well as pre-hospital care for pets. For many years, she was the Veterinary Medical Director for the City of Fountain Fire Department in Fountain Colorado, responsible for training the entire department in pre-hospital care for animals. It was this passion for training that led her and Kim Spelts to form Animal Emergency Medical Training, who has since then conducted numerous trainings for fire departments, K9 units, search and rescue teams, and K9 boarding facilities as well as the ongoing training in CPR that she provides to her hospital as well as the veterinary community. In 2019, Dr. Becker became a Certified RECOVER BLS and ALS Rescuer Instructor at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine RECOVER Deep Dive. In 2022, she also became a RECOVER Certified Pet Rescuer Instructor.
Outside of work she can be found hiking the mountains with her dogs Mercy and Ollie, paddleboarding with Mercy, snowshoeing, and volunteering with Mercy, who is a certified therapy dog with The Go Team Therapy, Crisis and Airport Dogs. She also enjoys creating her own special home-brewed beer, whose label gets its namesake from her (naughty) heeler: “Bad Ollie Beer.”
Kim Spelts
RVT, VTS-R (Anesthesia & Analgesia)
Founder and Operations Coordinator
Kim’s love of animals and veterinary science led her to leave a previous life as an aerospace engineer and become a credentialed veterinary technician. Her initial background was in emergency medicine, then she shifted to advanced anesthesia care when she joined the Anesthesia Department at Colorado State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital. While there, she completed a rigorous application and testing process to become a Veterinary Technician Specialist in Anesthesia and Analgesia.
Kim’s professional path eventually led her to Colorado Springs, where she worked closely with Dr. Heather Becker at Animal ER Care. They found a common interest in training non-veterinary individuals to provide urgent and emergent care to dogs and cats until they could be transported to a veterinarian… and Animal Emergency Medical Training was born. Kim also launched her own anesthesia case management and consulting business, PEAK Veterinary Anesthesia Services, in 2013. In January of 2023, Kim became a Certified RECOVER BLS and ALS Instructor.
Kim enjoys hiking, snowshoeing, camping, running, and any other activities that allow her to spend time outdoors with her dogs. Her less physical pursuits include reading, doing math puzzles, playing just enough guitar to remain a perpetual beginner, and spending time with family and friends.
Kara McArdell, DVM
Dr. McArdell is a 2009 graduate from the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. Following graduation she completed a one-year rotating small animal internship with a focus in emergency medicine, at Ocean State Veterinary Specialists in Rhode Island.
Dr. McArdell initially joined Animal ER Care in 2010 with strong career interests in emergency medicine and critical care, trauma, cardiorespiratory emergencies and toxicology. In 2018 she left Colorado to join the faculty at Midwestern University College of Veterinary Medicine in Arizona, as Assistant Clinical Professor in Emergency Medicine. During this position she worked alongside 4th year veterinary students during their clinical rotations. Dr. McArdell became a RECOVER Instructor in March of 2023 and has helped train and certify over 100 rescuers.
Dr. McArdell moved back to Colorado and re-joined the team at AERC in 2020. The beauty and wealth of outdoor activities brought her back to Colorado where she loves to lead a healthy lifestyle. Outside of work she enjoys hiking, backpacking, international travel, food exploration, jigsaw puzzles and general exploring of the outdoors and our National Parks. Some of her international travel has been through volunteer work with the non-profit group, World Vets.
Kelly Hall, DVM, MS, DACVECC
Associate Professor, Critical Care Services
Colorado State University
Executive Director, ACVECC VetCOT
Dr. Kelly Hall has a passion for improving trauma patient care through collaborative clinical and translational research. She was a faculty member at the University of Minnesota for 14 years where she also earned her DVM, Emergency and Critical Care training for board certification and Masters in Clinical Research. Dr. Hall is honored and proud to be a part of the ACVECC Veterinary Committee on Trauma (VetCOT) with its multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional approach to improve trauma patient care. Dr. Hall joined the Critical Care Services team at Colorado State University in September 2019, and is enjoying being part of a team striving to contribute to and help advance all we do in the critical care space. Primary drivers of Dr. Hall’s philosophy, whether on the clinic floor, on the basketball court, in the classroom or advancing research collaborations include Angela Duckworth’s research on “grit”, Carol Dweck’s research on “growth mindset” and John Wooden’s “pyramid of success”.
Dr. Hall is a fellow RECOVER BLS and ALS Certified Instructor and was Dr. Becker's CPR teammate when they both became RECOVER Rescuers and then Instructors together at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine RECOVER Deep Dive. They have collaborated together for almost all of A-EMT's Rescuer Certification courses. A-EMT is privileged to have the knowledge, expertise, and learning facilitation that Dr. Hall brings to our certification courses.