Dr. Alyssa O’Neill was born and raised on Long Island, where she was constantly
surrounded by animals of all shapes and sizes. Being a big nerd and even bigger
animal lover, she knew she wanted to be a veterinarian from a young age. Her passion
to do so drove her to become the first in her family to attend college.
Dr. O’Neill started her undergraduate studies at Florida Gulf Coast University and later
graduated from the University of Florida in 2012 with her Bachelor’s degree in Zoology.
During her undergraduate summers, she worked as an assistant at a local veterinary
hospital and conducted behavioral research with shelter dogs to broaden her skillset
and immerse herself in the veterinary field. She also worked as a campus tutor covering
a variety of math and science subjects, where she discovered her love for teaching.
Following graduation from UF, Dr. O’Neill moved to Philadelphia to start vet school at
the University of Pennsylvania. As a sophomore in vet school, she was awarded the US
Army Health Professions Scholarship. Upon graduation with her VMD in 2017, she was
shipped off to Texas for officer basic training and then stationed at Fort Benning, GA.
She spent the next 4 years at Fort Benning caring for military working dogs and running
a hospital on base before leaving the Army to return home to New York. She worked as
a small animal general practitioner in Brooklyn for 4 years before taking the leap to
move upstate in hopes of finding a community to thrive in for years to come.
Dr. O’Neill’s passions within vet med include preventive medicine, internal medicine,
behavior, feline medicine, and diagnostic imaging. Her favorite part of being a vet is
teaching—whether she’s sharing knowledge with her teammates or empowering pet
parents to learn more about their fur babies.
Dr. O’Neill lives with her husband and their three cats, Yoshi, Bowser, and Curie. She is
an avid reader and movie-goer, and she likes to spend her free time baking, cross-
stitching, and video gaming.