Doctors and Staff

VETERINARIANS

Dr. Ann Stuart

Ann Stuart, DVM 
​Dr. Ann Stuart moved to the Asheville area soon after graduating with honors from the NCSU College of Veterinary Medicine, and spending a year of clinical internship at the University of Georgia almost 30 years ago.  She grew up in Chapel Hill and attended the University of North Carolina.  A horsewoman all of her life,  Ann is involved with endurance racing from the local and national levels to international championship competitions as a 4 star FEI judge.  She  has competed in endurance herself and has served as an official and support staff at multiple international competitions, but more recently pleasure riding is how she prefers to spend her time in the saddle. Working with your companion animals is just as rewarding to Ann as working up lameness and maximizing performance in sport horses.  She loves spending her spare time at her home in the mountains of Barnardsville with her many horses, dogs and cats.

Dr. Sarah Dunnigan

​Sarah Dunnigan, DVM​
Dr. Sarah Dunnigan's passion for animals started when she was growing up in Eastern North Carolina. During high school she began showing livestock at the state fair and fell in love with agriculture. This led her to pursue a degree in Animal Science and then unto NC State's College of Veterinary Medicine where she graduated in 2016. 
Since graduation, Dr. Dunnigan has treated animals ranging from dogs to cattle to guinea pigs.  She enjoys the excitement of mixed animal medicine and looks forward to meeting any and all creatures you have!  
In her free time you can usually catch her playing bluegrass guitar, fly fishing, or hiking around with her two dogs, Ziggy Stardust and Pepperoni. 

Dr. Adam Crowther

​Adam Crowther, DVM
Dr. Adam Crowther hails from the white mountains of northern New Hampshire where he grew up on a small farm. He holds a BS in Animal Science from the University of New Hampshire and when he moved down to NC, Adam continued his education, receiving his degree from NC State College of Veterinary Medicine in 2018.
Adam worked at a large animal practice for the past year and enjoys all aspects of large animal mobile practice, with focus on equine dentistry, medicine and lameness. Adam also brings along a knowledge and experience of ruminant and farm animal medicine stemming all the way back to his farm background. In addition, Adam enjoys general wellness of companion animals. This is part of why he is such a perfect fit here at Appalachian Animal Hospital.
In his free time, Adam enjoys traveling, hiking, skiing, kayaking, camping and horseback riding.  His absolute favorite adventures are those where he can bring along his two dogs Trip and Rico, although they haven’t tried on a pair of skis just yet! Here’s a fun and unique fact: Adam has a trained pair of Dutch Belted oxen named Paul and Dan, and now they are enjoying their retirement years back in New Hampshire.

Support Staff

​Jill Anderson/ Practice Manager
Jill is our office manager and has been with us since July 2012.  Jill comes from a teaching background and decided to switch from two-legged children to four-legged animals and loves it! She is devoted to making each client feel as though they are part of our family.  
Outside of work Jill enjoys traveling and spending time with her wonderful husband and 3 children and their friends. It has been said many times over again that she is the glue that holds the practice together and its true! 

Kelly Smith/ Inventory Manager
​Kelly is our tech guru holding a heavy hand in equine. She originally hails from the Virgin Islands (born and raised) and has been riding horses since she was five years old. Kelly is a member of the US Pony Club and is a certified instructor, clinician and HM Judge. She lives with her crazy dog Scruffy and the sweetest cat Ali; she loves to hike and makes sure to avoid snakes at all costs.

Kelsey Fuller/ Receptionist
​Kelsey is originally from Columbus, Georgia and came to Asheville in 2017. Besides having a love for the outdoors she has always had a love for animals which lead her to volunteering at animal shelters. This eventually led to working here as a receptionist. Kelsey is always ready to meet and greet the animals with a huge smile. She is full of Southern charm and adores her dogs Tundra and Maverick! Kelsey considers herself lucky to be able to work with other people's pets on a daily basis, especially when puppy kisses are involved! ​

Cassidy Hollifield/ Receptionist
​Cassidy is a North Carolina native who was born and raised here in Weaverville. She has always had a love for animals which only grew stronger in high school through agriculture classes as well as raising and showing livestock. Although most of her experience comes from large animals, she loved animals of all sizes which made her decide to come work with us. You may recognize Cassidy from our boarding and daycare where she worked for some time before moving up front to our hospital. Her future plans consist of attending AB tech where she will get her certification as a veterinary technician. 

Jenny "Ginger" Kern/ Head Technician
Jenny is a registered veterinary technician joining us from Minnesota. She has been working with animals since she was a young girl, rescuing all manners of critters. Jenny loves plants, nature and has a spectacular green thumb! She shares her time and space with her two cats, horse and dog.

​Liza McTech/ Technician
Liza, also known as a roller derby queen, is our official 'hailed from Philly' tech. Liza is the proud mom of two fantastically energetic dogs, Bryson and Ollie. 

She comes to us with a changeover from human medicine to animal medicine and enjoys the benefits of pup kisses daily. Her favorite color is black and her passion for animals shines each day as she develops and hones her tech talents!

Anna Haley/ Technician
Anna started working in the animal care taker industry in 2004. Since then she’s done everything from dog walking to owning her own doggy playgroup business. She began working at Appalachian animal Hospital in 2014 and immediately fell in love with the medical side of things. She lives in Weaverville with her husband and daughter and their two dogs, two cats, and pig. In her free time she loves hiking, rafting, camping, biking, pretty much anything that has to do with the outdoors.

​Chanda Thomas ​/ Technician
Chanda is a seasoned vet tech who is just getting started! Her combination of a fresh outlook and years of experience (over 16 years!) provides a calming, reassuring environment for our patients. Chanda is married to John for 9 years strong, has an 11-year-old young man and 3 cats, Tyler, Kitkat and Bobcat. She is an avid cook and loves to experiment with vegan versions of meat dishes and plays frisbee golf quite well; and we know she is up for a challenge on dinners or frisbee golf anytime.

​Sharyn Groh/ Equine and main office team member
Sharyn helped us out one day about fifteen years ago and she’s been with us ever since! She coordinates field appointments and is a tremendous support to both the doctors and our clients. Sharyn is a classical dressage rider and endurance rider. She lives in the mountains of Barnardsville with her horses and dogs.

Laurie Cammarata/ Equine Coordinator
A US Navy veteran, Laurie began her career with driving ships and as an Intelligence Officer, analyzing the capabilities of foreign submarines.
She holds a BS in economics (and weapons systems engineering from the US Naval Academy), a BA in studio art (Univ MD) and a Masters in public health (Creighton Univ). Even with all this time and effort devoted to such incredible projects, Laurie also managed time to raise two wonderful sons, Anthony and Dominick, on a 100 acre humanely raised food production animal farm; as well as host many horsemanship clinics at Red-tail Ridge.
She loves exploring her creativity and even more, loves cooking with locally produced, healthy ingredients.
Laurie has been residing in Asheville for 20 years and now enjoys her time on a small, quiet farm in Alexander with two horses, Topper and Eragon, and her sweet, tail always wagging no-matter-what dog, Tito.