Years in Practice: 39
Education: University of California at Davis School of Veterinary Medicine

Dr. Herder started in veterinary medicine as the only assistant in a 1 doctor shopping center practice in Southern California after graduating from University of California, Irvine Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry.

In 1980, she graduated from U.C. Davis School of Veterinary Medicine fifth in her class. Dr. Herder began her practice career at Michigan State University Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital in an internship in small animal medicine and surgery. She returned to California in 1981 to begin private practice at Marina Pet Hospital in San Francisco.

In 1982, Dr. Herder married Robert Jimison, a Registered Veterinary Technician working at Marina Pet Hospital. Dr. Herder became chief of staff at an affiliate Valley Veterinary Hospital in Walnut Creek in 1983. Dr. Herder and Robert Jimison purchased Village Oaks Veterinary Hospital, Martinez in 1993 and moved their family to Contra Costa County.

Having outgrown the facility in the Village Oaks Shopping center, Dr. Herder and her husband built Muir Oaks Veterinary Hospital in 2001. Dr. Herder’s veterinary passion is small animal medicine from routine health maintenance to complicated medical cases – especially oncology.

Dr. Herder’s other passion is music and she has definitely been caught singing to her patients. In her free time, she sings with several choirs, takes voice and ballroom dance lessons and walks all over Martinez. And she loves to travel, although that does take her away from her Golden Retrievers, Samson and Dottie and her polydactyl cat, Peekay.