Meet our Team

Alison is an Oregon native, who moved to Colorado after completing her undergraduate degree in Biology. She obtained her DVM from CSU in 2008, and then undertook a small animal internship at a specialty hospital in Denver. Although not initially planning to pursue a career in emergency medicine, Alison began working as an emergency veterinarian at a clinic in Boulder, CO, after completing her internship, and soon realized how rewarding the field can be. She continued working at Boulder and Northside Emergency hospitals for 6 years and moved to the Roaring Fork Valley in 2016 to work at Valley Emergency Pet Care. Alison appreciates the deep human-animal bond that brings concerned owners and their four-legged companions to the emergency hospital and strives to provide compassionate care for her patients and their owners.

When not working, Alison spends as much time outdoors as possible – often with her black Labrador, “Teller”. She is thoroughly enjoying exploring the Roaring Fork Valley and its surrounding wilderness – via running, hiking, cycling, and skiing. She also loves traveling and spending time with friends and family.

Dr. Karen Sanderson is board certified in Cardiology as a Diplomate of the American College on Veterinary Internal Medicine. She received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) from the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biological Sciences at Colorado State University in 1999 followed by an internship in small animal medicine and surgery at the Atlantic Veterinary College on Prince Edward Island in Canada. She then went on to pursue residency training in Cardiology at the University of California at Davis and became board certified in the college of cardiology in 2003.

In addition to her monthly visits to VEPC, Dr. Sanderson is the founder of Rocky Mountain Veterinary Cardiology (RMVC) and owns the cardiology practices at AVSEC in Boulder and Veterinary Referral Center of Colorado (VRCC) in Denver. She also offers mobile cardiology services along the Front Range, Colorado Springs, Aspen and Northern Colorado.

Her special interests are the management of congestive heart failure in both dogs and cats, pulmonary hypertension (its etiology and treatment), and congenital heart disease. She works closely with family veterinarians and is committed to providing compassionate, comprehensive, coordinated care to all of her patients.