Meet The Staff


    

Dr. Diana Krenning
          Dr. Diana Krenning was raised on a small farm near Taos, Missouri.  Graduating as valedictorian from Blair Oaks High School and furthering her education, Dr. Krenning graduated from the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine in 1995.
          After graduation Dr. Krenning worked at Sedalia Veterinary Center for two years but then took time away to raise her son Caleb and daughter Hallie.
          Once back to work Dr. Krenning took a position at Osage Regional Veterinary Clinic in Linn, Missouri where she worked as a small animal and cattle veterinarian for fourteen years.
          In 2015 Dr. Krenning started her farm call practive providing veterinarian care for livestock and pets.  In addition to her farm call practice, Dr. Krenning currently works as a veterinary surgeon for us here at Protect Every Pet.



Dr. Erica Smith
          Dr. Erica Smith earned her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Purdue University in West Lafayette,  Indiana,  in 2007.  
          She practiced for several years in West Virginia before relocating to Rolla.   She worked for the Animal Health Center in Rolla from June 2014 until December 2020.  She started working at Protect Every Pet one day a week in February 2020, and is here full-time now.
          She has three children at home:   Grace,  17; Sydney,  7; and Riley John,  5.  They currently share their home with four cats:  Castor,  Pollux,  Fletcher,  and Julius.   
          When she isn't working,  Erica enjoys reading, playing disc golf,  watching Clemson games,  and spending time with her children and extended family. 






Our Staff:

Donna Stough - Office Manager
Office Manager and Co-Founder Donna Stough was born in Belleville, IL and graduated from Belleville Township High School West in 1981.  She enlisted in the United States Marine Corps fifteen days after high school graduation and after serving twenty four years, Donna retired a Master Sergeant.  She and her husband Johnny, retired Gunnery Sergeant, have been married thirty seven years and moved to Belle where her husband Johnny was born and raised.  Choosing career over family, Johnny and Donna have enjoyed the company of domestic animals.  The PEP spay/neuter clinic has been a very rewarding experience and a great challenge to gain the attention of people to spay and neuter.  Donna has several hobbies and interests including traveling.


Laura Vonk - Bookkeeper/Grant Writer
Bookkeeper & Treasurer, Laura Vonk was born in Kirkwood, MO and graduated from Kirkwood High School in 1982.  Before becoming a small business owner, most of Laura's professional life involved Bookkeeping and Accounting.  In 1996 she started her own business, Missouri Trailblazing, a book and website about the equestrian trails available here in Missouri.  She retired from, and sold that business in 2017.  Still partly retired, she now runs a business restoring and customizing Marx Thunderbolt Models as well as writing family history books.  Married to her husband Hank for 22 years, she is an avid horseback rider and crazy cat lady who enjoys trail and obstacle course riding, genealogy, traveling, crafting, and volunteering at PEP.




Linda De Braal - Surgery Tech
Veterinarian Assistant Linda DeBraal, was born in Vienna and raised in St. Charles.  Graduate of St. Charles High, 1975.  Served 12 years of Army, Active and Reserved, 1975 - 1987.  She was a graduate of St. Charles Community College Nursing Program, 1990.  She currently works as a RN at St. Mary's Hospital in Jefferson City.  Linda has 4 children and 6 grandchildren.  Her hobbies are riding horses, Martial Arts, she plays the Mandolin, and enjoys a lot of outdoor activities. 




Phyllis Frederick - Prep Tech
Veterinarian Assistant/Prep Technician Phyllis Frederick, is one of our original volunteers from 2010 when PEP was established. Born and raised in Lebanon, MO, she’s been married for 43 years and has 2 sons, 1 daughter, and 10 grandchildren. Phyllis graduated from Vo-Tech Rolla for Business Administration. Her hobbies include riding and showing horses, and enjoying





Alice Kennedy - Surgery Tech
Alice grew up in Belleville, Illinois.  She attended college for Medical Assistants, then continued her education to become a certified CNA and EMT.  After schooling, she moved down to Tennessee, spending her last 4 years there taking care of her Mother.  Married to her husband for 14 years, they moved to Missouri 2 1/2 years ago.  A proud Mother to 3 children ; 1 girl and 2 boys, an even prouder Grandma to 9 Granddaughters, a Fur-Mom to 3 dogs, 9 cats, and 16 chickens.  She became a volunteer at PEP in July of 2019 as a Vet Assistant.  She loves it so much she keeps busy working here 5 days a week.  For 10 weeks last year, her and Dr. Erica Smith, DVM, one of our veterinarians here at PEP, worked together at Cub Creek summer camp.  This gave her a wonderful experience caring for a lot of different kinds of exotic animals such as a Lemur, the fox in the photo, and peacocks, as well as other animals.  In her spare time, Alice also enjoys crafting of any kind, gardening, canning and cooking.

Dea Asher - Office Staff
Dea grew up in West St. Louis County.  While in college at Central Missouri State University she started working for McDonalds Corp.  After graduating college, she continued with McDonalds in the Kansas City area for about 4 years, later moving to Southern California and continuing with McDonalds.  After about 10 years Dea decided to go in a different and better direction and started her career in the pet field.  After working 4 years a small pet boarding and grooming facility, she moved to the East coast to work for the growing company, Best Friends Pet Care Boarding and Grooming.  Leaving Best Friends after 18 years Dea moved to Arizona to be close to family.  Two years later, she and her sister moved back to Missouri, settling in Owensville.  Dea has volunteered at PEP for 3 1/2 years.  She states, "I feel I have been very fortunate to be able to be in the animal care world for 25 years."  She is a proud parent of Cassie (Dachshund #6) and two Finches, Leroy and Jethro.  She volunteers at Helping Hands, Gasconade Co., food pantry, enjoys pet sitting, reading, boardgames with friends, jigsaw puzzles, and being outdoors.


Our Clinic Cats:

Gracie
Donna is our Office Manager but Gracie would beg to differ.  As you can see here, she keeps a close eye on the staff to keep us all in line.

Gracie came to us in about 2017.   Similarly to Butterball, she ended up becoming our clinic cat due to health issues the owner couldn't afford to keep up with.  Her skin allergies were so bad she was almost bald on over half her body.  Other duties she performs here at the clinic include sitting on all the male client's laps to make them feel welcome, keeping purses and coats warm by laying on them when not in use, and grudgingly showing Butterball the ropes around here.



Butterball
Butterball came to us in 2018.  She has skin allergy issues as well as being quite a bit overweight.  Due to the cost of medicines to keep her allergies under control, her owner couldn't afford to take care of her.  We kept her here at the clinic, trying to find a new home for her, (which we normally aren't involved in but this was a special case) but everyone fell in love with her so, she in now our second office cat.  Her original name was Buttercup but due to her weight issues, she has affectionally been nicknamed Butterball instead.