08/14/2026
It’s never too late to chase your dreams. 🐾
For Dr. Clara Winstead, the path to veterinary medicine wasn’t exactly a straight line.
Growing up on a working farm surrounded by dogs, cats, horses, and pigs, she always knew she wanted to work with animals. But when it came time to choose a career, her path initially took her somewhere very different: mathematics.
Dr. Winstead earned her undergraduate degree in mathematics, taught math, and was planning to pursue her PhD. But while working with local cat rescue groups, that childhood dream of working with animals came back to the forefront.
So, in her 30s, she decided to change course.
She headed to the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine and became the veterinarian she had dreamed of being as a little girl. ❤️
Today, Dr. Winstead has a particular passion for preventative care, internal medicine, dermatology, and surgery and says one of the most rewarding parts of her job is getting to meet so many different animals and the people who love them.
Her story is a pretty wonderful reminder that there’s no expiration date on becoming who you want to be.
But now that you know how Dr. Winstead became a veterinarian, here are a few things you might not know about her…
🐴 Horses are her favorite animal (besides dogs and cats, of course!)
🐱 At heart, she’s a cat person
☕ She’ll take hot tea over coffee
🏔️ Mountains over the beach
📚 Books over movies
🌅 Sunset over sunrise
🍬 Sweet over salty
✈️ Nicaragua is one of her favorite places she’s visited
🍽️ Brickhouse Run in Petersburg is a favorite local spot
Outside of West Creek, you can usually find her riding horses, reading, hiking, gardening, roller skating, or doing pretty much anything that gets her outside.
And when she heads home, she’s greeted by quite the crew: two Shetland Sheepdogs, Falkor and Ambrosius, and three cats, Tatooine, Pleiades, and Siddhartha. Pleiades, a Himalayan, is reportedly quite full of herself. 😂
And perhaps the best Dr. Winstead trivia of all?
She roller skates AND goes on Star Trek cruises. 🛼🖖
So yes… mathematics major turned veterinarian, horse rider, gardener, roller skater, cat person, and Star Trek cruise enthusiast.
We’re so glad Dr. Winstead decided to chase that childhood dream and even luckier that her path eventually brought her to West Creek. 💚
(📸 pictured is Dr. Winstead with her partner Kevin in Peru)
