Veterinary professionals can influence policy without entering politics, 2026 AVMA Convention speaker says

Veterinary professionals do not need a seat in Washington to influence policy, according to Dilara Kiran, DVM, MS, who spoke with dvm360 following her session, "Veterinary Voices in Policy Spaces," at the 2026 American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Convention in Anaheim, California. Kiran said opportunities to engage exist throughout the profession. Technicians and practitioners, for example, can raise protocol changes with a practice manager, bring concerns to a state health board, or contact a local county board of health. She also distinguished policy from politics, describing politics as the bargaining and conflict surrounding decisions, and policy as the outcome itself. For veterinarians hesitant to engage because of concerns about science being politicized, Kiran said those fears should not be a barrier to entry.

Below is the transcript, which has been lightly edited for clarity.

Dilara Kiran, DVM, MS: My name is Dr. Dilara Kiran, and I wear a couple different hats right now. I am an associate veterinarian in a small animal general practice in Colorado with NVA [National Veterinary Associates]. I am the editor in chief of the Journal of Science Policy & Governance, which focuses on early career individuals publishing policy-related pieces and manuscripts, and then I also serve on the Women's Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative Board of Directors.

I became involved in policy about almost 10 years ago now, starting as a student who really was seeing that there was a public distrust of science coming out. There weren't a lot of opportunities for connection, communication, getting some of these skills, and basic scientists and practitioners have a really sometimes hard time communicating some of the more technical scientific findings to a general audience. And so through that, I did some opportunities with the AVMA [American Veterinary Medical Association], some of their legislative fly-ins, their externships, and then got involved in some of these other organizations, like the journal I'm involved in now, and I've kept myself in this space that way.

dvm360: What is one misconception about advocacy or policy engagement among veterinary professionals?

Kiran: I think a lot of people, when they think of policy, they immediately think of federal government policy, when in reality, there are policies in place in your practice. There are policies that you could talk to your practice manager about if you're a technician or a practitioner. There are policies that you could go to your state health board or your local county board of health and talk to. Just because you're not interfacing on the federal level doesn't mean that you can't engage in policy.

Second, policy is not necessarily the same thing as politics. Politics is a little bit more about the bargaining, the compromise, the conflict, and how decisions impact certain individual interests, rather than policy being the thing that we want to get done, the outcome, the action. A lot of policy is political, but it doesn't all have to be politicized, and so if there's barriers to entry because you're worried about how science might get twisted, there are opportunities available, and I don't think that that should be a barrier to anybody.