Carlos Sanchez

Carlos is currently the Head Veterinarian at the Veterinary Medical Center at the Oregon Zoo and has published over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles and presented in national and international conferences in different topics of zoo medicine. As part of his commitment with his Latino-American colleagues in 2001 he co-founded Latinvets, the largest organization of Latin-American zoo and wildlife veterinarians where colleagues help each other in diverse topics.

Carlos Sanchez was born in Bogota, Colombia but raised in Mexico so he considers himself MexiColombian. Carlos knew he wanted to be a zoo-veterinarian since he was a kid after seeing the 1st Giant Panda born in a zoo outside China in Mexico City. He studied veterinary medicine in Mexico and worked hard to chase his dream of working at the National Zoo in Mexico City. He ended up working at that zoo for 5 years working with that same Panda that he saw as a kid. To become a better veterinarian, he made the decision to leave Mexico and got a grant by the British government to study an MSc in Wild Animal Health at the Royal Veterinary College/Zoological Society of London. He returned to Mexico but decided to challenge himself again, and in the year 2000 he became the 1st Latin-American to ever be accepted in a highly competitive Zoo-Medicine Residency. He spent the next four years undertaking advanced training in zoo-medicine at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington D.C where he stayed as a veterinarian until 2010. He is now a dual Mexico-US citizen and has lived in the USA for the past 20 years. Carlos is very proud of his origins and is working along others to change the demographics of one of the least diverse professions in the US.