Our Team

Dr. Emily Leonard

Dr. Leonard started practicing veterinary medicine in 1999 after graduating from Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine in St. Kitts, West Indies. Her veterinary career started in Upstate New York practicing companion animal, large animal, and emergency medicine. She and her 2 girls, Brooke and Lily, moved back to her hometown of St. Louis in 2009. In St. Louis she worked at Veterinary Specialty Services in the emergency and critical care department as well as in a private practice for companion animals in Manchester. Dr. Leonard always admired Cherry Hills Veterinary Hospital founded by Dr. Christine Simcik. In July 2014 Dr. Simcik contacted Dr. Leonard with tears in her eyes and said she was ready to retire and felt the Leonard family would continue the practice with each individual patients best interest at heart.

Pam Eder, Office Manager

Pam lives in Fenton with her husband Skip and her 6 rescue dogs/cats…Ralphie, Evee, Penny, Karl, Simon & Glenn.

She has always had multiple pets and animals have always been her passion. She started working in the veterinary field in 2012 and immediately fell in love with being in the animal care environment.

When she’s not working at CHVH she is helping to rescue animals and volunteers with several local rescue organizations, works with her husband in real estate, kayaking, gardening, and spending time with her 2 adult sons.

Avery Rogers, Registered Veterinary Nurse & Hospital Manager

Avery Rogers is a Registered Veterinary Nurse who has been employed in the veterinary medical industry throughout the St. Louis area since February of 2008. Upon graduating from Sanford-Brown College – Fenton in 2009, she has worked in private companion animal medicine, emergency medicine, and most recently shelter medicine.

Her interests include anesthesia/surgery, dentistry, and radiology. In the summer of 2017, Avery volunteered at the St. Louis Zoo Veterinary Hospital and assisted the nurses there with procedures on a wide variety of species.

Avery lives with her husband Dave and daughter, Twila. She has a sassy tortoishell named Dee and an English Bulldog, Chuy – the sweetest girl in the world. In her spare time, Avery loves to collect bones, read books, and tend to her growing collection of indoor plants.

Avery is excited to be a part of Cherry Hills Veterinary Hospital and strives to deliver compassionate and progressive veterinary medical care to the entire community.

Mikaila Sayers, Registered Veterinary Nurse

Mikaila knew from a young age that she wanted to work in the veterinary field. Growing up she took any opportunity she could to be around animals, and had a large variety of pets of her own. Mikaila recently graduated from Midwest Institute in 2022 with a Veterinary Technician degree/Associate of Occupational Studies. During school she worked at Veterinary Specialty Services where she worked in the ICU and Emergency and Critical Care department. She is very excited to be working in a clinical setting and providing care to all the wonderful patients here at Cherry Hills.

Lisa McKinney, Veterinary Technician

Lisa McKinney has been employed in the veterinary medical industry throughout the St. Louis area since September of 1989. She has worked in small animal medicine and exotic medicine.

Before veterinary medicine, she was in human nursing and worked at Bethesda for 4 years.

For the last 20 years Lisa has been breeding and showing Shih Tzus. She currently has a standard poodle named Quinn and four Shih Tzus: Oscar, Ava, Tiffani, and Piper. All are finished Champions. She has Champion Shih Tzus all around the world including Belgium and Denmark.

In the past, she had a North American River otter “Bogart" and a Mink "Rust" as pets along with several other exotics from reptiles to other small mammals.

Lisa is excited to be a part of Cherry Hills Veterinary Hospital and strives to deliver compassionate veterinary medical care to the entire community.

Melanie Santos-Tapia, Veterinary Assistant

Melanie grew up in the St. Louis area with her four siblings. She currently has two dogs, Benji and Bunny. After watching the show, ‘Pitbulls and Parolees’, Melanie was inspired to work in the veterinary healthcare industry. Melanie enjoys watching movies and traveling, especially going to Chicago to visit her brother. In the future, Melanie would like to enhance her skills and knowledge in this field by pursuing a degree from a vet tech program.

Holly Bibb, Veterinary Assistant

Holly is currently enrolled in her last semester at a local community college where she will graduate with her Associate’s Degree and transfer to a four-year university. Starting at a young age, Holly has had a strong interest in veterinary medicine and her career goal is to become a veterinarian. Her first job was at a doggie daycare and she has continued to gain knowledge and skills since starting at Cherry Hills Veterinary Hospital. Holly’s love and passion for all animals has led to her parents collecting a petting zoo of animals including chickens, rabbits, goats and even a potbelly pig named Hamlet. Baxter, the family dog, can often be found trying to play with all his outside companions. In her free time Holly likes to read, watch movies and study.

Cricket, Reception (aka Donna Riehlman)

Cricket has always had a passion for animals and while growing up brought home strays with the hopes of keeping all of them. She was born and raised in Kentucky and became active in creating a local SPCA. Through determination and hard work, their group was able to raise the funds to build a much needed animal shelter. In 1981 she moved to St. Louis with her family, worked in a local insurance agency for 30 years and is now happy to be working as a receptionist at Cherry Hills Veterinary Hospital.

Brooke Leonard, Veterinary Assistant/Reception

Brooke is one of Dr. Leonard’s daughters. She currently attends The Fulton School. Brooke works as a receptionist as well as a vet assistant. Outside of work, she practices basketball, and volleyball. Brooke is looking forward to meeting new clients and patients at Cherry Hills Veterinary Hospital!

Lily Leonard, Reception

Lily was born in Upstate New York on November 30, 2007. She is another daughter of Dr. Leonard’s. Now she lives in St. Louis and attends school at The Fulton School at Saint Albans. Lily is a receptionist at Cherry Hills Veterinary Hospital and can’t wait to meet new dogs and cats!

Sarah Saak, Receptionist

Sarah was born in St. Charles, MO but started moving around the country when she was only 3. Her passions growing up were playing sports and working with animals. She volunteered at local vet offices and humane societies. In 2005, at the age of 19, she started working at a veterinarian’s office in Texas. She moved back to MO in 2010 where she continued working in the vet field. She started with us

in 2021. She has an Associate’s Degree in Business Management from St. Louis Community College. She is happily married, has one young son, and one young, big Great Dane. In her spare time, she enjoys attending rugby games with her husband, going to the movies, and she loves to read.

Debbie Conger, Reception

Debbie lives in Eureka with her husband and their two senior shelties, Kirby (pictured) and Zora. For several years, Debbie trained her shelties in agility and actively competed both in the St. Louis area and out of state. Kirby excelled at this sport and retired with two Master of Agility Championship titles in 2017. Zora demonstrated a great proficiency at learning the sport of agility but did not particularly care for the competition setting and therefore choose to be Kirby’s cheerleader.

Working at Cherry Hills is the next chapter in Debbie’s life after she retired from working for the State of Missouri for over 32 years. In her spare time, Debbie enjoys cycling on the Katy trail, walking her dogs, and reading.

(636) 458-3353