Meet the Team
After obtaining her degree in veterinary medicine, Dr. Jarvinen completed a rotating internship in Small Animal Surgery, Medicine, and Emergency at the Angell Animal Medical Center, in Boston, MA.
At Angell, she developed a deep commitment to Emergency Medicine. While working in Emergency and Specialty Referral Centers, she realized that Urgent Care remains in most areas an underserviced need, including in the Alexandria, VA district. To meet the need for Emergency Medicine in the region, she decided to launch EMMAvet – Veterinary Urgent Care to provide state-of-the-art care to the area’s cherished dogs and cats.
Dr. Jarvinen is the daughter of Foreign Service parents. She and her older sister, Lilian, began their lives in Hong Kong, Togo, and Morocco, after which time the family moved for their school years to Fairfax, VA.
EMMAvet (EMergent Medical Attention) is named after one of her own dogs, Emma (a somewhat eccentric hound you might meet at the clinic). Her other precious pet is Jaildog, a little hound mix found on the streets of Tennessee during a spay/neuter clinic. Jaildog had been raised by inmates, hence her name.
Dr. Jarvinen and her husband, Mike, spend as much of their time as possible outdoors with their two dogs, and they enjoy traveling the world as often as possible.
Dr. Nolan returned home to Maryland to start a family and begin her career in emergency and urgent care medicine. In her free time, she loves traveling, reading, indulging in movies, sampling great food, spending time with her family, and being active outdoors with her vizsla, Ava.
Dr. Wootton worked as a veterinary assistant at two local feline-exclusive hospitals prior to attending veterinary school. Her professional interests include geriatric medicine and working with patients with challenging demeanors...especially torties!
When she’s not working, you can find her enjoying travel, food and wine, theatre, swimming, OrangeTheory Fitness, reading, and sports (especially Hokie football). She lives in Arlington with a wonky-eyed grey tabby named Emme.
Chrissy was raised in Northern Virginia and around the world as the daughter of diplomats. Her parents' jobs in the foreign service took her to Mexico, Turkey, and Portugal as a child. It was Ankara, Turkey in particular where she fell in love with and cared for many of the stray cats in her neighborhood during those years.
Chrissy lives in Arlington and is owned by a big lug of a cat named Stanley. Outside of work she loves to catch live music as much as she can and tries to stay hip to the latest and greatest in music and pop culture.
She has spent the past several years as a surgery nurse and comes to EMMAvet with a desire to grow the surgical side of our primary care expansion. Danielle’s professional interests include dentistry, pain management, and senior pet care. In her free time she enjoys caring for her growing plant collection, being outdoors with family and friends, thrift store shopping, and spending time with her two rescue cats, Dahlia and Keeli.
Shortly before graduating, Ashleigh began working at a large referral practice and became interested in rehabilitation medicine. In 2012 she graduated from the University of Tennessee's Canine Rehabilitation Program, a curriculum in which veterinarians, veterinary nurses, and physical therapy professionals become educated in veterinary rehabilitation. In 2018, she took her devotion to rehabilitation a step further by becoming one of only two veterinary nurses to pass the Academy of Physical Rehabilitation Veterinary Technicians (APRVT) exam earning her Veterinary Technician Specialist (VTS) certification in Physical Rehabilitation.
Ashleigh has a cat named Michael Keaton and an Ibizan Hound named Ferdinand (the bull)!
Shannon lives in Centreville where she loves spending quality time with her husband and two sons, Matthew and Brandon. She is excited to join the EMMAvet team for the close-knit atmosphere and gold standard care offered!
Kathy’s passion for animals collided with her career path when she stumbled upon a stray cat while living in New Hampshire. After taking him to the local humane society, she began volunteering walking and training the dogs. From there she was able to turn her volunteering into a full time job and for the next 15 years worked in animal welfare management combining her business background with her passion for helping animals. Most recently, Kathy was a supervisor at a local specialty vet practice where she was able to continue to help animals and the people who love them. In her free time she is very active with a local dog rescue, enjoys visiting local wineries, and watching FSU sports. Kathy lives in Alexandria with her husband Andy and their six rescue dogs - Teenie, Sam, Bruno, Pippi, Patty, and Roscoe (the token non-hound).
EMMAvet is thrilled to have Kathy join our team as a Client Service Representative.
Now Carlena is excited to join EMMAvet Urgent Care as a CSR. She is looking forward to advancing her career and being involved in the community. She is dedicated to providing the utmost care to clients and patients
Carlena has always shown her compassion and caring for animals through her work. Previously she worked as a Veterinary technician at Veterinarian hospitals in the Prince Georges County and Charles County Region.
Carlena believes she could not have made it this far in life without the support of her loving daughter. In her spare time, Carlena enjoys going to church, having game nights with friends and Sunday dinner with family.