About

Marlene Poe, DVM

  • Wife
  • Mother
  • Veterinarian
  • Rheumatoid Arthritis Warrior
  • Running Enthusiast
  • Follower of Jesus

Who are you? While seemingly a simple question, it really is not. The answer is one of evolution, self-discovery, and the constant change that is life.

In my teens I was a animal-loving, trumpet playing straight-A student who seemed to have it all together. But below the surface I was a girl who felt isolated and just wanted to fit into her small town high school. I was a girl who faced bullying for her weight, her nerdiness, her appearance. I was a girl who was faced with the sudden death of a friend but was poorly equipped to cope with the loss in a healthy way. I was a go getter who had only one thing in my sights: getting into veterinary school at Washington State University.

In my twenties I was a college student who was taking her love of animals to the next level by pursuing a degree in veterinary medicine, making friendships that would last a lifetime while doing so. I was a perfectionist to the core as well as a people-pleaser. While these qualities helped me be so very successful they also left me struggling against the demons of anxiety and depression…demons who I now realize started whispering lies to me much earlier in life. It was during this time of my life I took on the “hats” of wife as I married my husband Ryan and veterinarian as I graduated and moved into “the real world.”

As my entered my thirties I took on new hats–those of mom and practice owner. Ten years earlier I had no desire to be a mom and nowhere on my radar was owning a practice, but God had different plans for me. As I look back over my life I can see His fingerprints throughout, preparing me along each point of my journey to be where I am for a reason. My thirties was a decade of transformation as I learned to fight against my demons, to reach out for help, to see the truth of the Gospel and, by the end of the decade, find freedom to be my true self set free by a confidence rooted in Jesus’s love.

Now entering my forties I’m starting a new chapter: rheumatoid arthritis patient. But I prefer to be a warrior, not a patient. I prefer to fight back against this disease with all my heart and soul rather than sit idle and allow it to take my joy. I prefer to make lemonade out of the lemons that every day life can provide. There has been a common thread to all of these stages of life: my love of running. In all honesty it was the only thing that kept me sane and alive during the real rough spots along the way.

But who am I really? I am Marlene Poe, DVM. Wife of wheat farmer and cattle rancher Ryan Poe. Mother of future farmer James and future veterinarian Katie. Owner and sole vet at Grand Coulee Veterinary Clinic, where myself and my awesome team work daily to provide the best that we can to our diverse small town community. I’m a lover of horses, dogs, cat, bunnies, cattle and pretty much anything with fur (no scales or feathers, please). I’m a musician at heart who loves to sing and who is waiting for the season of life where I can have the time to return in earnest to playing my violin and trumpet. Since that time has yet to arrive I’ll stick to singing praise and worship songs at the top of my lungs while cooking dinner. I’m a daughter, a sister, a friend. I’m a child of God. I’m just another person trying to navigate the messiness that is life in our current world.

Come join me now as we travel the gravel roads that I call home. Join me on my quest to provide hope to those who have struggled as I have, who have hit the bottom of the pit and then scratched their way back to the light. Who need to hear the words “it will be ok, you’ll be ok.” Who need reassurance that reaching out for professional help and airing your laundry doesn’t mean you are weak, it doesn’t mean you are any less of a person. But rather, it means you are human and need the empathy, compassion, and support of other humans to navigate this thing called life.

Come, walk with me.