Elise Burns head shot cropped for article

Photo courtesy of Elise Burns

Elise Burns considered a career as a therapist and worked in human medicine staffing before founding a veterinary relief company in 2016.

The founder of a veterinary relief company who confessed last fall to impersonating a veterinarian so she could join a closed social media group says that the company "has done our best to address the issue, take action and move forward."

In an interview over Zoom this month, Elise Burns, CEO of Evette Staffing, told the VIN News Service that she has experienced no legal consequences from the admitted deception nor was she contacted by Meta, the owner of Facebook, the platform where her company was discovered to be using a false identity to infiltrate several private groups intended for veterinarians only.

The interview came about after a public relations company working for Evette emailed an invitation to a VIN News reporter to talk to Burns, pitching a Women's History Month story "exploring why veterinarians, a female-dominated industry ... are so burnt out and can still face gender inequity."

Asked in the interview how she aimed to regain the trust of veterinarians, Burns said: "It's been a difficult time, and all I can do is my best and show that as a leader and a female in this industry, I'm not going to hide or walk away or blame anyone else. I'm going to stand tall, take responsibility, apologize, and I'm going to do better."

Many veterinarians were incensed when they learned in November that Texas-based Evette had, for eight years, used the identity of an actual veterinarian to access private Facebook groups. (Relief veterinarians are hired by clinics and hospitals on a fill-in basis.)

The masquerade was exposed after someone affiliated with Evette tipped off the administrator of one of the social media groups. In an admission emailed on Nov. 20, 2024, to relief veterinarians working for her company, Burns said the reason for the impersonation was "gaining a better understanding of the issues and frustrations plaguing the industry ..."

Veterinarians who encountered the fake profile, however, told VIN News in November that it was used to glean information about competitors' contracts and price details and that it exploited the spirit of trust and mutual support in the groups to promote Evette.

Burns' confession at the time referred to a single private Facebook group and the assumption of a single veterinarian's identity. But administrators of four separate groups told VIN News that their groups were infiltrated by the same false profile. In addition, executives of three competing relief veterinarian businesses said they suspected that Evette may have used at least three more veterinarians' identities to join their online platforms.

Burns acknowledged by email last week that the false identity was "used in numerous Facebook groups and platforms."

In an article about the impersonation, D Magazine, a publication in Dallas, reported in December: "According to Burns, Evette has launched a third-party investigation with a law firm to sift through the company's information and servers. Burns claims that she is not sure who was using the account or how the person who was using it gained access to it."


Asked by VIN News about the status of the investigation, Burns said it is completed and "found no illegal activity was undertaken." She added: "We have made changes to our operations to ensure that this does not happen again."

She cited changes such as adopting a social media policy that must be signed by all employees and "heightened cybersecurity protocols of all our internal systems" such that a limited number of employees have access to information on any of its veterinarians.

Still seeking accountability

To administrators of two of the infiltrated Facebook groups, Burns' talk of taking responsibility rings hollow.

Dr. Melanie Goble, an administrator and founding board member for Not One More Vet (NOMV), a suicide prevention group for veterinarians, said consequences continue to ripple. She described anger at Evette as "still palpable" and added that "people are still very reactive when anyone asks for help or information now within the Facebook groups."

The administrator of the other group did not want to be quoted out of concern that revisiting the situation would spark a new wave of online fallout and stress for the team running the group.

Dr. Carrie Jurney, a NOMV founding board member, started an online petition in December titled "Holding Evette Staffing accountable for deceptive business practices!"

The petition recounts accusations of "identity theft, fraud and deceptive business practices" against Evette by closed Facebook group administrators, much of which has also been reported by VIN News.

"The multiple examples of this behavior demonstrates that this is not just a single misstep, but a pattern of unethical behavior," the petition states. "Furthermore, since this behavior has come to light, the company has presented a consistent message that the community backlash constitutes 'misinformation,' underscoring a lack of accountability or remorse on their part."

The petition, which has 2,110 signatures today, asks, among other things, that the Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general of involved states to pursue charges against Evette and Burns. Jurney said her group contacted the Texas Attorney General's office and was told it would pursue charges if NOMV could show public interest. 

As for a response from Evette, Jurney said NOMV received "a very disappointing boilerplate message from their board that it had 'been addressed.' "

Representatives of two of the relief companies who told VIN News last year that they believed Evette had misused veterinarian identities to gain access to company data said they had neither contacted nor been contacted by Evette since the accusations were published.

One, Dr. Ramzi Eid, a relief veterinarian and founder of VetRoam, a free platform matching relief veterinarians to hospitals, said he has ramped up his verification of new users, which he noted is a heavy burden for a full-time veterinarian who is the sole administrator of the site.

He added that since the controversy, some former Evette relief veterinarians have joined his platform.

Asked whether Evette has lost veterinarians since the false profile was disclosed, Burns said, "We add vets and lose vets every month" and that the net number has not changed significantly since November.

"Vets have also continued to join us from competitors, and we really see our competitors as other great companies in our space who are serving vets alongside us," she said.

Dr. Richard Medcraft, an Evette relief veterinarian for four years, told VIN News that while he has not gotten "a satisfactory explanation" from Evette about the false profile, he decided to remain with the company for the time being. "I have had a good experience as a relief vet with Evette," he said. "They have treated me very fairly in terms of scheduling and compensation, so I have had no complaints."

Some posters in online forums have called on Evette veterinarians to quit in protest. Medcraft said: "It is not that easy when other people depend on you for income, health insurance and the like."

CEO aims to 'lead the way in ... changing the conversation'

Burns founded the relief company in 2016 under the name VetIQ Staffing, rebranded in 2024 as Evette. Headquartered in Dallas, it has offices in Tampa, Philadelphia, Boston and Orange County, California, she said. Its workforce comprises nearly 70 internal staff plus 350 veterinarians — all but about 30 of them Evette employees — serving in practices throughout the United States, according to Burns. (She said the company previously provided relief staffing in Canada but no longer does.) Burns said the company is 40% owned by private equity investors.

Burns initially was reluctant to speak at length with VIN News about the impersonation, although she answered more questions by email later. "It just feels a little bit moving backwards, I think, especially for the company," she said on Zoom, "and my promise to them is that I've got to lead the way in moving forward and changing the conversation."

Burns said the company has hired its first internal staff veterinarian, Dr. Eric Mueller, to serve as vice president of clinical operations. While Mueller's role was one that Evette planned and budgeted for before the impersonation imbroglio, Burns said, "What happened just made me realize we were probably late" in creating the position.

According to a press release last week announcing his hiring, Mueller has been a veterinarian since 2011, has started two practices (one mobile and one bricks-and-mortar) and now practices at "a select few veterinary hospitals in the greater Atlanta area."

The announcement states that he will "manage a diverse team of veterinary ambassadors, promoting Evette's mission to bring veterinarians' voices to the forefront of important industry conversations and offer deep transparency into Evette's operations."

A public relations representative for the company initially agreed to schedule Mueller for an interview with VIN News, then said he was not participating in interviews "at this time."

Told by email that a number of veterinarians remain angry at Evette, Burns replied, "I understand that they feel betrayed and I promise we will do better and do our very best to earn back their trust ... by continuing to support vets and giving them new paths."

Burns said she would like to see veterinarians, particularly women, have more options for moving into leadership apart from the "traditional ways" like owning a practice.

As an example, she cited a relief veterinarian who has started a dog-hat business with her spouse even as she works full-time for Evette. "She was like, 'This gives me the flexibility to do something that I've only ever dreamed of,' " Burns said.

Speaking of her own entry into the veterinary staffing sector, Burns said she "grew up with recruiting in my blood" as the daughter of a single mother in the industry. Burns initially did not intend to get into recruiting herself but studied social work, meaning to become a therapist until she found that it "didn't feel like the calling."

Burns said she worked in human medicine staffing for a time before happening upon the idea of providing staff in veterinary medicine, which she said "mimicked the human field, but in some ways was behind. ... As I looked at it, there weren't that many options for veterinarians — female or male — who wanted something a little different than had been done for so many years.

"Maybe you didn't want to be an associate, and you did not have the stability to be able to do relief on your own. ... There were not a lot of staffing companies, and so [we] took a chance," she said. " ... Nine years later, we're here."