VWHA President
Jacintha M Wilmink DVM, PhD, Dipl RNVA ‘Woumarec’ Wageningen
Jacintha Wilmink graduated from Veterinary School of Utrecht University in The Netherlands in 1991 and started work in equine veterinary practice in New Zealand and the Netherlands. From 1993 until 2001 she has worked in the Department of Equine Sciences of Utrecht University, where she did a residence in equine surgery and a PhD on equine wound healing, both successfully finished in 2000, and she has been teaching wound healing and management to
veterinary students and veterinarians as well. Her area of clinical expertise and interest is wound management and she has developped and evaluated a new method for skin grafting in horses, i.e. the Meek micrograft technique.
Since 2003, she runs her own consultancy on wound management and reconstruction (“Woumarec”), focussing on the equine as well as companion animal wounds. She performs surgery in several clinics on complicated wounds and scars by applying skin grafting techniques and wound or scar reconstructions. Additionally, she advices practitioners on treatment of wounds. Apart from practical work, she is often invited as speaker on international congresses, and as lecturer for courses and workshops in the Netherlands and abroad, both on equine and companion animal wound management. Additionally, she has been and still is involved in international research on wound healing as well. She is coauthor of Equine Wound Management, 2 nd edition published in 2008 and 3 rd edition in 2017, and coauthor of Complications in Equine Surgery published in 2021.
Since 1997 she has been active as council member of the Veterinary Wound Healing Association, as recorder, membership secretary, course organizer and president. She has set up an international course on Equine Wound Management which has been run already several times in a number of countries: Sweden, United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway and in Italy. The first international course on Wound Management in Small Animals was set up and run in September 2012 in Gent. She has a leading role in the collaboration with the European Wound Management Association (the big human sister organisation of the VWHA), and in the organisation of the annual scientific VWHA-EWMA conferences since 2014. Recently she has started to set up a system of Equine Wound Centres over Europe with the aim to make specialized wound care accessible for each horse and each owner in each country. She is president of the VWHA since 2015 and still performs that task with great enthusiasm.
Her mission: translating scientific knowledge to practice thus improving wound management for the benefit of the future and welfare of the animal, the owner, and the pleasure in work of veterinarians.
If you like to know more, please see www.woumarec.nl.
contact: info@woumarec.nl
VWHA Treasurer 
Dr Michael Braun, German specialist in Pharmacology and Toxicology
Michael has a special interest in pharmacological influence on wound healing of antiseptics.
Publications:
Kietzmann, M. and Braun, M. (2006): Effects of the zinc oxide and cod liver oil containing ointment Zincojecol in an animal model of wound healing. Dtsch Tierarztl Wochenschr. 2006 Sep;113(9):331-4. German.
Braun, M., Lelieur, K. and Kietzmann, M. (2006) : Purinergic substances promote murine keratinocyte proliferation and enhance impaired wound healing in mice.Wound Repair Regen. 2006 Mar-Apr;14(2):152-61.
contact: membershipsecretary@vwha.nettreasurer@vwha.net
VWHA Secretary
Allie Matchwick, DVM, Diplomate ECVS
Allie qualified from the University of Bristol in 2012 and worked in a variety of small animal practices in Berkshire and London for four years and did her ECVS residency at Anderson Moores Veterinary Specialists, in Hampshire. During which time she published papers on the aetiology of patella luxation and complications post-tibial tuberosity advancement surgery. She also holds a certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice and is a member of the Australian and New Zealand college (Small Animal Surgery chapter)
contact: vet@alliematchwick.co.uk
Members of Council
Professor Cathrine T Fjordbakk
Cathrine T Fjordbakk is a 2003 graduate of the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science in Oslo, Norway. She did her internship in equine medicine and surgery at the Ontario Veterinary College before doing a ECVS residency at the Norwegian Vet School and sat the ECVS board exam in 2009. She completed her PhD in equine upper airway disorders at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) in 2014, and became professor in Equine Surgery at the same institution in 2022. Prof. Fjordbakk is also a Diplomate of the ECVSMR and her research interests lies mainly within sports medicine, specifically equine upper airway disorders and orthopedics, as well as translational research within the novel field of bioelectronics. She has authored/co-authored more than 40 peer-reviewed scientific publications.
Prof. Fjordbakks’ genuine interest in wound healing has made her an renowned speaker at national conferences regarding this topic, which is amongst the topics she teaches to the undergraduate students at the NMBU
contact: cathrine.fjordbakk@nmbu.no
Neeltje Deetman-Drijfhout, DVM 
Neeltje Drijfhout graduated in Veterinary Medicine in 2007 at University of Ghent, Belgium and worked as an emergency and critical care vet for small animals for the last 10 years in The netherlands, this is where the interest in wound healing started. She became a council member after the course of Jacintha in woundmanagement for small animals, she is responsible for the website.
Neeltje’s interests are on traumatology, wound healing and wound management and small animal emergency en critical care.
Contact: neeltje.drijfhout@anicura.nl
Milosz Grabski, DVM, Diplomate ECVS 
Milosz obtained his veterinary education from the University of Edinburgh, UK.
He subsequently completed two rotating clinical internships in the USA and Belgium. Following a three year surgical residency at the University of Bristol, UK he become a Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Surgeons and a specialist equine surgeon. Having completed a 3 year’s long tenure at Sweden’s only veterinary college in Uppsala (SLU), he serves a position of a lead surgeon at Equivet Serwis Equine Hospital in Poland.
His primary interest are surgical treatment of orthopaedic disorders and wound care
contact: milosz.grabski@yahoo.co.uk
Piotr Bobrowski, DVM
Sigrid Grulke, DVM, Diplomate ECVS
Sigrid became a diplomate of ECVS at the University of Liege in 1994 and has a doctorate in veterinary science.
She is working in surgery, orthopedics and dentistry at the clinique equine de la CVU and also as
professor in equine surgery. She supervises residents in training for the college of surgery.
contact: sgrulke@uliege.be
Fernando Reina, DVM, Diplomate ECVS
Fernando graduated in veterinary medicin from the University of Cordoba in 2004. After several years of working in Spain and United kingdom, he started the European residency in small animal surgery at the University of Dublin, Ireland and became a European specialist in Small animal surgery in 2019. He works as a specialist in surgery at a private referral center in Spain, specialised in traumatology, soft tissue surgery and skin reconstructions, neurosurgery and orthopedics. Fernando is a speaker at national and international conferences.
contact: Fernando.reina@anicura.es