Co-founder, CEO
Nicole was born and raised in Whitestone, Queens, where her parents would only allow pets without fur. She and her brother took full advantage of that and had fish, turtles, lizards, newts, frogs, gerbils, mice and birds. She raised and hand-fed baby cockatiels and conure parrots, and they had a beloved box turtle named Boxy that they rescued from becoming roadkill. She always wanted to work with animals, particularly as a field biologist to study African elephants in the wild.
She has worked in over 13 animal hospitals in every position from front desk client service, veterinary assistant and veterinary technician and overnight emergency technician. She is on a mission to improve the experience at the hospitals for both patients and their human parents, and she is confident there’s always room for improvement.
She and her family have a motley crew of adorable rescues. Roscoe, a 115-pound chocolate Lab/ Great Dane mix who is a smart and sneaky character; Hamza, a pit bull/Boxer mix who was starved, abandoned and left tied up in the lobby of our hospital (sweetest boy in the world!), and Nuke, a Belgian Malinois mix who almost died from Leptospirosis as a puppy (the prior owner did not want to pay for his medical treatment and surrendered him to us). And a sweet mush of a tabby cat named Murray who was also abandoned at our hospital.
Nicole has been married to Dr. Stephen Katz since 1995, the same year they opened the original hospital on the Grand Concourse. They have three daughters, two of whom work in the hospital. In her free time, she enjoys playing with the family pets and going to the gym. She is a certified personal trainer and loves helping women become stronger and more confident. She is also a nature lover and avid hiker, and she has climbed some of the highest mountains in the Northeast including Mt. Katahdin in Maine and Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.
