Originally from Arlington, VA, Dr. Gidner holds dual undergraduate degrees from Virginia Tech: a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science and a
Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Performance. She went on to earn her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University in 2025, where she was
deeply involved in student leadership as president of the Cornell chapter of the Student AVMA and served on the national SAVMA executive board. She recently completed her rotating internship at Pieper Memorial Veterinary Center in Connecticut. Her clinical passions lie in small animal surgery and zoo/wildlife medicine.

Outside the hospital, she blends her medical career with a lifelong love for the performing arts. While at Cornell, she revived the Cornell Vet Players, a student theatre group, organizing comedy shows and talent performances. Dr. Gidner shares her home with two beloved cats: Juniper, who joined her during vet school, and Poppy, a rescue whose rare medical case was published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Education:

• Virginia Tech College of Animal and Poultry Sciences, B.S. Animal Science
• Virginia Tech College of Performing Arts, B.A. Theatre Performance
• Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, DVM

Publications & Research:

• Reinoso-Perez MT, Levitskiy AA, Ito M, Timmons JR, Cadwallader KN, Gidner RL, Roberts CE, Dhondt KV, Radcliffe RW, Booms TL, Henderson MT, Barger CP, Bowman DD, Lucio-Foster A, Virapin ML, Anderson DL, Nielsen OK. Spread of Haemosporidian Parasites to Alaskan Gyrfalcons (Falco rusticolus): 2017-2022. VI International Conference on Malaria and Other Blood Parasites of Wildlife and the
  Third International Symposium of the Wildlife Diseases Research Network. 2024. Oral presentation. (Presented by Reinoso-Perez
  MT)
• Gidner R, Buote N; Retrospective study to evaluate outcomes of canines undergoing lung lobectomy for pulmonary abscesses;
  manuscript in preparation.