Dr. Katherine Houpt, V’63, PhD’72, loves her work: “I wake up every day feeling glad and lucky to be part of this wonderful profession.”
Forget luck. Houpt’s illustrious career in veterinary medicine is the result of hard work and determination to break into what was, in her college years, a male-dominated field. Her trailblazing began at Penn Vet. Today, the founding figure in the discipline of veterinary behavior is investing in her veterinary roots.
Pioneering women of Penn Vet’s Class of 1963: (From left) Drs. Katherine Houpt, Elinor Brandt, Jeffie Roszel, and Joan O’Brien (not pictured: Barbara Henderson).
“Penn Vet accepted me when no other vet school admitted more than two women,” said Houpt. “There were five of us in the Class of ’63, and we had a great time. Overall, our classmates and professors treated us with respect, and we really held our own with the men.”
Pioneering a Discipline
Once upon a time, Houpt dreamt of being a large animal veterinarian. But, unlike Penn Vet, not everyone embraced the idea of female veterinarians. “As an undergrad at Penn State, I spent time on farms and saw that these guys and their fathers would never ask me to care for their animals,” she said. “I realized if I was going to work with the animals I loved, I should do it through research. So that’s where I focused my attention, as a student and then a VMD.”
After Penn Vet, Houpt earned a PhD in biology from the University of Pennsylvania. Board certified as a charter diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists, Houpt was the first woman appointed to full professorship at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine, where she served from 1989 to 2010. Since retiring 12 years ago, she has been a professor emeritus of behavioral medicine, conducting research and enjoying the extra time with her family, which includes a dog, a cat, horses, and chickens.
Houpt’s work is foundational to the discipline of animal welfare and behavior. She has published extensively — including Domestic Animal Behavior for Veterinarians and Animal Scientists, a pivotal textbook now in its sixth printing — and lectured worldwide on the topic. Her research has included improving animal welfare in a research environment, equine ingestive and maternal behavior, and companion animal behavior.
Bringing Others Along
While her Penn Vet years were great ones, Houpt was always aware that she and her four female classmates were in the minority. The experience inspired her to support other minority students at Penn Vet with the T. Richard and Katherine Albro Houpt Scholarship Fund, which she established in 2020.
And, just this year, Houpt turned her Penn Vet giving focus to her life’s work — animal welfare and behavior — with another gift that offers scholarships for students enrolled in Penn Vet’s certificate or MSc programs in animal welfare and behavior. Her gifts, she said, are investments in the future.
“Penn Vet gave me the opportunity to have many amazing experiences, and I want other bright students to have the same opportunities,” she said. “Of course, it prepared me for what has been a very satisfying career, but it was also where I met my husband. The funny thing is I almost didn’t go.
I was engaged to a guy, and he wasn’t happy when I was accepted to vet school — many men were threatened by smart, educated women. So, I declined and was devastated. Then, I changed my mind and enrolled, and broke up with the guy shortly after. Best decision I ever made. Three years later I married T. Richard Houpt [V’50].”