Meet Our Staff

We invite you to meet the Doctors and Staff of Kilshannagh Veterinary Clinic.

Dr. Alison Kaufman, Dr. Mark Aiken, Dr.Tina Aiken (back row left to right)
Laura DePaoli, Nancy Mosher (front row left to right)

Dr. Mark Aiken

Dr. Mark grew up in a farming family in Ireland and was drawn to veterinary medicine as a result of his exposure to the farming world as a child, and especially because of his fondness of horses. He pursued his desire to become a veterinarian by training at Cambridge University Veterinary School in England. It was in Cambridge that Mark met Tina, who was participating in an exchange program between her school, Hannover Veterinary School in Germany, and Cambridge.

He graduated from Cambridge in 1991 and to satisfy his wanderlust, began working in a mixed practice in New York while Tina returned to Germany to complete her training. He returned to Great Britain in 1993 and worked for 2 years in a long-established practice. Tina had by then graduated and was also working in Great Britain. However, having experienced the “New World”, Tina and Mark returned to the USA in 1995 and he resumed working in the same practice in New York, eventually becoming a partner there. Tina accepted a position in a practice in Westchester County.

As his career developed in a mixed practice setting, he devoted more and more time to pursuing exclusively equine medicine. His desire to attend only to horses led him (with his wife Tina) to open Kilshannagh Veterinary Clinic in the summer of 2005.

Since the opening of the practice, Mark has provided a complete range of equine veterinary services. He devotes a considerable amount of his time to working on lameness issues, an aspect of his work that he finds particularly interesting.

Since Kilshannagh Veterinary Clinic opened, it has been Mark’s philosophy to provide high quality equine veterinary services, embracing the latest technology, but at the same time, to remain small, accessible and responsive to his clients.

Outside of work, and, depending on the time available, Mark likes to travel, hunker down with a good book, potter around the property including his vegetable garden, ski, sail or ride his horse (as best he can!), or just kick back with his dogs and cat!!!

Dr. Tina Aiken

Dr. Tina grew up in Cologne, Germany. As a child she had various pets and developed a passion for dogs and horseback riding. Her father was an internal medicine doctor in Cologne and her mother worked as a physiotherapist. Tina’s love of animals and her exposure to the medical world through her parents, led her to Veterinary School in Hannover. During her time there, she took the opportunities presented to her to participate in exchange programs with other Veterinary Schools in Utrecht (Holland) and Cambridge (England). In Cambridge she met her future husband, Dr. Mark.

From the outset, Dr. Tina was intrigued by the role that good nutrition and alternative therapies could play in the maintenance of good health in both animals and people. After completing her veterinary education at Hannover in 1992, she stayed on at Hannover to complete a dissertation in veterinary microbiology and then, in 1993, joined Mark in the United Kingdom in a large, well-established small animal and equine practice.

In 1995, Dr. Tina relocated to the USA, where Mark had previously spent some time in veterinary practice. She joined a well-known holistic veterinary practice in Westchester County, New York, about an hour away from where Mark was located at the time.

After her arrival in the US, Dr. Tina trained with the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society and underwent training in Veterinary Chiropractic Therapy at Tufts University.

In 2005, Dr. Tina and her husband, Mark, opened Kilshannagh Veterinary Clinic at their farm in Ancramdale, Columbia County, New York. Her rationale in opening the practice was to provide a comprehensive combination of traditional and alternative veterinary therapies for small animals and horses, in an approachable and medically current manner.

When Tina is not at work, she likes to play in a number of different ways, usually with her Labradors Lucy and Molly. Snowboarding, downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, sailing, horseback riding and gardening are all on her list of hobbies. Most of them she does with her dogs in tow………!!!!!

Dr. Alison Kaufman

Dr Alison grew up in Westchester County, New York, where she was active in the Hunter/Jumper world. She earned her veterinary degree from Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in 1999. On graduation, she completed a private practice internship in equine medicine in State College, Pennsylvania and then worked as Resident Veterinarian on a large breeding farm, also in Pennsylvania.

In 2002, Alison moved to Dutchess County, New York, working in private equine practice both in New York, and subsequently Connecticut.

After the birth of her twin sons Max and Jared, she continued in practice but on a part-time basis and incorporated some regulatory work for the United States Equestrian Federation into her schedule.

In the summer of 2008, Dr. Alison joined Kilshannagh Veterinary Clinic to help with the expansion of the equine side of the practice. She is especially interested in preventative medicine, dentistry and internal medicine. She enjoys general practice and derives much satisfaction from helping clients to gain the most from their horses, be it for companionship or performance.

Outside of her career, Alison is a devoted mother, and when she can, likes to hike, ski, kayak, and relax with family and friends.

Laura DePaoli

Laura DePaoli grew up in Putnam and Dutchess Counties, New York, where she has been involved in equestrian sports since her youth. Besides her close affinity with horses, Laura has had at various times goats, chickens and various other birds, a miniature donkey and rabbits. At the moment she enjoys the companionship of a black Lab, a Jack Russell Terrier and a cat.

Before joining Kilshannagh, she worked in a range of positions in graphics, advertising, marketing and international equestrian travel. As well as her duties at the clinic, she manages to find time to be the manager of The Chris Mahoney Project (a guitar instrumental group), and to do freelance horse exercising and training.

She has a teenage daughter, Taylor, who helps out at the clinic during her vacations. Taylors’ intention is to become a veterinarian, and she is working hard to attain that goal.

Laura’s duties at Kilshannagh include working in reception, bookkeeping and ordering and helping the Doctors with their work.

Besides being Mom to Taylor, Laura also enjoys horseback riding, music, art, yoga, hiking and travelling.

Nancy Mosher

Nancy Mosher was raised on her father’s dairy farm in Dutchess County, New York, and grew up exposed to all types of animals – working dogs, cows, horses and a menagerie of different pets ranging from rabbits, cats, dogs to pigeons, parakeets and the occasional skunk!

She has been interested in holistic health care for animals for many years, as well as traditional Western medicine and has taken classes in raw diets and nutrition, acupuncture, acupressure, massage and chiropractic care. In addition, she has studied herbal medicine and classical homeopathy.

Her greyhound Presh and lurcher Sam currently share her home. Nancy is a board member, treasurer and webmaster for the American-European Greyhound Alliance and through fund-raising efforts, has been instrumental in helping greyhounds find loving homes in the US and abroad.

At Kilshannagh, Nancy performs a wide range of duties from manning reception and the phones, handling laboratory samples and equine paperwork such as Coggins and Health Certificates, to assisting the Doctors in their daily duties.