Michael P. Lent, DVM
District 9 AVMA Board of Directors representative
Biographical sketch
Dr. Michael Lent has been a small animal practitioner in Tucson, Arizona, since 1996, where he continues to practice full time at Pantano Animal Clinic. He and his business partner owned the clinic for 20 years before selling it in 2016 to a private company, Lakefield Veterinary Group. Dr. Lent has continued to work as medical director of the clinic.
Dr. Lent is a 1991 graduate of Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine and practiced small animal medicine for five years in Indianapolis. He was born in Camp LeJeune, North Carolina. His father is a retired Marine captain who served in Vietnam, and his mother was a special education teacher. He grew up in northern New Jersey and graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine as a biochemistry major.
He has been involved in organized veterinary medicine for most of his 30-plus years in the profession, starting in veterinary school, where he served as Purdue president of the SCAVMA (Student Chapter of the AVMA). He served as president of the Arizona Veterinary Medical Association from 2006-07 and the Southern Arizona VMA from 1998-99. He also held a 5 1/2-year term on the Arizona State Veterinary Medical Examining Board (2004-09) and has been involved as a charter member with the Animal Cruelty Task Force of southern Arizona since its inception in 1998. As part of the task force, he assists law enforcement with investigations and educates the public about the link between animal abuse and human violence, especially domestic violence and child abuse.
Before joining the AVMA Board of Directors, he served as Arizona alternate delegate and then delegate to the AVMA House of Delegates.
Dr. Lent has spoken to veterinary students at Purdue and Midwestern University about the value of organized veterinary medicine, the importance of medical record-keeping and communication, and the link between animal abuse and human violence. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the National Association for Black Veterinarians after having attended its inaugural conference in New Orleans in 2019, speaking at the second conference at Ohio State CVM in 2022.
Dr. Lent served three years on the Humane Society of Southern Arizona board of directors and the Ott Family YMCA board of directors, where he was fundraising chair for two years and board chair for one. He has done charitable work (rabies vaccinations, spays/neuters and fieldwork) in Nicaragua with WorldVets and visited Cuba as part of a healthcare delegation with the People-to-People program.
He has been involved in legislative issues at both the state and national level. He testified at the Arizona state legislature when it defeated a lay practitioner challenge to the practice act in 2006, and has been involved in many other state issues, including telemedicine with respect to the VCPR and scope of practice. He also has participated in AVMA's Legislative Fly-In in Washington, D.C.
His wife, Dr. Stacey Lent, is an ACVIM diplomate and small animal internal medicine specialist, and a 1987 graduate of Kansas State CVM. They have two adult children, James and Joey.
He and his wife enjoy spending time at their cabin in the Coconino National Forest, at 7,000 feet elevation. They ski, fish, hike, and bike. His wife does dressage with her Lusitano, Gallie, and he teaches self-defense in Tucson. He holds the rank of black belt in Krav Maga in the Rising Phoenix system and also does some boxing, catch wrestling and edged weapons training. They have chickens, Pygmy goats, and three dogs on about five acres adjacent to Saguaro National Park East.