• I started my career as a primary care veterinarian where the nearest specialty hospital was more than 3 hours away.

  • I remember how isolated I felt as a provider and how I wanted more options for my clients & patients.

  • I'm here to connect you, your clients & your patients to behavioral health specialty services.

Marie Hopfensperger, DVM, MBA, DACVB, RYT-200

My mission is to make behavioral healthcare accessible for every pet & client, while empowering primary care veterinarians as behavioral providers.

As a board-certified veterinary behaviorist, my areas of clinical expertise include sedation of fearful and fractious companion animals, behavioral pharmacology, canine and feline aggression, and feline inappropriate elimination. My research interests include the behavioral health and welfare of shelter animals. My current focus is on assessment of shelter dog coping and pharmacologic interventions to support dogs who are struggling to cope in the shelter environment.

I was the first veterinarian ever selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Fellow. During this fellowship, my social work colleagues and I developed animal-assisted therapy (AAT) programming for survivors of sexual trauma and shelter dogs. As a One Welfare model of AAT, our goal was for programming to be beneficial for both human and canine participants.

I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan and graduated from veterinary school at Michigan State University (MSU) in 2009. I pursued my behavior residency while also serving as a primary care faculty member at MSU. I received an MBA from Central Michigan University in 2023.

I am also a passionate wellbeing activist and a registered yoga teacher. I fill my cup by trail jogging with my dogs, practicing yoga, baking, watching NFL, and screaming on the sidelines when my son plays power wheelchair soccer.

I share my life with a fierce & funny teenager, a supportive & strong partner, 6 cats, 2 dogs, and 1 rabbit.