Alexandra R. Carlson

Dr. Alexandra “Xan” Carlson grew up the middle child of five in Durham, North Carolina. Because she didn’t have pets of her own, she kept volunteering to look after neighbors’ animals, which turned into a lifelong interest in veterinary medicine.

She stayed in Raleigh for college, earning dual degrees in Animal Science and History at NC State University in 2015. She then entered veterinary school at NC State and took an extra interest in acupuncture, completing her certification through the Chi Institute. She earned her DVM and CVA in 2019.

Xan didn’t stop there. She deepened her training with internships at New England Equine Medical and Surgical Center and the University of Missouri. At the University of Tennessee, she balanced a PhD in comparative and experimental medicine—focusing on joint disease—with overnight shifts in the large animal hospital’s emergency service. She finished her doctorate in 2024 and spent a third internship at the University of Illinois getting back into clinical practice.

Her clinical interests center on surgery—she especially enjoys laceration repair and wound management—along with lameness workups and therapeutic podiatry. She isn’t afraid to get dirty if it helps a horse. She also loves to teach and looks for creative, visual ways to make complicated ideas clear.

When she isn’t working, Xan is usually out walking her mixed‑breed dog or tinkering with art projects and knitting.