Biography

Heleen Kellij-Klunder was born in 1992 and grew up in Meppel. As a child she regularly visited family with a dairy farm in Denmark and fell in love with cows. She studied Veterinary Medicine at Utrecht University. After she finished her Master in Large Animal Health in 2016, she worked for eight years as dairy veterinarian in Drenthe. Her work included treating individual animals and supporting dairy farmers in order to optimize their dairy management. She enjoyed working together with the farmers towards better animal health and welfare and had a special interest in udder health and reproduction. Besides, she taught pathophysiology and large animal health in Secondary Vocational Education for paraveterinarians. Since 2024 she works at Royal GD in Deventer as a member of the Ruminant Health monitoring team and as udder health specialist. Heleen: “In udder health, everything comes together. Pathogens, nutrition, immunity, management and animal welfare. That makes it incredibly interesting! It is inspiring to exchange thoughts with farmers and veterinarians, and always a pleasure and honour to visit farms to help solve udder health problems.”