Dr. Muñoz grew up in Miami, Florida, with a passion for both art and animals. She moved to Chicago in 1996, and graduated from the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine in 2014 and has since worked in both feline-specific and general practices. Dr. Muñoz is also a dedicated volunteer at high-volume spay and neuter clinics and serves as the staff veterinarian for The Catcade, a non-profit feline rescue.

Dr. Muñoz joined BLVD Vet Ravenswood in 2020, where her passion for feline care helped inspire the creation of BLVD Cat. As a key part of its development, she ensured that the space was designed to provide a comfortable, feline-only veterinary experience. Known as BLVD Cat’s resident feline whisperer, Dr. Muñoz is committed to providing the best care for every cat and helping cat owners become their pets’ strongest health advocates.

Outside of her work, Dr. Muñoz enjoys cooking vegetarian meals, long-distance walking, gardening, and reading. She shares her home with her husband, John, and their two cats, Febby and Lambert.

‍

Originally from Iowa, Dr. Alyssa Blanchard has loved calling Chicago home since beginning her path of post-high school education in 2011. Though she always knew she wanted to work in healthcare, her passion for veterinary medicine was sparked while volunteering at PAWS Lurie Spay & Neuter Clinic during her undergraduate studies.

Dr. Blanchard has been feline-obsessed since childhood and feels incredibly fortunate to dedicate a large part of her career to feline medicine, working with clients who share her deep love for cats. Her own beloved cat, Margie—named after a local candy shop—is the apple of her eye.

What Dr. Blanchard loves most about being a veterinarian is the variety that comes with each day. She might take on the roles of a surgeon, dentist, dermatologist, or ophthalmologist, all in a single shift! She is also a proud member of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the British Veterinary Association (BVA), as well as a Cat Friendly Practitioner® through the FelineVMA and Fear Free Certified®.Outside of work, Dr. Blanchard enjoys traveling to new places, honing her yoga practice, and hunting for the best cup of coffee in Chicago.

Dr. Courville is a Michigan native, but has been in Chicago since 2020. During her undergraduate she studied Animal Science and was so ambitious she actually got into vet school a year early. Dr. Courville says she knew she wanted to be a veterinarian at just five years old. Her aunt, who was a vet tech, gave her a tour of their local vet clinic and she was hooked! Dr. Courville observed her first surgery (a cat spay), when she was 13. She was fascinated by what she saw and decided to take more science classes at school. By the time she got to college, she knew she had made the right choice.

She has a special interest in treating internal medicine cases in cats. She’s a big supporter of using low-stress techniques on all patients, but she has seen the benefit of doing so especially in her feline patients. Dr. Courville says her favorite part about being a veterinarian is the relationships she makes with pets and their families. 

Dr. Raju has been a practicing veterinarian since 2008. Before embarking on her career in vet med, she was a software consultant for several years during which time she often dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. However, seven years of additional schooling and training seemed like too enormous a challenge. Then in the wake of an unexpected personal and family tragedy, she saw every day how her pets kept her going and helped her to heal. She couldn’t put it off any longer. Dr. Raju loves animals and medicine, but says she is a veterinarian because she knows that often the best way to help humans is to take good care of their best friends.

Dr. Raju is a certified Feline Veterinary Medical Association Cat Friendly practitioner. She has fostered 41 pets for various rescues, of which 30 were cats and kittens, and three of them ended up becoming part of her family. Long before becoming a veterinarian, Dr. Raju had a strong interest in the specific nutritional needs of cats, which as they say, are not small dogs. Her favorite thing about cats is how perfectly adapted they are to being predators. It means that keeping their minds and bodies healthy requires satisfying those instinctive needs and behaviors, but it’s what makes them so fascinating.

Dr. Bennett is native to Tennessee, but moved to Chicago in 2015 all the way from Dublin, Ireland where she completed her Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine. When she was three, her dad left her in their truck for a minute with the door open, and when he came back, she had a kitten in her lap! He became her very first pet, Raggs.

Dr. Bennett is a board-certified feline specialist, meaning she has undergone additional training post-vet school to gain even more knowledge of general medicine and surgery for felines. Dr. Bennett says that new kitten appointments are one of her favorite things about being a vet. She can’t have her own cat because her husband is severely allergic, so she is thankful that she can use up all of her cat love on the BLVD Cat patients!

‍