Owners:

Joseph Bergevin, DVM

Dr. Bergevin grew up on a small ranch in Ellensburg, Washington and was involved in High School and College Rodeo where he participated in tie down roping and team roping. He still enjoy going to ropings and rodeos with his wife in his spare time. He first became interested in veterinary medicine when traveling with his grandpa, who was a veterinarian, as a child. His dad is a farrier in the Puget Sound area and he began working for him at the age of 12.

He attended Central Washington University for undergraduate and graduated from Veterinary School at Washington State University in May of 2015. He completed a one year equine surgical internship at Texas Equine Hospital in Bryan, Texas. Following Texas, he spent time in Lexington, Kentucky working with an Equine Podiatrist and then came home to work for Pilchuck veterinary hospital in Snohomish, Washington. In his spare time he enjoys hanging out with his wife Cassie their son Jimmy and daughter Jaycee Mae. He enjoys going to rodeos and spending time on his family ranch in Ellensburg.

Cassie Bergevin, CPhT - Pharmacy Manager

Cassie Bergevin attended a Pharmacy Technician program in Yakima, Washington where she then graduated in April 2011. She then worked at Washington state university veterinary hospital pharmacy for four years while her now husband completed veterinary school. In 2015 she worked at Texas A&M veterinary hospital pharmacy and moved onto working at Bur Oak veterinary pharmacy in Kentucky. Once moving back to Washington State in 2017 she worked retail pharmacy for a bit but then directed her focus on raising her children.

Cassie grew up on a small farm in Maple valley, Washington. While growing up she participated in local 4-H, barrel races, motocross and rescuing ponies. She met her husband Dr.Joey Bergevin in 2008 and they were married June 7th, 2014. Cassie and Dr Bergevin have two children James Joseph born May 2016 and Jaycee Mae born March 2018. In her spare time she enjoys running the family ranch in Ellensburg, Washington, going to rodeos and spending quality time with friends and family.

Associate Veterinarians:

Dr. Jose M Casillas, DVM, DACVS (LA) - Surgeon

Dr. Casillas grew up between going to school in South Texas and working in a small family ranch in South-Central Mexico.

He attended veterinary school at Colorado State University and received his veterinary degree in 2016. After graduation, he completed a 1-year intensive internship at Texas Equine Hospital gaining experience in sports medicine, emergency medicine, surgery and podiatry. After the internship his training continued by completing a 3- year residency in Large Animal Surgery at Michigan State University. Upon completion of the residency, Dr. Casillas was hired at Michigan State as a Clinical Instructor of Large Animal Emergency Medicine and Surgery. Since then, he has also worked in private practices and as a consultant for several practices in the US and Mexico.

Dr. Casillas has experience working with most equine disciplines, from companion horses to high level athletes in both, private and university type of settings. He enjoys all aspects of equine practice but has a close preference for minimally invasive surgery, sports medicine, rehabilitation and podiatry. Dr. Casillas is board certified by the American College of Veterinary Surgeons.

Jim Lillich, DVM, MS, DACVS - Surgeon

Hailing from Santa Fe, New Mexico he received  his bachelor's degree from University of New Mexico.  He then traveled to Ft. Collins, Colorado completing his DVM at Colorado State (Summa Cum Laude, 1991). He completed his large animal Internship in Ithaca, New York at Cornell University. From there he was off to Columbus Ohio to complete his three year equine surgical residency at The Ohio State University. He has shared his expertise, training veterinary students and residents at Oklahoma State University, Iowa State University, and was on faculty for 22 years at Kansas State University. Dr. Lillich comes to us with over 30 years of equine surgical experience and is excited to join Dr. Jose Casillas in continuing to build our surgical department.  He has over 80 publications and book chapters to his credit. He prides himself on providing excellence if orthopedic surgical conditions, regenerative medicine, as well as general surgery.

Management Team:

Abby Slyfield, LVT - Practice Manager, Licensed Veterinary Technician

Abby Slyfield earned her Veterinary Technician License from Yakima Valley College in 2008. After graduating she worked in an equine private practice for 2 years. Her interest for equine medicine continued to grow and she moved on to Washington State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital. She worked in the equine surgery and medicine department from 2010-2017. At WSU she got to combine her passion for teaching and equine medicine. In 2017, Abby got married and moved to Ellensburg, Washington. Then expanded her experience as a veterinary technician and worked in a mixed animal practice and at Yakima Valley College teaching in the Veterinary Technician Program.

Abby’s spare time is filled with all things outdoors. She and her husband enjoy trail riding, hunting, and hiking together; and Abby competes in barrel racing with her two horses.

Pam Poole LVT - Operations Mgr, Anesthesia Technician

Pam grew up on her parents farm, Valley View Ranch, in Snohomish, WA showing horses in many disciplines with the majority being on the hunter/jumper circuit. She started her veterinary career in the late 90s mucking out stalls in a local veterinary hospital, working her way up to assisting in both the equine and bovine departments. She went to technician school at Pierce College and worked in laboratory medicine and mixed animal until landing back in the equine department as lead technichian in 2004, moving into managerial positions in 2017. She joined CWEH in september of 2021 as operations manager and anesthetist. Her career passions include equine anesthesia, diagnostic imaging, team building, and workflow organization. In her non work times she can be found shuffling kids to sporting events, working on her and her husband, Kevin's, property in Snohomish alongside a myriad of four legged helpers, or rockhounding somewhere in the PNW.

Beritt Dompier  - Accounting, CSR, Vet Assisting

Beritt grew up in the small town of Cedar Fort Utah, where her and her family spent most of their time in the roping pen. Following her families tradition, she began riding horses and competing in rodeo at a very young age. She competed in breakaway and team roping in jr high and high school rodeo which lead to her receiving a rodeo scholarship at Walla Walla Community College. In 2019 she qualified for the College National Finals Rodeo and competed in the breakaway roping for the Pacific Northwest Region. She graduated from WWCC in 2019 and soon after decided to make Washington home. She married her husband Dillon and in 2021 they had their daughter Louie Jeanne. 

Beritt knew at a young age that she enjoyed working with horses and she began working at South Valley Equine in 2015 as a Vet Assistant. She continued to work there until she completed school and soon after began working at a private small animal practice in Ellensburg for 1 year. Her passion for horses has lead her to want to continue working in the veterinary field and she began working at Central Washington Equine Hospital in early 2021. At CWEH you can find her assisting in all areas such as CSR, Vet Assistant, and in the finance department. In her spare time, Beritt enjoys spending time with her family and her animals outside of work strives to lead by example for her daughter Louie. 

Veterinary Assistants:

Anndie Lund - Veterinary Assistant

Anndie grew up in a small town in Utah roping and riding horses any chance she had. She competed in junior high and high school rodeos, which led to her attending school at Central Washington University where she competed in college rodeos while receiving her bachelor's of science degree in mechanical engineering technologies. She returned to Utah each summer to work at an equine hospital, where she learned to love helping horses. Anndie worked for CWEH part time during her senior year of college and started full time after graduation.

Anndie met and married her husband Derek, making her a full time Ellensburg resident in March of 2022. She loves the Kittitas valley and the opportunities that the valley provides to trail ride, rope, and fish.

Lydia Johnson - Veterinary Assistant

Lydia Johnson grew up in southwestern Washington on her family's dairy farm. Throughout her childhood she participated in Jr. Rodeo, High School rodeo as well as 4-h and FFA. Lydia attended Central Washington University where she competed in college rodeo. She graduated in 2020 with degrees in Environmental Resource geography, Rangeland management and Geospatial information systems, with a main focus on feral horse population management. Lydia moved to Montana shortly after graduation to work on an off-range holding facility for feral horses although; the job didn't pan out due to the pandemic, Lydia got a job working on pack station. Summer time included guiding pack trips into the Yellowstone and driving sleigh rides in the winter time. Recently, Lydia moved back to Ellensburg to join the team here at Central Washington Equine Hospital and continue her passion for horses. In her free time Lydia and her fiancé, Mathew enjoy riding their horses, traveling, hiking and spending time with family.

Jess Hartley - Veterinary Assistant

Jess was born and raised in a small town on the island of Maui where she discovered her passion for horses at a young age. She started competing in hunter/jumpers and rodeo but was introduced to polo at age 12. She and a few of her friends established Hawaii’s first female interscholastic polo team that went on to place in the top 5 at nationals. She then pursued polo at the collegiate level attending Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, CA where she and her team placed 3rd in the nation. She was offered a position in Calgary, BC training and managing a string of high goal polo horses for the 2016 season. 

Jess then moved to Washington later that year where she started working at Broadway Animal Hospital. Tending to a wide variety of small and exotic animals, she fell in love with veterinary medicine but found herself wanting to learn more about her equine athletes. She transferred to a large animal practice as an equine ambulatory and surgery assistant. In 2021, she joined the CWEH team excited to further her experience in assisting with lameness cases. She and her boyfriend Matt have two dogs and six horses. They enjoy training horses, competing in rodeos, hunting, fishing and spending time with friends. 

Receptionist/CSR

Rileigh McClure - Receptionist

Rileigh grew up on a beef cattle ranch in Eastern Oregon, where she participated in junior rodeo and 4H. She attended Montana State University and graduated in 2021 with a bachelor's degree in Animal Science with a concentration in Equine Science. During college, Rileigh was on the IHSA team and was able to travel around Montana and Utah competing against other Universities.  A year after graduation, Rileigh moved to Ellensburg and accepted a position at Central Washington Equine Hospital. She knew she wanted to pursue a career in the equine industry and was ecstatic to start at CWEH.