MEET TEAM NOAH
Lynn Stevenson, DVM, CCRT
Veterinarian/Owner
Dr. Stevenson received a Master’s degree in Philosophical Ethics followed by her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine in 2013. Since then, she has practiced veterinary medicine at hospitals in Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia. In 2018, Dr. Stevenson decided to build Nottely Oaks Animal Hospital so she could offer the highest quality Fear Free medicine to the homeless animals in the community as well as those already in loving homes.
Dr. Stevenson loves Veterinary Medicine because there is always something new to learn. She has advanced training in Ultrasonography and Echocardiography. She is certified in Physical Rehabilitation and Acupuncture and has just started a course to become certified in Veterinary Food Therapy. Dr. Stevenson also has a special fondness for working with rescue groups and homeless patients, donating her time every one to two weeks at multiple local shelters.
Dr. Stevenson is supported by her husband, Paul Burges, a very talented musician, artist and jack of all trades around the hospital. If you see something new in the hospital, Paul probably made it. They share their home with 6 mixed breed rescue dogs of various sizes. When Dr. Stevenson's not at the hospital, she may be hiking or reading with Paul and the dogs.
Maury Nichols, DVM
Veterinarian
Dr. Maury Nichols has been a member of Nottely Oaks Animal Hospital since the summer of 2020. She received her B.S. in Animal and Veterinary Science from Clemson University followed by her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine in 2019. She practiced in South Carolina for a year before joining team NOAH.
Dr. Nichols enjoys all aspects of veterinary medicine, including preventative medicine, internal medicine, and dermatology. However, her special interests include surgery, palliative care, and feline medicine.
Dr. Nichols is originally from Aiken, SC, where she grew up with her two brothers (she is a triplet). When not working, she enjoys film photography, listening to podcasts, hiking, and she is a big sports and film fanatic. She has 2 three-legged dogs named Toby and Roo, a tuxedo cat named Oliver, and an orange flame-point cat named Sonny.
Philip Arnall, DVM
Veterinarian
Dr. Arnall is the newest veterinarian to join our practice, coming aboard in October 2022. He
graduated from the University of Georgia - College of Veterinary Medicine in 1990 and has
practiced medicine in the North Georgia area for 30 years. Dr. Arnall is grateful to Dr.
Stevenson for the opportunity to be a member of Team NOAH.
Dr. Arnall enjoys all aspects of veterinary medicine, especially being part of a team that desires
to practice quality medicine, the interaction with clients in celebrating the human-pet bond,
and both soft tissue and orthopedic surgery.
Philip and his wife, Lydia, live in Blue Ridge and are the parents of 2 grown children and a
teenage daughter. They enjoy spending time at home with their Lab mix, Kaya, 3 cats and a
flock of backyard chickens. During time away from work, Dr. Arnall enjoys taking family trips,
gardening and working around the house.
Brittany Balsamo MS, RVT, CCRVN
Veterinary Assistant Supervisor
Brittany grew up in Northern Colorado and moved to Georgia in 2007. Intending to work in the rehabilitation field, she graduated with a B.S. in Exercise Science from University North Georgia in 2013 and a M.S. in Kinesiology-Biomechanics from Georgia State University in 2017. She now practices rehabilitation alongside Dr. Stevenson as a Certified Canine Rehabilitation Veterinary Nurse. In her free time, she loves enjoying the outdoors, but especially hiking with her two German Shorthaired Pointers, or playing soccer.
Cassie Channell
Office Manager and Customer Service Supervisor
Cassie was a Virginia native, where she graduated with an associates degree from Piedmont College in 1994 and has worked in veterinary medicine off and on since she was 18, and although she has strayed away in the past, she always seems to find her way back. At home she cares for her many rescue babies and enjoys spending time with her family. Cassie is thrilled to be a part of the NOAH team and loves meeting everyone's pets. Beyond her important role at NOAH, she is also on the board of directors for Mountain Shelter Humane society where she works tirelessly for the homeless pets of our community.
Kristin Byers RVT
Veterinary Assistant
Kristin was born and raised in Murphy, NC. She received her Balchelors of Science in Animal Science with a Pre-Veterinary degree from NC State in 2013. After graduation, Kristin was happy to return to Murphy and start working in small animal practices as a Veterinary Assistant. Kristin has over 11 years experience in the field and is now a Registered Veterinary Technician. She has two amazing dogs that are very dedicated to their Mom -an Akita named Ser Jorah Bear, a Norwegian Elkhound mix Ammo, and a tuxedo cat (Jorah's shadow) Geiger aka the Formidable Mr. MooMoo. Kristin also has two horses Dutch and Major.
Hannah Anderson
Veterinary Assistant
Hannah was born and raised in Hiawassee, Georgia. She has had cats since a very young age and had 5 Miniature Pinschers growing up. Hannah always knew that she wanted to work with animals and be a voice for them. Hannah comes to NOAH with three years experience in the field and tends to have a soft side for cats. She surprised her family one day when she brought home, Carmen, a sweet, loving Hound mix who needed a forever home. Hannah currently has several cats and two dogs, Gwen, a 15 year old mix, and Kiana, a 1 year old Siberian Husky. She is currently enrolled at San Juan College and plans on getting her degree in Veterinary Technology, specializing in internal medicine.
Jennifer Hower
Veterinary Assistant
Originally from Florida, Jennifer Hower has been working in the veterinary field for approximately 15 years. While she has worked in many hospital roles, being a Veterinary Assistant is her passion. She loves being the voice for those that don’t have one.
Jennifer lives with her beautiful family in Hayesville, NC including her husband Chris of almost 9 years, their very outgoing and energetic 8 year old son Skyler, 4 dogs and 3 cats.
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When Jennifer is not at work she enjoys hanging out with the family and going on adventures. She loves reading and binge watching TV shows as well as watching her husband play video games. They are huge NASCAR fans so watching races or camping out at them is a favorite family pastime.
Tracie Turner
Property Manager
Born and raised in LaGrange, Ga, Tracie moved to Blairsville in Sept 2013 with her husband, Joe. Tracie's first job was at a boarding and grooming facility in 1999 where she continued to work on and off for the next 12 years. In April of 2018, Tracie received her certificate of completion from Penn Foster as a Certified Dog Obedience Instructor/Trainer. Tracie has always had a passion for all living creatures and considers herself truly lucky to have a career doing what she loves. She says her greatest joy comes from working with the pets that are too shy or afraid and seeing them open up after some love and patience. When Tracie's not working, you can find her spending time with her fur kids and husband. They love being outdoors hiking, kayaking, camping or visiting family back home. Tracie and Joe have 3 dogs, Goose, a 6 year old Lab mix, Vinny, a 1 year old Mix breed, and Opie a 9 year old Hound mix. They also have 2 cats, Bahc and Punky.
Deana Dorman
Customer Service Representative
Deana was raised in Lawrenceville, GA where she graduated from Central Gwinnet High School. She and her husband have four children who all served in the United States Marine Corps and are Grandparents to four beautiful babies. She is also a “fur mom” to three dogs: Mollie, Artie, and Jarvis. She worked in Corporate America and also owned two businesses of her own. After 10 years of owning/operating both a dry cleaning business and an online motorcycle parts business she decided to retire from entrepreneurship. She was a homemaker for three years and started going stir crazy. She was already using Nottely Oaks Animal Hospital to care for her dogs, so one day on a whim asked if they needed any help. Within the year she was hired as a CSR and she LOVES HER JOB!!!
Heather Hudanish
Customer Service Representative
Heather was raised in Stuart, Florida where she graduated from South Fork High School and attended Medvance Institute where she studied to be a Medical Assistant. Heather has worked in Customer and Patient/Client services for over 30 years. While in South Florida she worked in Restaurant Management and as a Medical Office Supervisor. In 2017 she and her wonderful husband, George, son Orlando, and both of their French Bulldogs, Mammy and Sarducci, decided to take a leap of faith and head to the beautiful mountains of North Georgia where they fell in love with the slower pace and scenery. Heather has always had a love for all creatures big and small so when the opportunity arose in 2023 for her to join NOAH as a CSR she jumped right on board without hesitation and has been very grateful to be part of such a wonderful team. In Heather's free time she enjoys creating different styles of art, cooking, dancing, going for hikes, photography, listening to music, making people laugh, and spending time with her family, pups and friends.
Teresa Hughes
Customer Service Representative
Teresa Hughes born and raised in Union County. She started her career in the vet field at the age of 19. She came to us in May of 2021 as one of our full-time CSR's. Her hobbies include spending time with her family and 4 pets, hiking and chasing waterfalls. She currently resides in Fannin County with her family along with her 3 pugs, BB, Buddy and Cash and also a little mixed breed named Oliver who was a rescue from NOAH. She loves her job here at NOAH and loves meeting new clients and new pets.
Ciara Hartman
Groomer
Ciara was born in Warsaw, NY, but quickly fell in love with Georgia when her parents purchased a home in Blairsville in 1995. In 2005 she permanently put down roots in Blairsville, and she doesn’t ever plan to leave. The youngest of four children with a large age gap, Ciara learned to find the most joy and companionship in animals.
With four years experience as a Veterinary Assistant, Ciara is our resident cat whisperer and groomer as well. While cats tend to be first to steal her heart, she's perfectly content to cuddle with the pooches as well. She has several cats that call her Mom.
Below are the remaining members of Team NOAH. Because they have not provided us with photographs or biographies we have had to compile the following information from memory until they can make corrections.
Nayomee Loggins
Inventory Manager
Born as a simple piece of wood, Nayomee achieved sentience when a lonely puppeteer carved her and wished upon a star. She then spent a life wandering the streets with nefarious criminals and other ner-do-wells before being swallowed by a whale. Luckily, singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins had also been swallowed by the whale while surfing on a covert mission with Maverick and Ice Man in the Danger Zone. The two hit it off, got married, somehow escaped, and Nayomee became a real girl, and now she works with us here at NOAH as our Inventory Manager, no strings attached.
Pager Stalin
Veterinary Assistant
Left behind on planet Earth to clean up the mess humanity left behind, Pager was happy collecting trinkets that caught her fancy. One day, another robot, oh yeah - Pager is a robot - came down from space and started scanning all of Pager’s stuff and got struck by lightning. Pager was like, whoa, lightning is scary, and decided to be one of our veterinary assistants. She has no other interests.
Melissa Torro
Customer Service Representative
Melissa used to work as a chef in a kitchen in France, secretly, under some dude’s hat. She’d pull his hair to get him to do her bidding, and he was cool with it because he got the credit. It was a lot of fun until this food critic got all in her business and tried to ruin the restaurant. It was just too stressful of a situation for her so she bought a plane ticket to Blairsville International Airport, where she was offered a non-cooking job as CSR at NOAH where she doesn't have to hide under anybody's hat.
Olive Desmona
Veterinary Assistant
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Olive was a science experiment from an evil alien who only wanted to use her as a weapon. And hurt people hurt people, ya’ll. But when she crash landed in Hawaii she met a little girl who would change her life. She learned how to hula, do a mean Elvis impersonation, and even stand on a surf board. But it was learning the true meaning of Ohana that made her decide that these people just weren’t her cup of tea, so she decided to leave them and the beach behind and head for the mountains of Georgia to be a veterinary assistant with us here at NOAH.
Cera Ballust
Veterinary Assistant
Cera used to be a racecar. Like, the kind that cool beds look like. She had windshield eyes, which really should have been the headlights, right? Like Herbie. Anyways, she hung out with a dumb tow truck and got to meet Paul Newman. She was just a fast car that had to learn to be a little bit...faster? Nicer? We don't remember. I think Cera's bio is just a cash grab for merchandising rights. Luckily, she stopped being a car and joined our NOAH pit crew as a veterinary assistant.
Kimmy Connor
Customer Service Representative
Kimmy was born with a silver spoon in her mouth as the youngest princess of King Triton of Atlantica. And the spoons didn’t stop there, she collected them, and anything else that came from the surface people. Oh yeah, Kimmy used to be a mermaid. She became so obsessed with the surface world that she traded her singing voice to a sea witch for some legs. It sounds weird, but apparently that’s how stuff in the ocean works? When she got to the surface she found out her spoon collection was pretty worthless and she needed a job. So, she married some hottie, got her voice back, and came to work with us here at NOAH as a CSR.