Our Caring Doctors

Kathleen Kocher, DVM

Dr. Kocher was born and raised in Pittsburgh, then first came to State College to attend Penn State for Animal Bioscience.  While in school, she met her future husband Kerry, a State College native, who grew up as a lifetime equestrian professional. Together they moved to Tennessee where Dr. Kocher attended The University of Tennessee for veterinary school, graduating in 1988. After graduating, Dr. Kocher returned to State College and purchased The State College Veterinary Hospital from its first owner.  Dr. Kocher sees a variety of pets in her practice.  Although the majority of her patients are dogs and cats, she also treats the occasional horse, pocket pets and small exotics such as guinea pigs, rabbits, ferrets, birds and non-venomous reptiles. Her special interests are internal medicine and geriatrics. She is a member of both the AVMA and the PVMA, and she was past secretary on the board of CPVETS emergency clinic.

On the personal side, when Dr. Kocher is not busy seeing patients, she keeps very busy with her three children, her 3 dogs and  2 cats, and even tries to get in a little time with her favorite hobbies, horseback riding and gardening.

Courtney Shoemaker, DVM

Dr. Courtney Shoemaker is originally from the Huntingdon, PA area and worked at State College Veterinary Hospital as an assistant/technician for a few years after completing her undergraduate studies. She graduated in 2016 with a Bachelor’s degree in biology from Juniata College, and worked with us full-time until she started veterinary school at Kansas State University in 2019. She continued to work with us during her winter and summer breaks. After veterinary school graduation in 2023, she returned to the State College area to begin her career as an associate veterinarian. Her interests are small animals, primarily dogs and cats. She does have a special interest in furthering her knowledge of cardiology as she continues her veterinary career. When she is not working, she enjoys running, spending time outdoors, and exploring with her dog, Waffles.