Dr. Bean grew up in Dearborn, Michigan, where she attended Edsel Ford High School. She had a collie/golden retriever mix named Brownie as a child, and her parents always thought she would work with animals. Diane attended the University of Miami and received a BS in Marine Science and Biology in 1996. After graduation, she lived in the Florida Keys and worked as a marine biologist for the National Audubon Society. She was involved in multiple research projects in the Florida Everglades that included the relationships between water flow, submerged aquatic vegetation, prey based fish, and Roseate Spoonbill nesting success as an indicator of ecosystem health. During that time, Diane started to volunteer at a local Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. This is when her interest in veterinary medicine was renewed.
Dr. Bean attended the University of Florida Veterinary School and received her DVM in 2004. She has been a small and exotic animal veterinarian at a practice in Cape Coral for the past eleven years. She has also worked as a volunteer and relief veterinarian at CROW (Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife) on Sanibel since 2011, and has been on the CROW Board of Directors since 2013. Dr. Diane's veterinary areas of interest are internal medicine, avian, exotic and wildlife medicine and ultrasonography. She will definitely increase our levels of skills and knowledge in these fields.
No veterinary biography is complete without a list of pets. Dr. Bean and her partner Jim share their home with a variety of rescue animals. They are: Zatarra, a cattle dog/Shiba Inu mix; Tommy, a Shih Tzu; Zeus and Zena, two fancy rats; Alpha, Baby and Cosmo, three cockatiels; Floyd and Crystal, two blue and gold macaws; Vladimir, a Russian tortoise; and Stretch, a red-eared slider/yellow belly turtle cross.
When Dr. Bean isn't working, taking care of her menagerie or volunteering, she enjoys gardening, baking, reading, hiking and bird watching. Join us in welcoming the talented and friendly Dr. Diane Bean to the veterinary team at VCA Coral!
