Dr. Kippen earned her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Calgary. She then completed a combined rotating small animal internship between the Calgary Animal Referral and Emergency (CARE) Centre and University of Calgary. Following completion of her internship, she then worked as an emergency veterinarian for several more years at both the CARE Centre and Capital City Animal Hospital in Edmonton before moving to Sacramento, California. After four years in California she moved back home to Canada and decided to move to Victoria because of her love of the outdoors, but especially all things related to the ocean.

When she is not working Dr. Kippen loves to bake, garden, exercise, travel, scuba dive, and of course, spend a lot of time with her cats and dog.