Our Veterinary Team

Dr. Parker, our practice owner, graduated from Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine in 2002. He then completed an internship in Small Animal Medicine and Surgery at VCA South Shore Animal Hospital in Weymouth, MA. Dr. Parker joined Porter Square Vet in 2004 and became a partner and owner in 2007. His professional interests include ultrasonography and emergency medicine. Dr. Parker lives with his wife, son, and their cats, Lucy, Peaches, and Toby, and his daughter is in college.

Dr. Moderi graduated from veterinary school at Tufts University in 2012. Following school, she spent a year at Friendship Hospital for Animals in Washington DC, completing a rotating internship in small animal medicine and surgery. She returned to the Boston area and joined Porter Square Veterinarian in 2013. Her professional interests include emergency medicine and neurology. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family and playing as well as watching sports, particularly basketball.

Dr. Murphy graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine in 2010. She completed an internship in small animal medicine and surgery at the Veterinary Emergency and Referral Group in Brooklyn, NY. She practiced emergency medicine before joining Porter Square Veterinarian in 2014. Dr. Murphy lives with her husband, who is an emergency veterinarian, their son and daughter, their cats, Louise and Rita, and their chihuahua, Mindy. In her spare time, she enjoys skiing, cooking, and reading.

Dr. Usiak graduated from Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine and has been practicing as a general practitioner in the Boston area since 2002. Her interests include internal medicine, dentistry, and soft tissue surgery. She has also been a faculty member at North Shore Community College since 2005 and helps teach a course in Surgery and Anesthesia for veterinary technicians at the school. Outside of work, she is a talented singer and sometimes performs live with her singing group. She has two cats, Nox and Lollipop, and a Boston Terrier, Tessie, and enjoys traveling, skiing, and hiking with her husband, son, and daughter.

Dr. Johnson is a 2001 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and has had the good fortune of practicing all over the country. She has worked in specialty clinics, emergency facilities, and small rural hospitals. This has afforded her the benefit of being able to adopt best practices from a wide variety of animal hospitals. Dr. Johnson also has a pharmaceutical and entrepreneurial history. For eight years, she ran a company—and still practiced veterinary medicine—that focused on providing continuing education to other veterinarians and human doctors in order to maintain their licenses. Dr. Johnson loves to take her passion for education and teach clients as much as they can handle! She loves to treat your four-legged babies like family. Dr. Johnson lives in Natick with her spouse, 2 human children, and 4 cats.

Dr. Precopio graduated from the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in 2017 and has been in general practice since receiving her degree. In addition to preventative medicine, her professional interests include dermatology, internal medicine, and behavior. Prior to becoming a veterinarian, Dr. Precopio earned a PhD in immunology and spent ten years researching how the cells of the body fight disease. In her free time, she enjoys biking, reading, spending time in the city, and hanging out with her goofball dog, Nessie, and her cat, Fizzgig.

Dr. Emily English was born and raised in Marblehead, MA, and is another of our homegrown vets! She earned her Bachelor’s degree from James Madison University in 2008, after which she worked in Mental Health and Social Services for several years. After deciding to make a career change, Dr. English worked here at PSV as a veterinary technician while completing the prerequisites for veterinary school. Her veterinary studies were completed at the University of Georgia, and she received her DVM in 2019. Her professional interests include soft tissue surgery, behavior, shelter medicine, and forensic pathology.

Once Dr. English moved back to Massachusetts, she rejoined our practice, and we couldn’t be happier to have her back on the team! In her spare time, Dr. English enjoys traveling, binging true-crime podcasts and British procedural dramas, and walking her dogs on the beaches of the North Shore. Dr. English shares her home with big goofball doggo Andy, and her two cats, Olive, a sweet and snuggly one-eyed grey tabby, and Mark, an opinionated brown tabby cat.

In 2014, we decided to bring on a Tufts pre-vet student to help out around Porter Square Vet. Starting as kennel help, then a tech assistant and receptionist, and rapidly progressing to a senior veterinary technician, Sophie quickly became an extremely competent and trusted member of the PSV team. Fast forward to 2022, and Dr. Epstein has graduated from Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Epstein’s primary focus in veterinary medicine is emergency and critical care, but she keeps her hand in general practice by covering here, where we fostered her original talent and dedication. When not working, Dr. Epstein enjoys cooking, hiking, and live music. She lives with her Chihuahua mix Rico, foster fail Stitch, and her cats Charles, Monkey, and giant ragdoll Tashi, who once upon a time lived at Porter Square Veterinarian.

Dr. Elizabeth Clifton earned her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Tufts University. During veterinary school, she volunteered with Rural Area Veterinary Services (RAVS) spay and neuter clinics in North and South Dakota and participated in community care and spay/neuter clinics in Kenya and Ecuador. She also gained experience working as a veterinary technician in small animal clinics and laboratory animal medicine and contributed to research focused on improving access to affordable veterinary care.
Dr. Clifton was inspired to pursue veterinary medicine by the many important roles veterinarians play, including providing accessible care, supporting public health, and caring for research animals. She hopes clients know that she deeply values the bond they share with their pets and believes in working together as partners to make the best decisions for their pet’s health and well-being.

Outside of work, she enjoys rock climbing, line dancing, and practicing circus skills like partner acrobatics and German wheel. She also plays the bassoon and shares her life with a spicy cat and her loving boyfriend.