Focusing on Our Priorities | Message from the Dean

Message from the Dean | July 2017

Focusing on Our Priorities

In the spring of each year, the School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM) reviews its eight strategic priorities, and importantly, the initiatives we have undertaken in order to achieve those priorities. I then create the Strategic Plan Annual Progress Report summarizing our achievements in each of these important areas.

In this month's message, I'd like to highlight some of our most important achievements with a special focus on Strategic Priority 0 , which features initiatives that cut across all of our priorities. The SVM has demonstrated significant success in several key focus areas over the past year.

I served as chair of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) task force focused on incorporating diversity recommendations in six of the AVMA Council on Education accreditation standards; these standards were approved in spring 2017.

Our Engagement, Inclusivity, and Diversity (EID) committee continues to focus on creating spaces for dialogue within the SVM, especially focused on the creation of an LGBTQ+ Community and Advocacy Group. In addition, our students, faculty, and staff are connected to the interprofessional group Pride in Health Care. And in 2020, the School of Veterinary Medicine will serve as the host for the Midwest Regional Iverson Bell Summit focused on the importance of diversity and inclusion in the veterinary medical profession.

Another important advancement for the school was the approval of the third and fourth years of our tuition proposal by the Board of Regents in December 2016. This will ultimately increase the school's budget by approximately $4.8 million, and when fully implemented, $1 million of the increased support will go toward scholarships for SVM students. Importantly, despite this tuition increase, our students' indebtedness over the last five years has decreased from $126,000 in 2012 (national average: $134,000) to $108,000 in 2016 (national average: $150,000). Over the past five years, the SVM's scholarship support for DVM students has grown from $836,000 to $1.64 million (96% increase).

The SVM Advancement team launched the BerbeeWalsh Match and has raised more than $2 million of the $3 million gift for the match. The $5 million Morrie Waud Match announced this spring has already secured over $1.5 million toward that opportunity. To date, the school has raised just over $19 million in support of the building expansion fund. By the end of the summer, I expect that we will be over the halfway mark toward our $40 million fundraising goal from private donors in support of this critical project, which will position the SVM to continue to lead in all that it does in the coming decade. In early 2017, the SVM secured an additional $1 million scholarship endowment gift, bringing our scholarship endowment total to $16.5 million.

Finally, I want to highlight the importance of our faculty, staff, and students in helping us pursue and ultimately achieve each of these important priorities that enhance the teaching and learning at the SVM, our school's climate, and our research excellence, as well as the quality of care and service we provide to our patients in our small and large animal teaching hospitals.

I hope your summer continues to go well and wish everyone the best.

UW Veterinary Care Updates from the Director

Congratulations to our residents who are completing their training programs this month. They include: Kyla Beguese (Zoological Pathology), Casey Budgeon (Small Animal Surgery), Grayson Doss (Zoological Medicine), Russ Freeland (Large Animal Surgery), Stephanie Goldschmidt (Dentistry and Oral Surgery), Melissa Graham DVM'14 (Anatomic Pathology), Danielle Hagen (Small Animal Internal Medicine), Sharz Heidari (Diagnostic Imaging), Kate Irvine (Clinical Pathology), Carrie Kuzma (Diagnostic Imaging), Elizabeth Layne (Dermatology), Ana Moriera (Large Animal Medicine), Megan Mickelson (Small Animal Surgery), MacKenzie Pellin DVM'11 (Radiation Oncology), Mona Qahwash (Neurology/Neurosurgery), Kim Shaffer DVM'13 (Medical Oncology), and Sonja Tjostheim (Cardiology). Best wishes and thank you for the many hours you've dedicated to teaching our students and taking compassionate care of our patients. We are so proud of all of you and all that you've achieved while working toward your respective specialty certifications.

Please welcome our newest certified veterinary technician to anesthesia, Erin Hanus. Erin comes to UW Veterinary Care from Wisconsin Veterinary Referral Clinic, where she worked in both anesthesia and CCU/ER.

Here are some kind words about UWVC from a happy client:

"We were scared to come to Madison to have our dog seen. Big city, big campus, lots of unknowns. Our regular DVM had nothing but praise to say about your facility and staff, so we took the chance. We are so pleased that we did. Unnecessary procedures were not pushed on us, just the opposite. How refreshing to hear that all the labs and charts were reviewed prior to our appointment. The explanations delivered were easy to understand. All of our questions were answered and not brushed aside. We felt respect not only for ourselves, but for our dog as well."

- Scott, Menasha, Wis.

Ruthanne Chun DVM'91
Director, UW Veterinary Care
Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs

School News

Following preference balloting, department chairs for 2017-18 will be Nigel Cook (Department of Medical Sciences), Jon McAnulty (Department of Surgical Sciences), Ted Golos (Department of Comparative Biosciences), and Chuck Czuprynski (Department of Pathobiological Sciences). Congratulations to all!

It was great to see so many SVM alumni back at the Veterinary Medicine Building for the 2017 Alumni Reunion last weekend! We welcomed our DVM classes from 2012, 2007, 2002, 1997, 1992 and 1987 (our first 30-year reunion) for a picnic, tours of UW Veterinary Care and the school's new Renk Learning Center, and class photos.

With special thanks to Linda Gauer and Karen Mier, an original architectural rendering of the Veterinary Sciences Building -- now the Robert P. Hanson Biomedical Sciences Laboratories -- has been restored and reframed. The rendering, which was salvaged and stored by Professor Emeritus Gary Splitter for several years, is currently on display in the Department of Pathobiological Sciences main office. Stop by Room 108 Hanson Labs to see this piece of SVM history.

Student News

Congratulations to Alyssa Karklus DVMx'20, who earned a grant from the M orris Animal Foundation Veterinary Student Scholars Program for her summer research project, "Assessing admixture between historically isolated mitochondrial DNA lineages in Bornean and Sumatran orangutans in North American zoos."

Sarah Appleby DVMx'18 and Amanda Craven DVMx'18 were among 33 veterinary medical students selected to receive 2017 Winner's Circle Scholarships, presented by the American Association of Equine Practitioners' (AAEP) Foundation, Platinum Performance, and The Race For Education. Well done!

Faculty and Staff News

Congratulations to Zoological Companion Animal Medicine resident Anna Martel-Arquette DVM'15, who received the 2017 Association of Avian Veterinarians (AAV) House Officer Manuscript Award. This is the fourth consecutive year that a resident or student from the SVM has won the AAV manuscript competition.

The chancellor has approved indefinite appointments to the academic staff for Jonathan Bach and Fernando Marques, clinical associate professors in the Department of Medical Sciences, in recognition of their excellence in academic clinical practice and significant contributions to teaching.