College of Veterinary Medicine Western University of Health Sciences

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W o r d f r o m t h e D e a n Congratulations to the Class of 2008! MAY THE THOUGHTS, PRAYERS, AND WELL WISHES of the faculty and staff of Western University follow you throughout your career. We are proud of your accomplishments, and look forward with anticipation to your future contributions to our profession. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Patricia Olson, Director of the Morris Animal Foundation, for her wonderful commencement message. The faculty have occupied the new Banfield Veterinary Clinical Center and are making preparations for the new academic year. We are looking forward to receiving the Class of 2012 and beginning classroom activities in the new classrooms, laboratories, and hospital spaces. A VIP dinner and Grand Opening is planned for August 8 and 9 as part of convocation activities. We have received the final report of evaluation and statement of accreditation from the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education. As a result of the review of the College’s report, the Council voted to grant the College Limited Accreditation for a period not to exceed two years. We respect the decision of the COE and view the progression from Provisional Accreditation to Limited Accreditation as a positive development. We have begun to address the deficiencies noted in the report and plan to have most, if not all, addressed in time to report the corrections in our annual report due January 2009. We are confident in our ability to address each of the recommendations made on facilities. The Council has suggested we moderately increase our faculty and staff numbers. The College’s faculty ranks have grown by more than 25 percent over the past fiscal year, and we anticipate an additional 10 percent growth in faculty numbers by June 2009, as well as an increase in staff. The anticipated growth in faculty and staff numbers will better position the College to continue its development of research. As a developing college program, we are dedicated to provide an environment of learning that meets our founding principles and the standards for accreditation. Our designation as an accredited institution remains intact. The College will seek re-evaluation in March 2009. I want to take a moment to congratulate Drs. Miguel Saggese and Teresa Morishita for organizing the first Avian Diseases and Conservation Conference, held May 29-31, 2008 on the campus of WesternU. Attendees traveled internationally from Portugal and from throughout the United States. By all accounts, the presentations were well received.We look forward to future symposia. One last thought...the College’s research program continues to expand, including an emphasis on student involvement. This has been CVM’s most successful year ever with regards to student initiated projects. CVM students received funding for 15 of 20 WesternU Student Summer Research Grants awarded this year. Each student will receive a $2,000 stipend to work on their summer project. Additionally, students were also successful in acquiring a grant through the Veterinary Research Fellowship program, and two grants funded by the Morris Animal Foundation Veterinary Student Scholar Grant Program. I am so proud of our students! ♥ the Outlook Summer 2008/Volume 10, Issue 4 College of Veterinary Medicine Western University of Health Sciences Associate Editor: Robert V. Mason, DVM, MS 909.469.5628 rmason@westernu.edu Associate Editor: Leigh Wiemann 909.469.5516 lwiemann@westernu.edu Contributor: Renee Cook 909.469.5651 rcook@westernu.edu Photographer: Jess Lopatynski 909.469.5298 jlopatynski@westernu.edu Graphic Designer: Paul Gettler 909.469.5256 pgettler@westernu.edu ------ 309 E. Second St. Pomona, Calif. 91766-1854 www.westernu.edu/cvm ♥ A Work Of Heart O n T h e C o v e r A collage of the festivities enjoyed by all during the 3rd Annual CVM Open House on April 5, 2008. Photos by Jess Lopatynski Phillip Nelson, DVM, PhD 2
GRADS IN THE FIELD We are pleased to introduce a new column, “Grads in The Field,” and encourage CVM alumni to email Outlook editor Dr. Robert Mason (rmason@westernu.edu) sharing experiences from their first year in practice. “My first year out in practice has been challenging and lots of fun. I have learned such a great deal it is difficult to know where to begin. I have been practicing in a private specialty hospital as an intern for this past year. I’ve seen and managed many interesting cases, learned details about clinical small animal medicine, learned how to be confident yet humble in front of clients, interacted with specialists in the top of their fields, and became close friends with my internmates. I have been trying to adapt to the constantly morphing schedule of overnights to days to overnights to days. There are smaller lessons that I’ve learned and lessons that I have yet to realize that I’ve learned. In reflection, everyday is satisfying and I am thankful that I love what I have chosen to become.” Michelle Schexneider, DVM Southern California Veterinary Referral Group, Irvine, Calif. C V M N e w s Erin Cassiday, DVM ’10, received an externship award from the American Association of Bovine Practitioners.The cash award is a stipend to help to defray her costs this summer as she completes a food animal externship. ♥ Briana Mirchel, DVM ’09, Zarah Hedge, DVM ’09, and Dr. Maisie Dawes presented a workshop with Dr. Peggy Barr at “Expanding Your Horizons” (EYH) at the University of San Diego April 19-20. EYH is a program for 6th-10th grade girls to help introduce them to careers in science and engineering. ♥ Congratulations to Darlene Sanchez, DVM ’09, who won first place in the Toastmasters International Table Topics Speech Contest, Area Level, on March 15 in Redlands, Calif. and competed at the Division Level on April 13 in Victorville, Calif. ♥ Dr. Kristopher Irizarry has been invited to present “Leveraging Comparative Genomics to Infer Functional Consequences of Gene Expression Changes: Accelerating Microarray Discovery via Phenomics Annotation” at the Integrative Data Analysis Meeting, September 24-25, in Providence, RI. ♥ Dr. Malika Kachani spoke on Ectoparasites of small animals at the Animal Care Conference, April 7, in Anaheim, Calif. Dr. Kachani spoke to shelter veterinarians and conducted her presentation in a Problem Based Learning format, which generated great discussion of the cases presented. Dr. Peggy Barr also spoke at the Animal Care Conference on April 6. The subject of her presentation was “Investigating and Controlling Feline Viral Disease Outbreaks.” ♥ Congratulations to all CVM students (see Research in Brief, pg. 11) who received funding of their WesternU Student Summer Research Grant Applications! Read about these students and their research projects in this issue’s Research in Brief. Out of twenty ♥ Student Summer Research Grants funded by the University this year, fifteen of the Grants were awarded to CVM students—our most successful year to date. These 15 students combined with the two CVM students who received research funding from the Morris Animal Foundation, makes a total of 17 CVM students who will be working on their own funded research project this year. Most impressive! Congratulations to each of the students and to their research mentors for a job well done, and for representing the College of Veterinary Medicine in this competition so very well. ♥ The College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, and the College of Veterinary Medicine,Western University of Health Sciences, have entered into an agreement for academic collaboration to promote academic and research activities of the respective institutions and to deepen the understanding of research and academic potential in areas of mutual interest and benefit. The veterinary exchange program may fund faculty/student activities in a variety of research/clinical activities at each college including joint research and continuing education programs. The five-year agreement was ratified by Yong Ho Park, DVM, MS. PhD, Dean and Professor of the College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, and Phillip D. Nelson, DVM, PhD, Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine,Western University of Health Sciences. Great big kudos to Dr. Ellen Collisson and her team of CVM collaborators (Drs. Maisie Dawes, Yvonne Drechsler, Kristopher J. Irizarry, Miguel Saggese, and Susan Tkalcic) on the funding of her USDA grant entitled “Impact of immune response of chickens with defined B haplotypes on resistance to respiratory coronavirus infection.” The funding is for three years with a total of $375,000 (total cost). ♥ 3
Page 1: Outlook the College of Veterinary M
Page 5 and 6: First Avian Conference Soars at CVM
Page 7 and 8: PRECEPTOR PROFILE Curtis Eng, DVM,
Page 9 and 10: C V M S t u d e n t P r o f i l e s
Page 11 and 12: RESEARCH In Brief Josep Rutllant, D
Page 13 and 14: Post Grad 2008 Plans NAME IMMEDIATE
Page 15 and 16: Reasons to name a seat: • Leave y

College of Veterinary Medicine Western University of Health Sciences

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