August 2012

In an e-mail to the CVM community, Dr. Calvin Johnson announced he will resign October 1, 2012, as acting dean to resume his appointment as department head of Pathobiology. By doing so, he will become eligible to apply as a candidate for the permanent position of dean. 

University policy states any interim dean, interim department head, or interim department chair is disallowed from being a candidate for the corresponding permanent position. The policy promotes a spirit of openness and fairness in the search process. 

A search committee will help identify outstanding candidates for interim dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine. The interim dean’s appointment will be effective on October 1, 2012, and will continue until a permanent dean is in place. Dr. Emmett Winn, associate provost, is the committee’s chair. 

The Provost is seeking a tenured full professor and veterinarian or emeritus professor and veterinarian to serve as interim dean. Internal applications are currently being accepted from qualified faculty. For the position description and application process, visit our Web site.

The American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education is recognized as the accrediting body for schools and programs that offer the professional D.V.M. degree. The Council evaluates each college of veterinary medicine in terms of the degree with which it meets its own stated objectives and the established standards for accreditation. To maintain accreditation, veterinary colleges must provide an extensive self-evaluation and arrange for a site visit at intervals of not more than seven years.  The objective of a site visit is to verify and supplement information presented in the self-study report.

The college’s 2012 Self-Study has been submitted to the Council on Education in preparation of the site visit to our campus Sept. 16-20.

For her contributions to veterinary pharmacology, Dr. Dawn M. Boothe is named as the 2012 Hill’s Jack Mara Scientific Achievement Award recipient by the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care (ACVECC). Dr. Boothe is to receive the award during the International Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Symposium September 8-12 in San Antonio, Texas, in recognition of her work with “the Unique Pharmacology of the Critically Ill.”

Dr. Boothe is professor and director of the clinical pharmacology and analytical laboratory. She earned her D.V.M. at Texas A&M University, as well as her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in veterinary physiology. She is board certified by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and the American College of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology.

Dr. Boothe is recognized for the use of evidence-based data to drive the rational use of drugs in veterinary medicine. She has contributed to small, large, and exotic animal medicine in this context, in addition to mechanistic studies of drug action at the levels of the cell and target organs. 

Dr. Boothe has contributed to veterinary understanding of the efficacy and stability of compounded pharmaceuticals. In addition to the widely used textbook “Small Animal Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics,” now it its second edition, she has written extensively about the use of antimicrobials in the critically ill patient.

Dr. Boothe will be featured as a key lecturer in the 2013 ACVECC Postgraduate Review Course on “The Unique Pharmacology of the Critically Ill” which is to be held January 19, 2013, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The Jack Mara Scientific Achievement Award, sponsored by Hill’s, is presented annually. For this year’s award, ACVECC and Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society members nominated veterinarians who made substantial contribution to the knowledge and understanding of the pharmacology of drugs in the critically ill patient or to the unique pharmacologic concerns of veterinary patients with critical illness.  

Dr. Katie Diehl, a visiting faculty clinical ophthalmologist in the Small Animal Teaching Hospital, is an avid cyclist and recreational triathlete along with her husband Jeff. In honor and memory of her father-in-law Terry Collins who battled melanoma for eight years and died in 2010, Katie is raising funds for the Melanoma Research Foundation (MRF) through the Ironman Foundation.

Katie enters her twelfth Ironman triathlon event when she competes Sept. 9 in Ironman Wisconsin. Popular triathlons involve swimming, cycling, and running. An Ironman triathlon consists of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile (full marathon) run for a total of 140.6 miles.

“Terry dreamed of participating and completing an Ironman and though he didn’t get to achieve that goal, he did learn to swim, put in the hours on the bike and running, and respectably raced a triathlon at age 63 – he and we were so proud!,” writes Katie on her Ironman Wisconsin fundraising web page. “With Terry as my example, I hope to embody even just a fraction of that fight and determination in my efforts to support MRF in their research, health care professional education, public advocacy and melanoma community assistance goals.”

Top: Dr. Katie Diehl 
Left: Dr. Diehl's late father-in-law Terry Collins

After spending the day as client services manager for the veterinary teaching hospital, Vic Walker engages in manual labor to rebuild his church Cross Road Missionary Baptist:

"For the last several months, the folks in our church fellowship have been trying to renovate an older church. The current plan is to have the congregation move into the new building by October 1 after a whole heap of work. We started back in the spring tearing everything down to the blocks.  We have replaced the roof, the plumbing, the interior framing, air ducts, and the wiring with only the drywall, air handler, and paint to go. Problem is, we are running low on about everything but prayer at this point," said Vic. 

Vic welcomes everyone to see their progress weeknights from 5-7 p.m. and most Saturday mornings. “We love company, especially with work clothes and gloves, or food and water! Prayer and positive thoughts are most welcome."

The building is on Beehive Road across from M&M Trucking. The church fellowship is conducting a building fund drawing to help with completion. A donation of $5 gets one five chances to win.  

The Southeastern Raptor Center will release a variety of owls, a kite, and a hawk at the Forest Ecology Preserve in Auburn on Sept. 7 and 8.

At the Sept. 7 release at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Screech-Owls, Great Horned Owls, and Barred Owls will be released as participants hike through the preserve. “The majority of these owls were brought in as ‘orphans’,” said Liz Crandall, raptor rehabilitation specialist. “Many were healthy fledglings that were mistaken for orphans.” During the hike, Crandall will talk about not removing young, healthy wildlife, and a history of the birds being released.

On Saturday, Sept. 8 at 9 a.m. the Raptor Center will release a kite and a hawk at the preserve at 2222 North College St. located near Auburn University Fisheries. Both raptor programs are free of charge.

For more information contact Jen Lolley at (334) 707-6512 or visit the Forest Ecology Preserve Web site.

TigerFit, a program housed in the College of Education's Department of Kinesiology, will soon offer health and fitness screening opportunities for Auburn University students, faculty, staff and family members, as well as local residents. Beginning Sept. 18 and running until Thanksgiving break, the health and fitness screening sessions will take place on Tuesday and Thursday mornings by appointment in the TigerFit Lab in Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum. Appointment times begin at 7 a.m. and run every 15 minutes until 9 a.m. The testing lasts about an hour and 45 minutes. The evaluations include a cardiovascular disease risk assessment, cholesterol and blood glucose screenings and pulmonary function assessments, among others. Clients receive a report explaining their results, as well as a personalized exercise prescription.

The cost is $50 for faculty, staff and family members, $25 for students and $75 for alumni and members of the Auburn community. To make an appointment, contact the TigerFit Program at (334) 844-1482 or tigrfit@auburn.edu. To see a full list of the evaluations, go to the website.