Seven faculty members are recognized for their outstanding teaching ability and research achievements

Due to the generosity of donors and sponsors, the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine presented almost $370,000 in scholarships and awards to over 145 veterinary students on Honors Night on Feb. 16. Honors Night also recognized the outstanding teaching ability and research achievements of seven faculty members:

Bob Kennis

Department of Clinical Sciences

Pfizer Distinguished Teacher Award

The Pfizer Distinguished Teacher Award recognizes outstanding teachers who, through their ability, dedication, character, and leadership, contribute significantly to the advancement of the profession. The Norden Distinguished Teacher Award, first presented in 1963, was a demonstration of Norden Laboratories’ commitment to recognizing excellence in veterinary education. After the merger of the various companies, Pfizer has continued to honor the best in veterinary education.

Bob Kennis, the recipient of Auburn’s 2012 Pfizer Distinguished Teacher Award, earned

the Carl Norden Teaching Award at Texas A&M University where he served on the clinical faculty for nine years. While at Texas A&M, he also received the Texas VMA Faculty Achievement Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in Teaching and the Texas A&M University Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching.

An associate professor of dermatology, Kennis joined Auburn’s faculty in 2005. A popular speaker at continuing education programs, he has contributed to 24 scholarly publications, including refereed papers and book chapters.

Regarding his classroom teaching, a student commented, “He is truly a fantastic professor. He engages the students and manages to present things in a very clear, straightforward manner that is easy to understand. He helped bring the material away from the classroom and into the clinical side of how cases will present on a day-to-day basis.”

Kennis obtained his D.V.M. degree in 1989 from Michigan State University and he achieved diplomate status in 1996 in the American College of Veterinary Dermatology.

Robert L. Judd

Anatomy, Physiology, and Pharmacology

SGA Outstanding Teacher Award

Students nominated Robert Judd, an associate professor of pharmacology, for the SGA Outstanding Teacher Award. Judd teaches physiology and pharmacology in the D.V.M. and graduate curricula across campus. Upon arriving at Auburn in 1998, he adapted his expertise in human pharmacology to the veterinary curriculum.

Ed Morrison, head of the Department of Anatomy, Physiology, and Pharmacology said, “Dr. Robert Judd gives freely of his most important commodity as a faculty member – his time – to ensure students’ understanding of the material. He routinely puts in the extra time and effort to ensure the success of a struggling student. His patience, understanding, intelligence, and compassion set him as an example of excellence in education that the students of the College of Veterinary Medicine should expect to receive from our faculty.”

Judd earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Hendrix College and a Ph.D. in pharmacology and toxicology from Northeast Louisiana University. He conducted post-doctoral training in endocrinology at the Mayo Clinic. For ten years, he has served as chair of the Auburn University Boshell Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases Research Program.

Mary Boudreaux

Department of Pathobiology

Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching

 
A 25-year faculty member, pathobiology professor Mary Boudreaux is the recipient of the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. “Dr. Boudreaux has dedicated herself to creating an excellent student experience, and this is a common thread that is woven throughout each of her many professional accomplishments,” said Calvin Johnson, acting dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine.

“She is recognized globally for her career’s work on inherited disorders of blood platelets, but her research achievements represent only a fraction of the contributions she has made to Auburn University as a generous supporter of the student experience, a dedicated contributor to athletics administration as a faculty representative, and a staunch advocate for the preservation of the Auburn Spirit, which she loves so much,” Johnson said.

Boudreaux earned her D.V.M. degree in 1979 from Louisiana State University and completed a residency in clinical pathology at Cornell University. She received her Ph.D. from Cornell in 1986. Her honors include 2006 LSU Distinguished Alumnus Award, 2008 Pfizer Award for Research Excellence, and 2009 Pamela Wells Sheffield Award recipient from the Auburn Athletics Department.

Dawn M. Boothe

Anatomy, Physiology, and Pharmacology

L.G. Wolfe Award for Excellence in Graduate Instruction

Dawn Boothe received the L.G. Wolfe Award for Excellence in Graduate Instruction in recognition of her excellence in educating and mentoring M.S. and Ph.D. candidates in the college’s biomedical science graduate program.

“Dr. Boothe is internationally recognized for her contributions to the field of veterinary pharmacology and she is constantly in demand,” said Frank Bartol, associate dean of research and graduate studies. “She has accomplished this, in no small part, through her dedication to graduate instruction. Active and innovative as a graduate educator, she has established new graduate courses in her discipline and novel approaches to rounds, distance learning, and residency training programs that set her apart.”

A professor of physiology and pharmacology, Boothe joined the College of Veterinary Medicine in 2003. She earned her D.V.M. (1980) and a Ph.D. (1989) in physiology from Texas A&M University. She is a diplomate in the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and the American College of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology. Dr. Boothe directs the College of Veterinary Medicine’s clinical pharmacology laboratory.

Boothe’s interests focus on establishing the safest and most effective dosing regimens of therapeutic agents in animals, with a primary emphasis on small animals, followed by exotics and large animals.

Nancy Cox

Henry Baker

Scott-Ritchey Research Center

B.F. Hoerlein Memorial Endowed Faculty Research Award

This year, for the first time, the Hoerlein research award is given to a team. Nancy Cox and Henry Baker of the Scott-Ritchey Research Center are co-recipients of the B.F. Hoerlein Memorial Endowed Faculty Research Award for innovative and important research and discovery.

Cox and Baker, along with colleagues at Vaxin, a clinical stage vaccine development company, received a $1 million Michelson Grant award from the Found Animals Foundation to continue development of a vaccine that may provide an alternative to surgical spay and neuter for cats and dogs.

With the Michelson Grant, the team will pursue the $25 million Found Animals Foundation's Michelson Prize in Reproductive Biology which seeks a low-cost, nonsurgical method to sterilize large populations of cats and dogs to reduce the number of homeless and unwanted animals that are killed each year in shelters.

“For a decade scientists at the Scott-Ritchey Research Center and Vaxin have collaborated in the design and testing of dog and cat contraceptive vaccines. The goal is to create a vaccine which will induce long-term sterility and block breeding behavior in both male and female dogs and cats after administration of a single dose,” said Baker, professor emeritus of pathobiology and past director of the Scott-Ritchey Center.

James L. Sartin

Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology

Pfizer Animal Health Award for Research Excellence

The Pfizer Animal Health Award for Research Excellence is presented to a faculty member who has served as principal investigator in research conducted over the past three years that shows promise of attaining national recognition.

James Sartin has served as a member of the College of Veterinary Medicine faculty since 1982. He is the founding editor of Domestic Animal Endocrinology, an internationally recognized, peer-reviewed scientific journal in its 29th year of publication. With over 30 years of service as an educator and scientist, Sartin is recognized internationally for his contributions to animal health research which focuses on endocrine mechanisms regulating growth, metabolism, and reproduction in economically important large domestic ungulates.

Among his many honors, he has received the Beecham Award for Research Excellence (1986), the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station Directors Award (1987), the Sigma-Xi Alumni Association Research Award (2002), the Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching Award (2005) and the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) Animal Growth and Development Award (2008). Additionally, he has served on numerous international scientific societies in leadership positions, including his current role as ASAS president-elect.