Vaughan Award winner reflects on AU preparation for unexpected career

During Auburn University’s DVM orientation 25 years ago, Dr. Brad Tanner remembers he and his classmates being told that the veterinary profession might offer unanticipated avenues for talented and open-minded students.

Somebody in this room will end up doing something different than they anticipated, Tanner and his classmates were told. Tanner, who grew up on a Kentucky farm, didn’t think the message was meant for him.

“I know what I’ll be doing,” he recalled. “I’ll be a cattle vet.”

Tanner, who earned his DVM from Auburn in 2005, took quite the detour. After graduation, an ambulatory internship with one of the world’s largest equine hospitals, Rood & Riddle in Lexington, led to an unanticipated career.

“I’m doing a job that didn’t exist when I started vet school in 2001,” said Tanner, a board-certified veterinary dentist who is now a partner with Rood & Riddle.

Adaptability, combined with a long track record of clinical excellence, enabled Tanner to earn the 2026 J.T. Vaughan Outstanding Equine Service Award during the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Distinguished Alumni Awards Ceremony & Dinner on April 24. Named in honor of the college’s late Dean Emeritus, Dr. John Thomas Vaughan, the J.T. Vaughan Outstanding Equine Service Award recognizes alumni who have demonstrated exceptional leadership, service and dedication within the equine industry.

In Tanner’s case, leadership, service and sustained excellence have largely been exhibited in the areas of maxillofacial surgery and advanced first opinion and referral equine dentistry. His ambulatory practice has also encompassed thoroughbred reproduction, neonatal and foal medicine and herd health.

“Didn’t see that coming, I can tell you,” Tanner said of equine dentistry as a chosen profession. “I’m in a profession now where I work on teeth and sinuses, do jaw surgeries and do some procedures that didn’t exist in a specialty that wasn’t invented yet at the time I was in school. Because of a strong foundation in physiology and the strong foundation in education that came from Auburn, it gave me opportunities I didn’t know would come along.

“Because of how I was educated at Auburn, I was prepared when those opportunities presented themselves.”

Tanner frequently mentors aspiring and emerging veterinarians, speaking at international and national veterinary conferences and publishing research in dentistry and reproduction. He has also served a variety of professional organizations, including the American Veterinary Medical Association, American Association of Equine Practitioners and the American Veterinary Dental College.

While Tanner arrived at Auburn after Vaughan’s tenure as dean, earning the award named for him holds special meaning. Vaughan remained engaged with the CVM as dean emeritus and made an impression on Tanner and many of his classmates.

“Dean Vaughan meant the world to all of us – the way he carried himself, the way he taught us to carry ourselves, care for our patients, our owners, our colleagues,” Tanner said. “It’s a lot to live up to for all of us. I appreciate the mentorship I received.”