Around The College

MCGRAW NAMED

Medical Director At Gulf Shores Vet Specialists

As the newly hired medical director and internist, Dr. Andrew McGraw brings more than 18 years of experience in the veterinary profession to the Gulf Shores area.

McGraw specializes in internal medicine, with a focus on endocrine, gastrointestinal and immune-mediated diseases.

The son of a veterinarian, McGraw’s life-long dream was to become a veterinarian himself and, in 2002, he earned his DVM from Louisiana State University. After working with his father in private small animal practice, he entered the U.S. Army as a Veterinary Corps Officer. He was afforded the opportunity to pursue an internal medicine residency with Auburn University from 2006-2009 and became board-certified in Small Animal Internal Medicine through the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine in March 2010.

His military service culminated as the director of the Department of Defense Military Working Dog Veterinary Service at the LTC Daniel E. Holland MWD Hospital at Lackland AFB, Texas. Additionally, McGraw has served as clinical instructor in the First Year Graduate Veterinary Education program, an internship for newly commissioned Army veterinarians. He previously served as the attending veterinarian for the Department of Defense Military Working Dog Veterinary Service, primarily responsible for internal medicine and outpatient services for a resident population of over 900 dogs.

TILLSON NAMED

Acting Director, Teaching Hospital

Dr. Michael Tillson, DVM, MS, Diplomate ACVS, has been named acting director of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, effective September 21, 2020. Tillson is the Arthur & Louise Oriole Professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine and has served on the Department of Clinical Sciences faculty and in the Veterinary Teaching Hospital for 25 years. He received the DVM from North Carolina State University in 1988 and completed a residency in small animal surgery at Kansas State University in 1994. He achieved board certification by the American College of Veterinary Surgeons in 1996 and was named Honored Mentor by the ACVS in 2017. Tillson received the Norden-Pfizer Distinguished Teaching Award in 2006, SGA Outstanding Teacher of the Year in 2005 and the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2000 and was recognized by students as Outstanding Small Animal Clinician in 2007, 2008 and 2010.

Thesis Competition Winner

(2020 3MT)

Dr. Sophie Boorman,
2nd-year resident, Equine Surgery

Each Fall, Auburn University hosts the 3MT research communication competition, in which graduate students must present the significance of their thesis or dissertation in only three minutes. Ten Auburn graduate students compete for the opportunity to represent Auburn in regional or national 3MT competitions, as well as cash prizes to help fund their research. Boorman presented her thesis research related to equine joint disease focused on the effects of concurrent or delayed administration of an agent that reduces inflammation (corticosteroid) with a numbing agent (local anesthetic) on joint tissues.

SVHP Lifetime Achievement Award

And Outstanding Service Award

Professor Emeritus Sue Hudson Duran,
RPh, MS, Ph.D., DICVP, FSVHP

Sue Duran was recently honored by the Society of Veterinary Hospital Pharmacists (SVHP) as Lifetime Achievement Award and Outstanding Service Award recipient for 2019. Duran retired from the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2019 after more than 44 years of service as clinical pharmacist and professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences. She was one of the four charter members of SVHP, which was founded in 1978, and served as education chair of the International College of Veterinary Pharmacy since 2000. The Society of Veterinary Hospital Pharmacists is an organization comprised of pharmacists from several countries worldwide who work exclusively in the field of veterinary pharmacy. SVHP promotes veterinary pharmacy education and furthers the interests of veterinary hospital pharmacy.