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.

FACULTY APPOINTMENTS

Daniel Kroeger
Assistant Professor, Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology

Lucia Lazarowski
Assistant Research Professor, Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology

PenTing “Ben” Lieo
Assistant Professor, Clinical Sciences

FACULTY RETIREES

Eleanor Josephson
Assistant Professor, Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology

Starr Miller
Director of Pharmacy, Clinical Sciences

Saralynn Smith-Carr
Assistant Professor, Clinical Sciences

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.

EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR

AUBURN UNIVERSITY

Janeva Cole,
Small Animal Internal Medicine Veterinary Technician

Janeva Cole was honored earlier this fall as one of four Auburn University Employees of the Year through the Spirit of Excellence Award program. The Spirit of Excellence Award was established through the Office of Human Resources to recognize a special group of employees for their exemplary service to Auburn University.

Cole has provided excellent care for countless animals while serving as an internal medicine technician at the Wilford and Kate Bailey Small Animal Teaching Hospital. One such animal was Stella, a corgi who dealt with serious medical issues.

Aileen Manos, Stella’s owner, was so impressed with the care which Cole provided that she nominated her for the Spirit of Excellence Award. Manos wrote that Cole exhibits the “utmost compassion and exceptional care” to her veterinary patients.

“Janeva met us early on her shift to admit Stella as a drop-off appointment so she could have tests performed that were time critical,” Manos wrote. “When Stella was not eating and having complications from her illness, Janeva would give Stella the ‘Janeva Check’—which is what residents, clinicians and interns call Janeva’s special patient care—to cheer up Stella.”

Manos added that the hospital is fortunate to have caring staff such as Cole.

“I almost feel like she is the face of the teaching hospital in her dedicated service to healing both pet and owner.”

SCHUMACHER RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS AWARD

ACVS MERIT AWARD

Dr. John Schumacher,
DVM, MS, and an American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Large Animal) Diplomate

Professor Emeritus of the College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. John Schumacher, DVM, MS, and an American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Large Animal) Diplomate, was recently awarded the prestigious ACVS Merit Award by the American College of Veterinary Surgeons (ACVS) and the ACVS Foundation. The award recognizes Schumacher’s major contributions to the veterinary medicine profession, not only in the clinical practice of equine medicine and surgery, but also in support of his collaborative research and focus on equine lameness.

The ACVS Merit Award was established to acknowledge contributions to the progress of veterinary surgery made by an individual from outside the American College of Veterinary Surgeons. It is given to an individual who has a career dominated by major and ongoing contributions to the art and science of veterinary surgery.

Schumacher developed novel and refined diagnostic methods
that significantly contributed to the veterinary profession’s current understanding of equine lameness and best practices for diagnostic analgesia. Equine surgeons perform lameness evaluations as a primary portion of their practices and have benefited in the interpretation and diagnosis of musculoskeletal pain. By carefully mapping what is, and what is not desensitized by each anesthetic injection (local, regional and intra-articular anesthesia), he revolutionized the approach to lameness examination of the horse.

A member of the faculty of the Auburn Vet Med Department of Large Animal Medicine and Surgery from 1982 until his retirement in 2019, Schumacher was equine section head from 1994-97 and again in 2000. He was awarded the Carl J. Norden Distinguished Teacher Award in both 1995 and 1998 by the Department of Large Animal Medicine and Surgery. In addition, his local, national and international contributions have supported the missions of Auburn Vet Med, the ACVS and the veterinary profession as a whole.

Best Large Animal Abstract Award
2020 IVECCS


Dr. Shune Kimura
3rd-year resident, Equine Internal Medicine

Young Investigator Award
ACVP/ASCVP


Dr. Emily Brinker
1st place, Experimental Disease and Industrial and Toxicologic Pathology

My Vet Rocks Winner
AUGUST 2020


Dr. Alfredo Sanchez-Londono
American Association of Equine Practitioners

2020 Phi Zeta Awards

Research Emphasis Day


Zoetis Award for Excellence in Veterinary Research: Dr. Paul Walz

Manuscript Award, Basic Sciences: Dr. Marike Visser, Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology

Manuscript Award, Clinical Sciences: Dr. Anais Gautier, Clinical Sciences

Undergraduate Platform: Kathryn Wolfe, Biological Sciences Veterinary Student Platform: Virginia Aida, DVM/PhD

Graduate Student Platform: Anne Maguire, Scott-Ritchey Research Center

Undergraduate Poster: Daniel Patton, Cell and Molecular Biology

Veterinary Student Poster: Chloe Haynes, DVM Student Graduate Student Poster: Taylor Abernathy, Pathobiology People’s Choice Poster: Chloe Haynes, DVM Student

Return to home