Nickie Baird Named Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs


Nickie Baird

NICKIE BAIRD NAMED

ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR CLINICAL AFFAIRS

A. Nickie Baird, DVM, MS, DACVS has been selected as associate dean for clinical affairs and professor with tenure in the Department of Clinical Sciences effective Jan. 10, 2022, following a successful national and international search.

A tenured professor with four-and-a-half years in rank and 20 years on faculty in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Purdue University, Dr. Baird is well qualified to serve in this position based on credentials, experience and leadership as chief of staff for nine years, member of the Teaching Hospital Administrative Council for 15 years and member of the hospital’s interim management team during a recent transition in directorship from 2019-20.

Dr. Baird earned a bachelor’s degree from North Carolina State University, master’s degree from Texas A&M University and a DVM from Auburn University in the Class of 1984. He is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons or ACVS. Prior appointments include a 3-year faculty appointment at Penn and eight years as a faculty member — from 1990-98 — achieving tenured associate professor rank at Auburn University.

In his role as chief of staff at Purdue, he has represented the interests of the large animal faculty and staff to the hospital director. Dr. Baird will bring a balanced perspective to the associate dean for clinical affairs position that will translate into actionable plans for further advancement of the hospital’s academic mission and operations within the context of the college’s strategic plan.

Dr. Baird has been highly engaged as a faculty member over his 20-year faculty service at Purdue. He currently contributes approximately 24 weeks of clinical service per year in Large Animal Surgery I and contributes to didactic/lab courses in Large Animal Surgery I, Large Animal Surgery II and Applied Anatomy of Production Animals. He brings a solid record of scholarly productivity as a senior clinician in the discipline of food animal surgery and its integration with veterinary clinical education. Over the course of his appointment at Purdue, he has mentored 42 graduate students, residents and interns. Of those in the graduate student track, he has served as primary advisor for five and mentor for 10. In the clinical track residency program, he has served as a committee member for 11 residents. He has also served on five master’s advisory committees and chaired one. Dr. Baird has a consistent record of service as a mentor for veterinary students — 36 since 2005. His excellence in student engagement is reflected in his service twice as the student-elected keynote speaker at the college’s 2020 and 2021 white coat ceremonies.

Dr. Baird has contributed to the publication of 57 peer-reviewed research papers, seven published proceedings in the field of food and fiber animal surgery and has also contributed to multiple case studies derived from hospital patients. He has personally delivered 15 scientific lectures to regional, national or international groups and has engaged the veterinary and veterinary surgery communities with 19 national, 24 regional/state and 16 local continuing education presentations. These have led to 12 peer-reviewed continuing education publications, editorship of four books with multiple chapter contributions and 19 published book chapters. He has been engaged in the ACVS, American Association of Bovine Practitioners and the World Buiatrics Congress, in addition to serving on numerous committees at the university, college and department levels. Collectively, Dr. Baird’s performance demonstrates a high level of engagement in academic veterinary medicine, hospital operations, shared academic governance, specialty services and organized veterinary medicine, resulting in a portfolio well suited for the role of associate dean for clinical affairs.

Regarding his appointment as associate dean for clinical affairs, Dr. Baird stated: “It is difficult to find the words to adequately express my appreciation to the Auburn faculty, staff and administration for giving me the opportunity to return home as associate dean for clinical affairs. My experiences at other institutions provide me the unique perspective through which to take a fresh look at our program to build on our strengths and make changes in areas that can be improved. I look forward to working alongside Auburn’s world-class faculty in our state-of-the-art facility to provide the best possible care to patients and great service to our clients and referring veterinarians while continuing to produce the outstanding practice-ready graduates that have always been a strength of the Auburn program. Our goal will simply be to make Auburn a little better today than it was yesterday.”