Spring is Around the Corner | Message from the Dean

Message from the Dean | March 2018

Spring is Around the Corner

The good news is that February is behind us, and although it may not be fully apparent today, spring is on its way.

I'd like to thank School of Veterinary Medicine campaign coordinators Maggie Hutchison and Vicki Kalscheur and all of the SVM faculty and staff who participated in the 2017 Partners in Giving campaign. Following the successful completion of the 2017 came, the SVM has been awarded third place for the highest percent increase in contributions for units with more than 400 employees. The Partners in Giving program has raised more than $2.5 million for over 500 organizations that benefit from this campaign.

The UW-Madison chapter of VOICE (Veterinarians as One Inclusive Community for Empowerment) has been selected to receive the VOICE National Programming Excellence Award in recognition of their efforts to produce quality and unique programming opportunities for the UW-Madison veterinary community. VOICE National will honor the SVM chapter at the SAVMA Symposium on March 17. Well done!

We are hoping that the architects and engineers for the Lot 62 parking ramp will be selected this month, with the goal of beginning construction on the parking ramp in the late winter to early spring 2019. I will keep you apprised of further developments on this important first phase of our parking ramp and new building expansion.

For those that are responsible for evaluating employees, please note that the Performance Management Development Program is up and running and the deadline for submission of evaluations of all employees is March 14, 2018.

Lastly, I want to highlight two of our own who have recently been hired into faculty positions within the School of Veterinary Medicine, officially starting in their roles today. Liddy Alvarez joins us as a clinical assistant professor in Small Animal Primary Care and Jessica Pritchard has been appointed as a clinical assistant professor in Small Animal Internal Medicine, both in the Department of Medical Sciences. Congratulations!

UW Veterinary Care Updates from the Director

Congratulations to Jake Moser, who officially started in his new position as Phone Reception Supervisor on February 19. Jake has been part of our phone r eception team for the past six years, and we are delighted to welcome him in this new managerial role .

Welcome also to three new certified veterinary technicians on the UWVC team: Kim Donohue (cardiology), Kurt Hageman (emergency and critical care), and Abbey Ace (small animal internal medicine). Megan Turbin, who is currently a member of our pharmacy staff, will start in her new role as Financial Specialist in the purchasing office on March 5.

Congratulations to Joan Capelle and Laurel Kinosian, who were recently granted emerita status by Chancellor Rebecca Blank in recognition of their professional achievements and their contributions to the university.

And, after 23 years as Associate Hospital Director, Mark Oglesbay's last day before retirement is March 9. Thank you for your service and dedication to the hospital over the years.

Finally, here's just a sample of the many positive comments and praise we have received from clients in the past month:

"Both doctors Lewin and Layne, as well as their team associates, were excellent and genuinely caring. Everyone goes out of their way to help. We also had a gastrointestinal issue and Dr. Layne assisted in helping to figure that out too via additional testing. We are always pleased and reassured working with UW vets!!!"

-Eloise, Evansville, Wisconsin

Ruthanne Chun DVM'91
Director, UW Veterinary Care
Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs

Student News

Rachel O'Leary DVMx'19 was among 10 students selected to receive a $1,000 scholarship from Equity Cooperative Livestock Sales Association. The 2018 recipients were judged on their scholastic achievement, extracurricular activities, leadership abilities, academic and personal goals, and an essay summarizing educational goals and future career plans.

In spring 2018, School of Veterinary Medicine will again present two awards recognizing accomplishment in basic, clinical or translational research by current DVM students -- the SVM Student Research Award and the Comparative Biosciences Research Award. Honorees will be recognized at the annual SVM Celebration of Excellence. To be considered, students should provide a one-page summary of their research, including a list of any abstracts or publications. A nomination letter from an SVM faculty member must accompany the summary. Please submit nominations to research@vetmed.wisc.edu by 5:00 p.m. on Friday March 16.

Faculty and Staff News

With the help of experts at Waisman Biomanufacturing, within UW-Madison's Waisman Center, Yoshihiro Kawaoka will lead a $3 million effort to produce as many as 1,000 doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine that has already been proven to work safely in monkeys. The vaccine is planned for use in a phase 1 clinical trial in Japan and is the only whole-virus Ebola vaccine candidate under development.

Emeritus Professor Gary Splitter was recently awarded a Fulbright Fellowship that will allow him to work at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil where he will participate with graduate students in the field of immunology and host-pathogen diseases.

Research News

Lauren Trepanier received a Morris Animal Foundation grant for a study to find out how the specific enzymes in dogs break down common environmental chemicals that have been linked to cancers in humans.

Congratulations to the SVM's nominees for the national Phi Zeta Research Manuscript Awards. Anna Assumpcao, a PhD student in the lab of Xuan Pan, is nominated in the Basic Science category for her paper, "STAT3 expression in canine lymphoma." Sonja Tjostheim, clinical instructor of cardiology, is nominated in the clinical science category for her paper titled "Toceranib effects on BP and proteinuria in dogs." Her project was mentored by Rebecca Stepien.

SVM Phi Zeta Research Day is coming up on Wednesday, April 11. Prizes will be awarded for the best research abstracts by DVM students, graduate students, and house officers. The deadline to submit abstracts is Monday, March 12; an online form to upload abstracts will be available soon.

A new paper was recently published in PLOS One by the UW collaborative team studying the impact of Zika virus infection on pregnancy in nonhuman primates. Lead authors Emma Mohr, Lindsey Block, and Christina Newman were part of a team that included SVM researchers Leandro Teixeira, Matt Aliota, Jorge Osorio, Tom Friedrich, and Ted Golos, who was the senior author on the paper. This report demonstrated severe fetal ocular pathology and preterm premature rupture of fetal membranes associated with late second trimester fetal demise in a pregnant rhesus monkey infected with a Puerto Rican strain of Zika virus in the first trimester.