Dear Friends and Colleagues,
However you celebrate, I hope you had a wonderful holiday season! As we begin 2025, it’s a good time to reflect on the accomplishments of the past year. I’m honored to share our 2023-24 annual report with you. Capturing the fiscal year just prior to me arriving here, it summarizes, exemplifies, and highlights the many reasons I’m thrilled to have been named dean of this amazing institution. It also helps lay the groundwork for our priorities and areas of focus as we begin 2025.
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As I’ve mentioned before, we’ve opened a tenure track faculty line in Artificial Intelligence, and the SVM will also play a key role in UW’s RISE-THRIVE initiative that focuses on immunology and healthspan. Our searches for key faculty members to advance and support in these areas are ongoing. We received seven figure gifts and grants to support WisCARES and our Shelter Medicine Program, amplifying the School’s robust outreach portfolio. Additionally, Phase 2 of our new DVM curriculum was approved by our faculty in late November and we are on track to roll out the new curriculum in fall of 2025.
To help advance and guide these initiatives and more, the week of January 13 the SVM will kick off our next strategic planning process. We will host three summits open to everyone in our SVM community as well as select external invitees; we encourage everyone to choose what works best for them and attend only one summit. Our goal is to complete the strategic planning process by July 2025. More information about the approach and process can be found here.
In addition to all that goes along with strategic planning, the events and listening sessions I attended in my first several months as dean – across the SVM and in places including Green Bay, Wausau, Eau Claire, La Crosse Baron, and Dodgeville – will also help inform the planning process. I look forward to sharing more with you along the way.
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Until next time… On, Wisconsin!
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Gabriele Neumann named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors
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“Dr. Neumann has made outstanding contributions to science, many of which she has been able to successfully commercialize and bring into the healthcare space,” says Dean Jonathan Levine. “Her contributions have saved thousands of lives, especially in vulnerable populations.”
Adds M. Suresh, John E. Butler Professor in Comparative and Mucosal Immunology and the SVM’s associate dean for research and graduate education, “Dr. Neumann’s research exemplifies the true essence of ‘bench to bedside’ by translating groundbreaking discoveries in virology into practical, life-saving solutions, including vaccines that protect both humans and animals from infectious diseases.”
The prestigious NAI Fellows Program was established to highlight academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society. Neumann’s achievement exemplifies the SVM’s strong commitment to academic leadership and excellence.
“Even the most innovative ideas may fail if the environment is not conducive to the respective research, and UW-Madison and the SVM have provided an environment that made these studies possible,” Neumann says, noting that it is rewarding to be recognized but there is more work ahead. “Although much has been learned, we still need to better understand how viruses evolve, which virus mutants pose a risk to humans, and how we can quickly generate highly efficacious vaccines.”
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Workday: What You Need to Know
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As you may have heard, UW-Madison is launching a new software platform, Workday, that will manage HR, finance, and research administration functions of the University. This UW Systemwide implementation is scheduled to go live on July 1 and will impact different employees in different ways. For all employees it will change how you enter time, view your pay statements, and access and manage other employee information currently found in the My UW portal. For those who manage research grants there will be additional changes to your workflow and processes. Similarly, for those who handle financial tasks, such as p-card or purchasing, business processes and workflows will change. Both central campus and the school will be sharing more information over the next several months to prepare employees for the changes and to communicate about trainings when required. Please give these messages your attention and note this change will impact key deadlines at the end of the fiscal year as well as how certain administrative work functions.
In preparation for Workday, campus is offering a 30-minute lunch and learn on Thursday, January 16, via zoom. You can learn more here. Also, watch email for more information as we are working to plan an on-site Workday session at the SVM in the coming weeks.
Sean Bossinger is leading the IT efforts to support Workday and ancillary systems that connect to Workday. If you have any questions, please reach out to our school leads:
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Dr. David Vail and SVM featured on award-winning PBS show Shelter Me
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Check your local TV listings! The latest episode the award-winning PBS television show Shelter Me – the Emmy award-winning series that tells uplifting stories about animals and the people who love them – aired on Monday, December 30 at 8:00 p.m. The episode, “The Cancer Pioneers,” features David Vail of the UW School of Veterinary Medicine (along with two other institutions and the National Cancer Institute) and focuses on how the inclusion of companion dogs with cancer in clinical trials is helping to advance cancer treatment and diagnosis in dogs and people. The episode will air occasionally in Wisconsin only until its nationwide premiere in February 2025. We’ll share more details in next month’s newsletter.
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SVM leads the way on H5N1 Research
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Congratulations, Professor Lipinski!
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Congratulations to Rob Lipinski on his successful promotion to full Professor in the Department of Comparative Biosciences. We are fortunate for all you do to support the SVM!
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New Faculty Awards - Nominations Opening Soon!
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We’re excited to announce two new SVM faculty awards will open for nominations in early 2025. The Award for Excellence in Patient Care and Diagnostic Medicine will be presented annually to two faculty clinicians who exemplify the highest standards of excellence in patient care and diagnostic medicine. These awards are part of the SVM’s focus on rewarding and recognizing faculty for contributions in our teaching hospital. Nominees must be faculty currently practicing within UWVC and can be nominated by peers, students, or hospital staff. The Excellence in Collaborative Teaching Award recognizes teams who demonstrate outstanding collaborative efforts in teaching, significantly impacting learners through their joint work. The award will be based on the reach, value, and impact of the team's practice.
More information on eligibility and the nominating process will be coming soon via email, and winners will be honored at the spring Celebration of Excellence.
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UW-Madison launches first-of-its-kind study on FLASH radiation therapy for dogs
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Wisconsin DOJ Plaque Presentation
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On December 20, we were honored to be recognized by the Wisconsin Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives for the care provided to K9 Tutty at UW Veterinary Care. Tutty, an ATF Accelerant Detection K9, faced significant challenges earlier this year after being diagnosed with T3-L3 myelopathy and chronic intervertebral disc herniation. Thanks to the dedication of our Neurology, Rehabilitation, and Primary Care teams, Tutty made an incredible recovery, recertified, and returned to his important work.
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SVM Leaders Honored in Textbook Dedication
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We were honored to hear former SVM graduate student and surgery resident Kei Hayashi, DVM, PhD – now an adjunct professor at UW-Madison and emeritus professor at Cornell University – recently dedicated a textbook he co-authored to SVM founders, Dr. Rudolph “Tass” Dueland and Dr. Eb Rosin, as well as acknowledging Dr. Mark Markel, Dr. Paul Manley and Dr. Jon McAnulty.
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