March 2025

Greetings!

March has arrived and I’m catching a few glimmers of spring breaking through the winter weather. Here at the SVM, we’re gearing up for what is always a busy time of year: March 4 is our spring research day; April 6 we’ll host a public open house as part of the UW’s annual Science Expeditions; and on April 26 we have our yearly Celebration of Excellence awards banquet.

Shortly after that we will graduate 95 DVM students, ready to enter the world and the workforce as practicing veterinarians! And, preparations are already underway to honor our finishing house officers in June.

We continue to make progress developing our new innovative and integrated DVM curriculum. Module leaders and content development teams are hard at work so we’re ready for launch this August with the start of fall semester. We also are actively advancing our strategic planning process. Our strategy teams held their kick-off meetings in February and will be spending the first part of March diving deeper. We encourage you to share your voice and ideas: visit the strategic planning website to stay informed and engaged.

Finally, we all know there have been a lot of headlines recently that potentially impact the UW and the SVM. We will continue to work in close partnership with campus and community leaders to monitor and navigate as needed, and encourage you to follow current updates on the UW-Madison Federal Relations page. The SVM community is vital to educating the next generation and addressing some of society's most pressing issues. Together we continue to move forward, advance our mission, and support the Wisconsin community. As challenges arise, I’m here to listen and collaborate on solutions.

Until next time …

On, Wisconsin!

Jon

UW Veterinary Care News

We’re excited to have recently reopened our south building reception area along with our new dermatology service space. Improvements to our original building will continue throughout 2025, updating and enhancing our facilities and equipment to better serve our clients and patients. Watch this space for news and updates about ongoing renovations.

Also, please join us in welcoming the following team members:

Emma Pederson joins the float team as a veterinary nurse
Spencer Powers joins the kennels team as a veterinary assistant
Nick Smith joins the purchasing team as a financial specialist
Raquel Valdez joins the anesthesia team as a veterinary nurse
Arika Shaffer joins the ECC service as a veterinary nurse

We are thrilled to have these team members on board! If you see them around, please be sure to say hello and give them a warm welcome to UWVC.

Student Research Award Deadline is March 14

The SVM Student Research Award, supported by funds from the Offices of Advancement and Academic Affairs, will recognize accomplishment in basic, clinical, or translational research by a current DVM student (no dual degree student submissions, please). The winner will receive $500 and will be honored at the annual Celebration of Excellence event on Saturday, April 26.

Entrants must be nominated by a SVM faculty member. The student should provide a one-page summary of research, including a list of any abstracts of publications, accompanied by a nomination letter from an SVM faculty member (one page or less) describing research accomplishments and specific contributions to team projects/publications. Submit nominations to research@vetmed.wisc.edu no later than 5:00pm on Friday, March 14. Send applications as PDFs with the student's last name included in the file name.

Chance Shaw is the SVM's Sweetest Valentine

Thank you to everyone who submitted photos and voted on the Valentine's Day SVM pet pics. All the pictures were adorable and fun to see! There were 18 entries total, and 114 SVM team members cast votes. The winner was Chance Shaw (mom is June Shaw) with 17% of the votes.

SAVMA Blood Drive

The SAVMA Blood Drive, through the American Red Cross, is coming up March 25nd, 2025 from 10:30am to 4:30pm in rooms 2255/2259. Sign up to donate either Blood or Power Red (Search: UWVETMED). The Red Cross gives out a gift to students who donate.

Students: this is a perfect opportunity for SAVMA volunteer points! Regular donations receive 1 SAVMA volunteer point and Power Red donations receive 2 volunteer points. Walk-ins are welcome but sign up ahead of time to get your preferred time slot.

School News

The Fall 2024 semester was the end of an era for the Fundamental Principles of Veterinary Anatomy course taught to DVM1 students. Students representing each of our four classes, led by Morgan O’Donnell (DVMx’28), coordinated to make a thank you book full of pictures, memories, and notes for the Anatomy teaching team.

Please join us in congratulating Mike Cahill (Department of Comparative Biosciences) for his promotion to Associate Professor with tenure. Way to go Mike!

Rachel Walkup, a second year Molecular and Environmental Toxicology graduate student training in Rob Lipinski's (Department of Comparative Biosciences) lab received a Graduate Training award from the UW Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center. This highly competitive award recognizes Rachel's remarkable potential and will support one year of her interdisciplinary training and pursuit of studies investigating epigenetic contributions to common human birth defects. Congratulations, Rachel!

McLean Gunderson (Department of Comparative Biosciences) was accepted at the UW-Madison Teaching Academy for a three-year term as a Fellow.

The McPherson Eye Research Institute hosts the Vision at the Vet School outreach event Saturday, March 8 at 10am in the Renk Learning Center. We hope to see you there!

Please join us in welcoming Asa Rao and Laura Hess to the SVM Human Resources Team! A UW-Madison graduate with a degree in Management & Human Resources, Asa will be with us through July as part of the UW Job Rotation Program. Laura brings a wealth of experience to our HR team, including six years in Italy's vibrant food and beverage industry and nearly a decade in HR at Epic Systems and Exact Sciences.

Media Mentions

Ongoing coverage of H5N1 Highly Pathogenic Avian Flu with Keith Poulsen (Department of Medical Sciences; director, WVDL) and Peter Halfmann (’01 PhD’08; Department of Pathobiological Sciences):

Did you know that cancer affects dogs and cats at similar rates to humans? In a new episode of the Critically Speaking podcast, Mackenzie Pellin (Department of Medical Sciences) shares her expert viewpoint on cancer in our beloved pets.

Yoshihiro Kawaoka (Department of Pathobiological Sciences; WARF Professorship Fund in Recombinant Influenza Viruses) and M. Suresh (John E. Butler Professor in Comparative Mucosal Immunology and associate dean for research and graduate programs) recently co-authored a paper in the Journal of Virology:

Diversifying T-cell responses: safeguarding against pandemic influenza with mosaic nucleoprotein

Do you use a humidifier or a diffuser with essential oils in a home with pets You might want to reconsider. See what Amy Nichelason (Department of Medical Sciences) recommends in this article.

Tony Goldberg (Department of Pathobiological Sciences) recently joined the Talking Apes Podcast to answer, “Why are chimps in Uganda scooping up bat guano and eating it?”