Each year the School of Veterinary Medicine honors its alumni with Achievement Awards. The Alumni Achievement Award recognizes outstanding contributions by graduates of the school’s DVM, MPVM, and graduate academic (MS, PhD) programs, or individuals who have completed internship or residency programs. The Rising Star Alumni Award honors a DVM graduate of the school who, within 15 years of graduation, has demonstrated outstanding professional achievement. Award recipients will be recognized at an event in the fall.

This year’s 2021 recipients include:

·       Kimberly Dodd, PhD (‘14) DVM (‘15). Dr. Dodd is honored with the Rising Star Alumni Award for her extraordinary leadership in the diagnosis and prevention of infectious diseases of livestock and people. Director of the National Veterinary Services Laboratories’ (NVSL) Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (FADDL) administers the nation’s foreign animal disease surveillance program. She is also leading FADDL’s transition from Plum Island (NY) to the new National Bio and Agro-Defense (NBAF) facility in Manhattan (KS). To ensure a highly skilled work force, Dr. Dodd established and directs the NBAF Scientist Training Program to train veterinary clinician scientists capable of working with, and understanding the global impact, of BSL-4 pathogens, and the USDA APHIS NBAF Laboratorian Training Program for training of skilled laboratory technical staff. Dr. Dodd is highly regarded as a scientific and administrative leader, and professional role model.  

·       Dale Moore, DVM (‘83), MPVM (’87), Food Animal Residency (‘88).  Dr. Moore receives this award for her outstanding contributions in preventive medicine and creating lifelong learning opportunities for veterinarians and veterinary students. Dr. Moore is Director, Veterinary Medicine Extension and Continuing Veterinary Medical Education at Washington State University. While on our faculty, she developed the VMTRC clinical rotation in dairy production medicine and served as Associate Dean for Student Programs. Throughout her career, Dr. Moore has developed unique programs focused on dairy cow and calf health and well-being. In parallel, she explored new approaches to identify knowledge gaps and create educational programs to facilitate learning for agricultural animal health audiences.

·       G. Diane Shelton, DVM (‘79), PhD (‘85).  Dr. Shelton is recognized for her extraordinary contributions to One Health through investigations of neuromuscular disorders of animals and identification of spontaneous models for human diseases.  At UC San Diego School of Medicine, Dr. Shelton established and serves as Director of the Comparative Neuromuscular Laboratory, an international reference center for spontaneously occurring neuromuscular diseases, providing state of the art diagnostic services for muscular dystrophies and other congenital myopathies, and collaborative research opportunities, used by veterinarians globally. 

·       Lisa Tell, DVM (’91).  Dr. Tell is honored for her distinctive leadership and professional contributions to ensure safety of the US food supply, hummingbird health and conservation, and dedication to faculty welfare.  As Director of the UC Davis Veterinary Residue Laboratory, Dr. Tell also directs the western region national programs for Food Animal Residue Avoidance & Depletion (FARAD) and the National Research Support Program 7 (NRSP-7) providing evidence-based guidance on therapeutic drug monitoring and withdrawal in livestock and poultry to ensure safe food products. Concurrently, she established a nationally recognized, community-based research program supporting hummingbird conservation and continues to provide extensive university service supporting work life balance and career advancement.

Congratulations to all!