Dr. Lynelle Johnson, professor in the Department of Medicine and Epidemiology, was honored with the 2023 Boehringer-Ingelheim Research Mentoring Award. She joined the UC Davis veterinary school faculty in December of 2000 and in her 23 years as a small animal internist, colleague, and mentor, she has played an integral role in the development and mentorship of students, house officers and junior faculty.

In this time, Johnson has served as a primary research mentor for 43 of 90 peer reviewed manuscripts. She stands out in her dedication to fostering curiosity and research development as part of the teaching hospital’s resident training. Because of the intersection of her various interests, she has served as a research mentor for 27 peer reviewed manuscripts with residents from small animal internal medicine, cardiology, radiology, and surgery. It is the diversity of her interests which is married to her focused expertise on respiratory disease that has led to collaborations such as pharmacokinetic studies of antiviral medications, interventional endoscopy of nasolacrimal ducts, exploration diagnostics and treatment for foxtail inhalation, pulmonary hypertension, and radiographic assessment of cardiac disease.

Like many faculty with a clinical appointment, Johnson has utilized the VMTH as her laboratory and her patients as inspiration for clinical inquiry. The way that she models this practical approach to clinical research has inspired trainees across the spectrum to consider pursuing research programs as they grew to realize that research can be fun, accessible, and impactful.

Johnson has an infectious passion for cardiorespiratory medicine, and she has inspired veterinary students to pursue research and academic medicine as a mentor for STAR projects. Throughout her career at UC Davis, these summer research projects have led to some of the quintessential resources about impactful but poorly described diseases such as chronic rhinitis or aspiration pneumonia in dogs (e.g., Windsor et al 2004 and Kogan et al 2008). Likewise, the students involved in these projects have often gone on to seek out specialty training and join the ranks of academicians (e.g., Gould et al 2013).