Shortly after Mark Stetter joined the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine as its ninth dean, he spent six months meeting with faculty, staff, students and stakeholders to help inform the school’s top priorities.  

From those listening sessions and in consultation with the school’s Academic Council, four main areas of focus emerged: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; People First (employee engagement/satisfaction); Facilities; and Research. In each of these areas, working groups were formed and included over 150 volunteers from across the school.   

With the help of a consultant, these working groups developed a set of recommendations and priorities that have evolved into strategic initiatives for 2024, for which the school will invest nearly $1.5M in the coming year. The timing on this works well as the school’s current strategic plan is scheduled to sunset in 2024 and our accreditation will be in 2025. This will allow us to begin work now on these important initiatives and work toward a new strategic plan later this fall. (Read more on the Strategic Initiatives and Plan.)

“While our mission and vision remain constant, it was important for us to reassess some of our key priorities,” said Dean Mark Stetter. “The world as a whole has gone through a great deal of change in the past three years and like you hear on the airplane before gathering your luggage overhead...contents may have shifted. I wanted to hear from our entire community about the issues that have shifted and ensure we are putting our resources toward our most important opportunities.” 
 

Initiatives

Here are some of the strategic initiatives that we will be working on: 

—Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): Expansion and growth of diversity focused summer camps.  This includes growing our pre-vet summer enrichment programs for undergraduates and creating new outreach programs for middle and high school students. 

—People First: Creation of local mental health resources for faculty and staff. Establish a Recognition and Awards Committee which will help develop new staff awards and look at ways to improve recognition efforts across the school.  Continue efforts with the faculty recruitment task force that works to improve effectiveness and efficiency of faculty hiring. 

—Facilities: Renovate the Carlson library to support new SVM space for faculty, staff, and students. Establish better improved directional wayfinding and signage across the SVM portion of campus. Work with an external design firm to conduct an overall school space assessment and new facility masterplan.  

—Research: Invest in two key areas include our data analytics capabilities and enhancing our research grant writing infrastructure. 

People

“There have been many, many people involved in moving this process forward and I’m thankful for their commitment. The people who work here have invested so much into the school and their careers, we must continually look at ways to invest in our people and programs,” Stetter said.
 

Our goal is to foster an environment that inspires excellence in everything we do. We must ensure we are providing a school environment where people enjoy their work and are thriving.”  

Four SVM leaders served as ambassadors for these initiatives: Danika Bannasch (research), Bruno Pypendop (people first), Mary McNally (facilities) and Monae Roberts (DEI). Special thanks to Joe Dinunzio for his leadership in facilitating all the SI work over the course of 2022-2023. 

Strategic Initiatives Committee Members

• DEI Strategic Initiative Working Group

• Co-Chairs: Woutrina Smith, Dean’s Ofc; Sara Garcia, VME

  Tom Hinds, Dean’s Ofc
  Michele Hawkins, VME
  Bill Culp, VME
  Karl Jandrey, Dean’s Ofc
  Akinyi Naoke, CAHFS, SB
  Jenessa Gjeltema, VME
  Lillian Cruz-Orengo, APC
  Sara Garcia, VME
  Sasha Hickman-Beoshanz, VMTH
  Kirsten Gilardi, OHI
  Laura Van Winkle, APC
  Ilana Halperin, VME
  Sina Marsilio, VME
  Joie Watson, Dean’s Ofc
  Woutrina Smith, Dean’s Ofc
  Clare Yellowley, APC
  Jim Clark, Dean’s Ofc
  Danika Bannasch, Dean’s Ofc
  Denise Imai-Leonard, VM
  Krisztina Forward, Dean’s Ofc
  Eunah Preston, OHI

• People First Working Group

• Co-Chairs: Melissa Bartholomew, CE; Yevgeniy Gnedash, VSR; Bruno Pypendop, VSR

  John Angelos, VME
  Melissa Bain, VME
  Lorraine Barbosa, WHC
  Juliann Beingesser, CAHFS, SB
  Matthew Blake, OHI
  Julie Burges, VMTH
  Melanie Burt-Schipke, VMDO
  Simon Ehrlich, VMTH
  Maura Ferrero, VMDO
  Lynette Hart, PHR
  Stephani Hilder, VMTH 
  Ashley Hill, CAHFS
  Kate Hopper, VSR
  Lauren Issvoran, VMTH
  Eric Johnson, VSR
  Dominique Laqui, VMDO
  Harmony Lindberg, VMTH
  Benjamin Moeller, CAHFS
  Maribel Morales, VMDO
  Christine Munsterman, VMDO
  Kimberly Olsen, PMI
  Catherine Outerbridge, VME
  Helen Raybould, APM
  Cessna Refsland, VMDO
  Megan Rott, VMDO
  Kristen Sears, VMTH
  Marissa Simpson, VMTH
  Katherine Skorupski, VSR
  Amanda Steidlmayer, VMDO
  Lorraine Thompson-Barbosa, WHC
  Betsy Vaughan, VSR
  Jodi Westropp, VME
  Zachary Ward, CLaW
  Michael Ziccardi, OHI

• Research Working Group

• Sharif Aly, VMTRC/PHR
  Bart Weimer, PHR
  Alda Pires, PHR
  Krystle Reagan, VME
  Jennie Lane, OHI
  Kassidy Collins, PMI
  Damian Genetos, APC 
  Crystal Rogers, APC
  Chris Brandt, SVMIT
  Carrie Finno, CEH/PHR
  Michael Kent, CCAH/VSR
  Terry Lehenbauer, VMTRC/PHR
  Pouya Dini, PHR
  Brian Bird, OHI
  Sara Thomasy, VSR
  Pamela Lein, VMB
  Michelle Giuffrida, VSR
  Patty Pesavento, PMI
  Isaac Pessah, ORGE/VMB
  Lisa Miller, APC
  Amir Kol, PMI
  Peter Ernst, UCSD/PMI
  Winston Vickers, WHC/PMI
  Ronald Li, VSR

• Facilities Master Planning Working Group

• Jon Ramsey, VMB
  Ashley Carr, CAO, APC/VMBS
  Scott Cooling, Dean's Ofc
  Tim Samartino, Prof Ed
  Stuart Meyers, APC
  Mary McNally, Dean's Ofc
  Mike Beech, Prof Ed
  Joshua Stern, VMTH
  Robert Dean Collins
  Sarah Blasczysnki, VMTH, LA
  Tracy Bell, VMTH
  Steven Epstein, VSR
  Jonathan Dear, VVME
  Bret McNabb, PHR/LAC
  Paco Uzal, CAHFS, SB
  Lane Johnson, Acd Prog
  Natalia Ocampo, VGL
  Lee Ann Jansen, Advancement
  Rebecca Bellone, PHR