On Sunday, January 27, the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon took place in Duluth, Minn. Recently, the Star Tribune covered the race, quoting musher and veterinarian Jen Freking, ’04 DVM, who has raced sled dogs for 30 years and owns Manitou Crossing Kennels in Finland, Minn., with her husband, Blake.

Tracy Hill, ’05 DVM, PhD, was with the Veterinary Medical Center at the University of Minnesota as a small animal internal medicine locum April 8–12 and will do so again July 8–12. After earning her DVM, she completed her small animal rotating internship and small animal internal medicine residency at North Carolina State University in 2009, completed a fellowship in interventional radiology at the Animal Medical Center in New York in 2011, and earned her PhD in comparative biomedical sciences at North Carolina State in 2012. She worked as a senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh from 2012–2016 and is now an assistant professor in small animal internal medicine and interventional radiology at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine.
 

Chris Pachel, '02 DVM, DACVB, CABC, visited campus in March to teach a special course on animal behavioral challenges and work with the Animal Behavior Club. Pachel is the owner and primary clinician for the Animal Behavior Clinic in Portland, OR. He completed a one-year clinical residency at the U of MN Veterinary Medical Center in 2005.

Mary Olson, ’76 DVM, and Jennifer Schurrer, ’06 DVM, ’07 MS, won the President’s Award from the Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association (MVMA). The MVMA President’s Award recognizes those who have contributed significantly to the veterinary profession and the MVMA, and that have promoted the human-animal bond, animal health, and welfare or public health. Olson and Schurrer have led Minnesota's prescription monitoring program, VetPMP. The pair created VetPMP to help control the current opioid crisis and prevent misuse of controlled pain medications. 

Molly McCue, DVM, MS, ’07 PhD, professor in the Department of Population Medicine, was recently named interim associate dean of research at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM). The associate dean of research is charged with leading the research mission of the College, implementing the CVM’s research strategic plan, and reviewing the current functions of this position and the office of the associate dean of research.

Samithamby Jeyaseelan, ’01 PhD, is now the William Jenkins Professor in Veterinary Medicine at Louisiana State University. Jeyaseelan is the Principal Investigator on a new $11.5 million NIH program to establish the Center for Lung Biology and Disease. Read more

Alphonso Lago, DVM, '09 PhD, owns DairyExperts, a herd health consulting and research company in Tulare, Calif., and recently hired Kruthika Patel, MVSc, '19 MS, as a research associate.

Jun Han, DVM, ’08 PhD, professor of virology in the Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine at China Agricultural University College of Veterinary Medicine, will soon lead research and international affairs as the Associate Dean of the China Agricultural University College of Veterinary Medicine.

Chris Pachel, '02 DVM, DACVB, CABC, visited campus in March to teach a special course on animal behavioral challenges and work with the Animal Behavior Club. Pachel is the owner and primary clinician for the Animal Behavior Clinic in Portland, OR. He completed a one-year clinical residency at the U of MN Veterinary Medical Center in 2005.