Matthew Barnhart, ’95 DVM, MS, recently co-edited a textbook, “Locking Plates in Veterinary Orthopedics.” The book was recently published by Wiley-Blackwell, based in New Jersey.

Learn more about the book.

Megan Schommer, ’10 DVM, was recently named Emerging Leader by the Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association (MVMA). MVMA honored Schommer with this award based on her achievement and leadership as a veterinarian, her community involvement, and how she actively engages others in the profession of veterinary medicine. Schommer practices at Lake Harriet Veterinary in Minneapolis, maintains Minnesota Vets, a Facebook group dedicated to connecting veterinarians across the state, and is deeply involved with Minnesota Pocket Pet Rescue as its volunteer veterinarian and an animal foster parent. She is currently serving on the MVMA committee focusing on health and wellness within the veterinary community. Schommer has also volunteered with the CVM’s student-led group Student Initiative for Reservation Veterinary Services (SIRVS). 

Jagjit S. Brar, DVM, ’77 MS, was recently honored with the Lifetime Merit Award by the Chicago Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) at the CVMA annual meeting on December 12, 2018, in Oak Brook, Ill. Brar has been a veterinarian for more than 55 years. He has owned Dorchester Animal Hospital in Chicago for more than 37 years and Palos Pet Clinic in Palos Hills, Ill., for 14 years. He has served as secretary, vice president, and president of the CVMA. Now, he is the veterinary board president of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulations. Brar was executive board member of the Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association for three years. He was also a member of Cook County Executive Board University of Illinois Extension and chair of the nomination committee for four years.

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.

Nancy Brandt, ’90 DVM, CVC, CVA, CVMA, wrote "Essential oils for anal gland issues" in the spring 2019 issue of Innovative Veterinary Care Journal. Brandt founded the Veterinary Medical Aromatherapy Association. Read the article.

The National Pork Board honored the late Bob Morrison, DVM, ’84 PhD, ’95 MBA, with the Pork Checkoff Industry Service Award. Before his death in 2017, Bob launched the Swine Health Monitoring Project, which provides weekly reports on the health status of more than 50 percent of the U.S. sow herds and coordinated the internationally respected Leman Swine Health Management conferences in St. Paul and China. He was a long time veterinarian and faculty member in our college.
 

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.