Megan Schommer, ’10 DVM, was honored with the Emerging Leader Award from the Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association (MVMA). This award is given to MVMA members who have graduated from veterinary school within the past 10 years and have demonstrated achievement and leadership through veterinary community involvement.

Schommer maintains Minnesota Vets, a Facebook group dedicated to connecting Minnesota Veterinarians. Schommer is deeply involved with MN Pocket Pet rescue as the volunteer veterinarian, an animal foster parent, and was a finalist for its 2018 Small Pet Select Rescue Hero award. She has also volunteered with SIRVS through the University of Minnesota. She is currently serving on the MVMA committee focusing on health and wellness within the veterinary community.

Molly McCue, DVM, MS, ’07 PhD, professor in the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) Department of Population Medicine, was recently named interim associate dean of research at the 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.

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.

On January 27, the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon took place in Duluth, Minn. 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.

Manitou Crossing Kennels is home to more than 60 Siberian huskies, who race competitively in long-distance sled dog races throughout the United States and Canada. The kennel is devoted to the future of the working Siberian husky. Freking and her husband began working with Siberian huskies roughly 20 years ago and joined forces in 2000 with the goal of establishing a strong line of Siberian huskies.

The duo are both decorated mushers. Among other key accolades, Freking and her husband finished 9 seconds apart in the 2008 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, setting a new record for an all-Siberian husky team.

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

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.

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

Juan Samper, ’86 MS, ’90 PhD, was recently appointed associate dean for Academic and Student Affairs at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine in Gainesville, Fla. Samper is a board certified theriogenologist and was formerly associate dean at Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis.

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.