Greetings from Gainesville!
I’m honored to have been appointed as the new dean for the College of Veterinary Medicine here at the University of Florida, where I’ve joined a world-class institution with outstanding faculty, staff, students, and alumni. UF CVM has both strong traditions and outstanding reputations in service, teaching, and research, and I look forward to serving in my new leadership role.
As I embark on my tenure as dean, UF President Bernie Machen, the governor, and the Florida Legislature have provided the initial context for our collective journey: Together they envision UF as a top 10 public research university nationally, and the pre-eminent institution in the state of Florida.
What can we do here at the college to help UF achieve this pre-eminence vision? The answer is pretty straightforward: We need to be the best at what we do best.
- Service: Outstanding clinical programs exist at UF CVM, stemming from a teaching hospital that is literally second to none in the world, and a clinical faculty and staff of the same caliber. For UF to achieve top 10 status, we need to recognize and maintain these strengths and build our future on that solid foundation.
- Teaching: Although we consistently graduate top quality veterinarians, curricular review is needed to maintain and enhance that quality. The review process will also provide a key piece of preparation for our upcoming accreditation site visit, which will take place late in 2015. Using both the NAVMEC report and our own assessment of the changing landscape in the veterinary medical profession as our context, we’ll seek to build our top 10 reputation as an educational institution on the quality of our graduates.
- Research: To truly be pre-eminent, UF CVM will need to boast a blend of basic (biomedical sciences) and translational (applied/clinical) research to complement its strong teaching and clinical service programs. The core of this program exists in the college, but we’ll be working to strengthen our externally funded research through new and innovative collaborations with the UF Health Science Center and the UF Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS).
So, we have lots to do. Specifically looking to the fall:
- We’ll welcome the Class of 2017 to the CVM family.
- We’ll work together with faculty, staff, students, and stakeholders to identify strategic priorities and develop initial action plans around the top priorities.
We’ll meet and build relationships with stakeholders, from Florida and beyond, to communicate why we do what we do here at the college – because of our deep and long-term commitment to animal, human and environmental health.
All of you have a stake in our future in some way. I look forward to getting to know and working with you to help this college advance UF to the pre-eminence it deserves.
Sincerely,
James W. Lloyd, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Professor and Dean