Natalie Isaza, D.V.M., a faculty member at the UF College of Veterinary Medicine, has been named the Grevior Shelter Medicine Community Outreach Professor.
The professorship was created through a gift from Barbara and Arnold Grevior, a Fort Lauderdale couple who are longtime advocates for shelter medicine programs in their community as well as at UF. Through a previous donation, the Grevior Shelter Medicine Suite was established at UF in 2012.
“The Greviors were so impressed with Dr. Isaza’s work with shelter and rescue animals that they made a gift to establish the professorship,” said Karen Legato, the college’s senior director of development and alumni affairs.
Endowed professorships are among the most significant awards conferred to faculty and are intended to be the university’s most prestigious recognition for continued scholarly achievement and distinction.
“In the selection of an individual for these appointments, teaching ability, character and dedication to the mission of the program and the college are taken into consideration,” Legato said. “Dr. Isaza certainly exhibits these characteristics.”
Isaza is a 1994 graduate of the UF veterinary college. She joined UF’s faculty in 2003 and immediately developed the Merial Shelter Medicine Clerkship, now known as the Veterinary Community Outreach Program. The program is an elective rotation through which UF veterinary students gain hands-on experience with spay/neuter surgery and community veterinary medicine. Students also gain additional surgical and medical treatment experience through a donor-funded program Isaza administers, known as Helping Alachua’s Animals Requiring Treatment and Surgery, or HAARTS.
The University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine is supported through funding from UF Health and the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.