Dana N Zimmel, DVM, DACVIM

Dr. Dana Zimmel served as the seventh dean of the UF College of Veterinary Medicine from June 2021 to September 2026, following a one-and-a-half year interim dean appointment from December 2019 to June 2021. She’s the only female to serve as dean in the college’s 50-year history.

Her steady and practical leadership positioned the college as a national leader in veterinary education, research, clinical service and community outreach, evidenced by CVM’s rise from No. 9 to No. 5 in U.S. News and World Report’s annual veterinary college rankings during her seven-year deanship.

With a vision to transform the profession of veterinary medicine through innovation and collaboration, Zimmel spearheaded efforts that blazed a trail at the forefront of animal, human and environmental health, for example, the opening of UF’s Veterinary Hospital at the World Equestrian Center in 2022 and the launch of the college’s open heart surgery program for dogs in 2023, the only program of its kind in the United States at the time, and the only to offer mitral valve repair alongside an open heart surgery fellowship training program.

A large animal veterinarian and UF alumna, Zimmel took the deanship reins during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensured safe continuity of care, unwavering support for the referring veterinarian community and successful continuation of the college’s teaching and research missions through thoughtful planning and transparency.

Prior to her deanship, she was lead administrator of the UF Veterinary Hospitals, serving as associate dean for clinical services since 2015, and before that, for five years as chief of staff and chief medical officer for the clinical enterprise. Under her leadership, hospital caseload grew from 20,542 patients in fiscal year 2011 to 41,811 patients seen in fiscal year 2019, with another 6,578 animals treated at the UF Pet Emergency Treatment Services clinic in Ocala. In 2012, Dr. Zimmel spearheaded the effort to create UF PETS, which has evolved as a hugely successful collaboration with Marion County-area veterinarians. The UF Small Animal Hospital gained accreditation through the American Animal Hospital Association in 2015, under Dr. Zimmel’s leadership, and is now a Level 1-certified facility as designated by the Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society.

A 1995 alumna of the UF College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Zimmel subsequently performed an internship in equine field services at North Carolina State University, where she also completed a residency in large animal internal medicine and equine practice. She worked in private practice in Ocala, Florida, before returning to academia at the University of Georgia, where she taught for two years before joining the UF faculty in 2002 as an assistant professor of equine extension, later moving into the large animal medicine service and into administrative roles.

Dr. Zimmel’s clinical interests include neonatology, exercise physiology, and endocrine disease.