“Facing a Crisis -Best Practices in Recruitment, Retention, and Career Development of Veterinary Medical Educators”

An emerging shortage of veterinary medical educators requires the profession to acknowledge and understand the factors leading to this outcome. Expanding class sizes within existing schools and colleges of veterinary medicine and the expected expansion of new programs seeking AVMA-COE accreditation have heightened the need to address an impending shortage of veterinary medical educators. A solution-oriented approach that accurately projects educator workforce needs and identifies factors contributing to the shortage requires effective collaboration across various partnering organizations to develop innovations in pedagogy and educational delivery methods. The veterinary profession must also identify and reduce disincentives that deter students and post DVM trainees from pursuing careers in education. Finally, efforts at the state and federal level are critical to advocate for financial support and incentives for expansion of the veterinary medical educator workforce. Through these collective approaches and partnerships, the veterinary medical educator workforce can be strengthened to overcome obstacles for educating the next generation of veterinarians to meet societal needs.

About Dr. Lairmore:
Michael D. Lairmore, DVM, PhD is immediate past dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis). At UC Davis, he oversaw all the school’s teaching, research and service activities, personnel, facilities, and funding resources. He presided over six academic departments, the William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System, the Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center in Tulare, Veterinary Medicine Extension, and numerous centers of excellence. As dean, he helped create new programs to expand clinical trials, global and one health programs, and innovation and entrepreneurship. Dean Lairmore led a strategic planning process that enhanced current units, added new programs in faculty, staff, and student leadership, expanded student services including mental health support, expanded research and clinical infrastructure, community outreach, external stakeholder engagement, created new diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, extended communication, marketing, and development activities. He is one of the few veterinarians elected as a member of the National Academy of Medicine. He is also a Fellow in the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences and has received numerous teaching and research awards throughout his career. He served in numerous national leadership positions including President of the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges and the American College of Veterinary Pathologists and served as a member of the National Institutes of Health Council of Councils. His research has provided significant breakthroughs in the biology of human retroviruses and the understanding of viral-associated carcinogenesis. He has authored or co-authored over 190 scientific publications and given numerous lectures and invited presentations throughout the world.