Early-career swine vet program under way; participants announced

April 3, 2023 — AASV Staff

The new AASV Participant-led, Early-career Swine Veterinarian Development Program wasted no time getting started after receiving a $202,548 Education, Extension, and Training grant from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Veterinary Service Grants Program (VSGP) in September. The program began accepting applications in October, the participants were selected in November, the initial meeting to introduce participants to the program and each other took place in early December, and the first module is taking place this week in Ames, Iowa!

Applicant interest was strong, and the 25 available seats filled quickly. Per the program requirements, all participants are AASV members with 1 to 5 years of experience and employed in swine veterinary practice with a primary practice area in the United States. Preference was given to applicants who are current or previous recipients of a USDA Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program award or who serve in a USDA-designated veterinary shortage area.

The participant group met virtually in early December to begin networking with each other and to prioritize topics for the curriculum, as dictated by the participant-led nature of this unique program. Five in-person educational modules will be held quarterly between April 2023 and June 2024, followed by a half-day early-career conference in fall 2024.

The goals of the program are to provide early-career swine veterinarians with resources needed to encourage and ensure successful and lifelong careers as swine veterinarians and to cultivate new leaders in swine veterinary medicine. In a step towards the leadership goal, each participant has already joined at least one AASV committee.

Dr Clayton Johnson, a practicing veterinarian at Carthage Veterinary Service Ltd. serves as program coordinator and will be responsible for facilitating each module.

The AASV Participant-led, Early-career Swine Development Program is the brainchild of the AASV Early Career Committee. The committee identified a need for additional nondegree educational coursework and training for swine veterinarians early in their careers and applied for an Education, Extension, and Training grant from the USDA NIFA VSGP. The resulting award was one of 20 intended to help mitigate food-animal veterinary service shortages in the United States.

A subcommittee of the Early Career Committee, including Brandi Burton (past chair), Claire LeFevre (chair), T'Lee Girard, Brittney Scales, Emily Byers Taylor, and AASV Board of Directors member Sara Hough, provided guidance on the participant application and selection process. Moving forward, the subcommittee, with additions of newly elected vice-chair Nicholas Lauterbach and Jessica Seate, will provide input on the list of suggested topics, help identify speakers, prepare and review evaluations, and review all reports and metrics.

The AASV is pleased to announce the following cohort of individuals selected for the program:

Kimberlee Baker
Alyssa Betlach
Megan Bloemer
Daniel Brown
Brandi Burton
Daniel Carreno
Kayla Castevens
Brian Cerrito
Bryant Chapman
Matt Finch
Daniel Gascho
Trey Gellert
Kayla Henness
Megan Hood
Henry Johnson
Valeria Johnson
Erin Kettelkamp
Allison Knox
Claire LeFevre
Jamie Madigan
Lauren Nagel
Elizabeth Noblett
Brent Sexton
Rachel Stika Jensen
Ryan Strobel

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AASV staff contributed to or researched this story. For more information about the AASV, please visit http://www.aasv.org/.