The Spir it of Cooperation: Volunteer ism at Penn Vet

BY COREEN HAGGERTY

In addition to the many fr iends of Penn Vet who have suppor ted the school financially over the year s, countless other s have shared their passion through volunteer ing. The full spectr um of the Penn Vet f amily students, alumni, f aculty, staff , fr iends have helped move the profession of veter inar y medicine forward through their contr ibutions of time, knowledge and effor t

Benjamin Franklin once said, “People volunteer ing together in a spir it of cooperation could accomplish g reat things ” This spir it is evident in the effor ts of the school’s students Despite a r igorous cur r iculum, student volunteer ism has been woven into the process of the school since its inception In 1889, just two year s after the fir st class began its education at the Penn Veter inar y College, students organized the Veter inar y Medical Society of the Univer sity of Pennsylvania, a precur sor to the cur rent Student Chapter of the Amer ican Medical Association (SCAVMA) Today, Penn Vet’s SCAVMA chapter and the student gover nment suppor t dozens of extracur r icular clubs from “Vet Students Care” Animal Rescue team that mobilizes students into disaster areas, to the Alpha Psi frater nity begun in 1908, to the Veter inar y Business Management Association, which coordinates the Business

Cer tificate Prog ram, a business educational enhancement to the core cur r iculum

In addition to member ship in dozens of for malized clubs, Penn Vet students par ticipate in exter nships, such as the Navajo Reser vation Project, spaying and neuter ing homeless animals at the Philadelphia Animal Welf are Society, and the annual Run for Rabies

This “spir it of cooperation” at Penn Vet does not end at g raduation, as alumni continue to suppor t their passion for their alma mater and consistently have ser ved as pacesetter s in professional and volunteer organizations The Veter inar y Medical Alumni Society (VMAS) was founded June 17, 1887, the day the fir st veter inar y class g raduated, and was the fir st organization of its kind in the United States Today, VMAS member ship includes more than 5,000 living Penn Vet g raduates and advanced- deg ree recipients (such as residents, inter ns, postdoctorates and fellows) and is led by almost 20 non-paid board member s Contr ibutions by Penn Vet’s alumni f amily range from ser ving on the Student Admissions Committee, providing feedback to the school on cur r iculum and ser ving as judges at student research events Alumni ser ve as mentor s to for mal vet students and even “students-to-be” by helping children stitch injured stuffed animals at Penn Vet’s well-known MASH Tent a community effor t suppor ted by alumni, f aculty, staff and students

Alumni also ser ve as valuable mentor s through established channels like the Oppor tunity Scholar ship Prog ram, or simply by shar ing the stor y of their life paths with students

With the small- and large-animal hospitals together treating more than 50,000 cases annually, the volunteer prog rams that involve fr iends of the school are integ ral to care deliver y At the Matthew J Ryan Veter inar y Hospital, the volunteer prog ram in the Emergency Ser vice began in 1988 Since then, more than 500 people have par ticipated Volunteer s come with diver se backg rounds from accounting to g raphic ar ts to the militar y and provide necessar y ser vices such as restocking, patient restraint, stocking and cleaning She ser ves as a member of the school's new financial planning advisor y committee and had helped shape the school's shor t- and long-ter m strateg ies

Defining the school’s strateg ic direction and community outreach also has occur red through the dedication and global knowledge offered by volunteer s The school’s Board of Over seer s, for merly the Advisor y Board, was developed in 1955 Today, more than 30 individuals in a broad range of disciplines including education, business, gover nment and ag r iculture meet regularly with f aculty, staff and students to address the school’s most pressing issues. Cur rent member Eve Lloyd Thompson, president of the Ber nice Barbour Foundation, has been an over seer since 2002. She ser ves as a member of the school’s new development advisor y committee and has helped shape the school’s capital campaign strateg ies

Penn Vet f aculty and staff also thr ive on the oppor tunity to share their passion and talent with the larger community Through Vet Pets, cer tified therapy pets of f aculty, staff and students visit with f amilies of ser iously ill children at the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House Pets like Cade, a dog owned by Bob Stewar t, Jr , V’99, and Tonya Foster, a nur se at the Rosenthal Imag ing and Treatment Center, has been volunteer ing at the House for more than two year s. A retired guide dog and cancer survivor who lost her left front leg to mast-cell cytoma, Cade selflessly shares the unspoken under standing of illness and recover y with her child fr iends and offer s the “creature comfor t of home” to these children and their f amilies.

Non-human volunteer s are not without other oppor tunities to g ive, and most contr ibutions by animals for animals literally are life-saving Through the Penn Animal Blood Bank and Bloodmobile, thousands of units of dog plasma are collected annually and processed into a var iety of blood products, and 300 blood transfusions occur monthly through the “Pets Helping Pets Prog ram ” at the Ryan Veter inar y Hospital Donor cats in the Feline Renal Transplant Prog ram actually provide a transplant kidney to an ailing pet of a client, and are subsequently rewarded with a new feline companion and a loving home New Bolton Center animals also volunteer their ser vices to patients Through the large-animal blood-donor prog ram, equine, bovine, capr ine and ovine patients receive life-saving blood transfusions and plasma directly from NBC’s teaching herds

Ben Franklin would be proud that the spir it of volunteer ism of both humans and animals has helped the School of Veter inar y Medicine accomplish g reat things each and ever y day

ROBERT E. DONAHUE, V’81 

 as a veter inar y student have now f allen to he wayside, a few moments do remain rather vivid I star ted veter inar y school in 1977 wanting to be an or thopaedic surgeon My inspiration was Dr. Chuck Newton and Dr. David Nunamaker They both took me under their wings

I was responsible as a work-study student for pr inting their cour se notes with Ashra Markowitz and spent many a memorable after noon with her at the mimeog raph machine I cannot thank them enough for all that they did for me in my for mative year s eshman, it was Dr Leon Weiss and Dr Lillian Magg io (later Pr ice) who enthralled me with their lectures on hematopoiesis I was infected by their enthusiasm, and they were the ones who got me star ted It was then Dr. Rober t Brodey, Dr. Anne Jeglum and Dr. Karen Young who finished me off .

Over my year s as a student, my roomies Gar y and Cor r ine Quinn and John Gliatto brought joy into my life. I have lost touch, but they know that they will forever have a place in my hear t Of cour se, I will never forget the lack of sleep I exper ienced at the Red Fox Inn by having Ted and Ron as neighbor s. I believe we were also the last class to use the Red Fox Inn. Although somewhat blur red, I will also never forget our after-hour s exploration of the bar in Society Hill and Bob Wagner following me with clam shells Thankfully no pictures exist of any of these adventures

I now direct a prog ram at the National Hear t, Lung, and Blood Institute evaluating gene transfer and stem cell transplantation in non-human pr imates after attending the Har vard School of Public Health and working at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the Genetics Institute I am cer tain I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for these individuals

EMILY GRAVES, V’99     of the funny or nostalg ic stor ies shared by fellow alumni are about odd or challeng ing animal interactions Yes, I had my share, but one of the most memorable exper iences from my four year s at Penn Vet was all about my human colleagues

My memorable stor y comes from my fir st student job I had the pr ivilege of working with Dr. Mark Haskins, who always insisted that he be called Mark, not Dr. Haskins. I had a work-study job dur ing the academic year and also stayed on dur ing the summer Dur ing this summer work, all the student employees obviously spent a good amount of time together. I nonchalantly mentioned to a few colleagues that I had decided to finally get a tattoo on my ankle I had mulled this over for year s and thought it was time.

Well, near the end of the summer, Mark treated all of us in the labs to a g reat dinner to say “thank you ” We had a large g roup and enjoyed some g reat food At the end of the meal, Mark made an announcement to me After hear ing of my desire to be tattooed and my str uggle to save the money to do so, he and my co-worker s had collected money and were ready to accompany me to the South Street tattoo parlor that I had selected The ar tist I had chosen was not working that night, but within 48 hour s, I had my tattoo thanks to the suppor t of my fr iends that summer Thanks to Mark and my co-worker s in the summer of 1997! This stor y still puts a smile on my f ace today career in avian medicine began dur ing my senior year, n f aculty inspiration and encouragement and student generosity led to weeks of hands-on poultr y nostic work in Vineland, N J Without the f ascinating microbiology and pathology presentations by Dr. an Stubbs, the advice Penn Vet f aculty to seek the broadest practice exposure possible, and the willings of fellow students to “opt out” and trade tr ips to var ious area practices (I hadn’t been slated for any p to Vineland), I would have missed a g reat oppor tunity. here in Vineland, under the watchful eye of Dr. Otto Schwabe and a for tunate visit from Dr. Fred eaudette, one of the pioneer s in avian medicine, I found my calling It g ratefully continues long into etirement

 naive city g irl, fresh from academies and an all-g irl college, meeting for the fir st time with Dr Bill Boucher, and the myster ies (for me) of large-animal medicine! Tr ying to teach me how to hit the jugular vein on a cow, he said, “Throw it like a baseball,” then fr ustratingly added, “But you ’ re a g irl, and don’t know how to throw a baseball ” It was hard for both of us him tr ying to communicate with me, and me tr ying to lear n from him

My inner self said, “I’m going to show this guy, ” and vowed to ace his cour se After the fir st test the blue book was retur ned, with a large, hand-wr itten note from Dr Boucher simply saying: “Bur y the shovel” and an A I lear ned more from him than he ever knew

OBERT L. LEIGHTON, V’41 

Small Animal Surger y was in a pr imordial ate Many students were aware of this They had either worked for some of the advanced vetr inar y practices or their f ather s were veter inar ians and they hand been helping for half their fetimes I had been the surg ical technician for the Angell Memor ial Animal Hospital dur ing he summer s for two year s Dur ing this time, I had been g iven the task of spaying six cats or our dogs from 8:00 a m to 12 noon, five days a week This freed up the veter inar y staff there for the more difficult surger ies

I got per mission from the dean to use the space under the semicircular lecture room at the back of the building The left-hand side was a concrete empty space On a weekend we painted the walls g ray The paint came from a leftover supply for motor s on boats A table, light, instr ument stand and refurbished sink were prepared. The suitable dogs were obtained from the local SPCA I brought drapes, towels, caps, masks, gowns, gloves, syr inges, suture mater ial, needles, pentobarbital sodium and instr uments from Angell. We did have some hair clipper s. I proceeded to demonstrate the spay. A ver y fine veter inar ian from Silver Spr ing, Md , had lectured to us on the aseptic method of surger y No demonstration had ever been perfor med before then. I believe about half the class was instr ucted in the spr ing of 1941. The supplier of the dog got to be an assistant. I have often wondered if the little room is still painted g ray. Little did I know at the time that I would end up teaching surger y as a full professor

SALLY MYTON, V’69     to be a veter inar ian since childhood Graduation Day 1969 was a dream come tr ue I had to work hard for that deg ree Freshman year I f ailed chemistr y and had to take a re-exam A lot of students had f ailed, so I was not alone Back in the sixties, female vet students were a definite minor ity When we broke up into g roups for senior year we were told “each g roup has to take a woman If there is anyone who has not found a g roup, they will be assigned one ” I was not really close to any of my classmates I figured I would be the one assigned What a good feeling it was when I was asked to join a g roup

Junior year, I f ailed another cour se. Failing students were notified over the loudspeaker to go to a phone Ever ybody knew what it meant when you were paged I was told I had f ailed Medicine but was g ranted a re-exam. I walked back to my g roup. I wondered if they even cared that I might f y they would be glad not to have a g irl in their g roup after all I was wrong I could tell they all felt bad for me One student lent me his notes. Several students took my Emergency duty so I could study. They knew I might not be there to pay them back, but they did it anyhow I took the test Once more, I got paged to the phone I had passed! The g roup broke out in big smiles when I told them. I felt accepted. Thank you, guys.

RC ROSENBERG, V’71   - student, I spent my scheduled rotations at New Bolton ter There was no going to class and then retur ning home; there you worked, ate and slept with one her, day in and day out I had a close g roup of classmates with whom I spent my off-hour s talking ut veter inar y classes, and how we longed to get back to Philadelphia and our own beds and days that not beg in at 5:00 a m the guys were standing around the bar n at the end of the day, Dean Bob Mar shak pulled up in his ige golf car t and asked who among us would like to help draw blood from his leukemia herd I volnteered after all, this was the dean and a world-renowned researcher of leukemia in cattle I could e the brownie points accumulating I, Marc Rosenberg, would have a leg up on the rest of my vetr inar y buddies g roup the next day and told them how Dean Mar shak and I were now ver y close He thought I did a g reat job and, in f act, “Bob” and I might just get together socially. Imag ine that: Marc Rosenberg, fr iend of Bob Mar shak! As I’m telling the stor y, the dean comes r iding by in his electr ic golf car t. I step away from my fellow classmates to g ive my new fr iend a g reeting as he passes He catches my eye, waves and says, “Hi, MELVIN, how are you doing?” and keeps going I tur ned around to the g roup and was g reeted by cheer s of “Hi, Melvin!” and never was allowed to forget my new title for the duration of my stay at New Bolton Center

If you would like to share your memor ies and photos of your student year s at Penn Vet, please e-mail them to Coreen Hagger ty, hagger tc@vet upenn edu We will add your memor ies to our 125th Anniver sar y and Alumni sections of our Web site

Dr. Kur t D. Hankenson was awarded he Fuller Albr ight Award by the Amer ican Society of Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) in September 2008. Dr. Hankenson, assistant professor of cell biology, is the fir st veter inar ian o receive the award, g iven in recognition of mer itor ious scientific accomplishment in the bone and mineral field to an ASBMR member who has not tur ned 41 by July of the award year

In October 2008, Dr. Cor inne Sweeney, professor of medicine and associate dean for the New Bolton Center, was named chairwoman of the Commonwealth’s Hor se Racing Commission

In Apr il 2008, Dr Michael Atchison, professor of biochemistr y and director of the VMD-PhD prog ram, received a Chr istian R and Mar y F Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. The Lindback Awards, presented to member s of Penn’s standing f aculty since 1961, were established by the Chr istian R. and Mar y F. Lindback Foundation to recognize distinguished teaching at colleges and univer sities throughout the mid-Atlantic ser vice area of Abbott’s Dair ies, Inc Chr istian Lindback was president and pr incipal of Abbott’s Dair ies

In December 2008, Dr Colin Har vey, professor of surger y and dentistr y at Ryan Veter inar y Hospital, was appointed to the new Canine Health Board, charged with making key decisions on standards for floor ing, lighting and ventilation for commercial breeding kennels in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

In September 2008, Dr. Karen Rosenthal was appointed medical director of the Ryan Veter inar y Hospital The appointment is for a four-year per iod with annual reviews. Dr Rosenthal has ser ved as director and section chief of Special Species Medicine and Surger y.

In October 2008, Dr Tracy Bale, assistant professor of neuroscience in he Depar tment of Animal Biology, was appointed the fir st director of Penn Vet’s neuroscience prog ram Along with nfectious disease, comparative oncology and regenerative medicine, neurocience is one of Penn Vet’s four transational research focus areas

In September 2008, Dr. Richard O. Davies, professor emer itus of physiology, was appointed by the univer sity’s provost to a two-year ter m as chair of the Depar tment of Clinical Studies, Philadelphia.

In June 2008, Dr. Louise Southwood Parente, assistant professor of emergency medicine and cr itical care at New Bolton Center, received the Pfizer Animal Health Award for Research Excellence at the annual f aculty research retreat.

Dr s. Sarah L. Teegarden and Tracy L. Bale in the Depar tment of Animal Biology were awarded the 2008 Ziskind-Somerfeld Research Award g iven for the top science paper of the year The paper, “Decreases in Dietar y Preference Produce Increased Emotionality and Risk for Dietar y Relapse” (Biological Psyc hiatr y 2007; 61), demonstrated that stress contr ibutes to increased consumption of food high in f at and carbohydrates and possibly could increase the r isk of obesity

Dr David Ar tis, assistant professor in he Depar tment of Pathobiology, was elected as a 2008 Investigator in the Pathogeneisis of Infectious Disease Award by the Bur roughs Wellcome Fund. The selection was based on his proposal’s scientific excellence and innovation, the strength of the scholarly environment at Penn Vet and his accomplishments as an independent researcher

Dr Car r ie Tupper Hume, third-year oncology resident, received the Rober t S Brodey Memor ial Award for Clinical Science At the annual conference of the Veter inar y Cancer Society, Dr Tupper Hume delivered a presentation descr ibing the results of a collaborative study between the Oncology and Radiology sections at the Ryan Veter inar y Hospital

Dr. Adr ian Mor r ison, professor emer itus of behavioral neuroscience, has published An Odyssey with Animals: A Veter inar ian’s Reflections on the Animals Rights & Welfare Debate. The book from Oxford Univer sity Press descr ibes the culmination of Dr Mor r ison’s decades of reflection, scholarly research into the animal r ights issue and fir sthand work with animals

Gail Luciani, executive director of public relations, and Jennifer Rench, marketing and communication coordinator, received the univer sity’s Commitment to Excellence award for their outstanding communications work dur ing Barbaro’s lengthy stay and extensive treatment in 2006 and 2007 at Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center The Commitment to Excellence prog ram was introduced in 2004 to offer a way for leader ship to recognize outstanding commitment to Penn goals in the f ace of extraordinar y exter nal circumstances