2021 Penn Veterinary Medicine Teaching Awards
The Zoetis Distinguished Veterinary Teacher Award and the Class of 2022 Philadelphia Campus Teaching Award
This year’s Zoetis Distinguished Veterinary Teacher Award and the Class of 2022 Philadelphia Campus Teaching Award were presented to Vincent Thawley. The Zoetis Distinguished Veterinary Teacher Award is the most prestigious teaching award in veterinary medicine. Zoetis, the world’s largest animal health company, presents it annually to a faculty member at every veterinary college in the United States. The aim is “to improve veterinary education by recognizing outstanding trainers who, through their skills, commitment, character and leadership skills, make a significant contribution to the advancement of the profession.” The entire Penn Vet student body votes on the recipient.
Vince Thawley graduated from Penn Vet in 2009 with summa cum laude. After graduation, he completed a rotating internship in small animal medicine and surgery and a three-year residency in small animal emergency and intensive care medicine at Penn Vet’s Ryan Hospital. Thawley was certified as a Diplomat from the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care in 2013. After completing his residency, he remained on the emergency services of Ryan Hospital and is currently clinical assistant professor of emergency and intensive care medicine. Dr. Thawley’s clinical interests include the diagnosis and treatment of highly visual acuity and emerging patients, including the detection and treatment of circulatory shock and sepsis; Traumatic brain injury; toxicological emergencies; and cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
The William B. Boucher Award
The Boucher Award honors a New Bolton Center house clerk for excellent teaching, as demonstrated by William Boucher during his four decades at Penn Vet.
This year’s winner is Ashley Cameron. Dr. Cameron graduated from Colorado State University in 2016. She completed an internship at Equine Medical Center in Ocala, followed by a large animal clinical fellowship at Oregon State University. Dr. Cameron currently works in surgery at Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center.
Class of 2021 New Bolton Center Teaching Award
Yekaterina (Kate) Buriko graduated from Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, then did a rotating internship and residency in emergency and critical care with Penn Vet, then practiced at the Animal Medical Center in New York City before returning to Penn Vet in 2017 , where she currently works as an assistant professor for clinical intensive care medicine. Dr. Buriko’s research and clinical interests are in hemostasis, coagulation and viscoelastic testing.
Class of 2021 Philadelphia Campus Teaching Award
Nikki Scherrer is currently Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center.She received a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and graduated summa cum laude from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. She received her veterinary degree from Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine. After graduating, Dr. Sherrer interned at the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital. She then started a second rotating internship at the New Bolton Center and then an ophthalmologist practice.
Class of 2022 New Bolton Center Teaching Award
Klaus Hopster graduated from the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover in Germany in 2006. After an internship at the Equine Hospital in Hanover, he finished his studies in anesthesia and analgesia in 2011. He then worked for five years at the faculty of the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hanover before joining Penn Vet in 2016. He is currently an assistant professor of anesthesiology at Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center.
Class of 2023 Lecture Teaching Award
Rose Nolen-Walston was a professional dressage rider and riding instructor before graduating from the University of Georgia with a DVM in 2001. Upon graduation, she completed an internship and residency in internal medicine for large animals at Tufts University. Dr. Nolen-Walston spent a year researching the stem cell biology of mice for adults and then switched to the faculty of Penn Vet, where she teaches and practices internal medicine at the New Bolton Center. In 2017 she received the Zoetis Distinguished Teacher Award (Almanac May 23, 2017) and in 2014 the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award (Almanac April 15, 2014).
Class of 2023 Laboratory Teaching Award
Matthew Lanza received a BA in Behavioral Biology (since renamed Neuroscience) from the University of Pennsylvania in 2011. After college, he spent two years doing neuroradiology research with children with autism and schizophrenia at the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia before returning to Penn for veterinary school. After receiving his VMD in 2017, he began studying anatomical pathology at Penn Vet and continued to work as a comparative pathology fellow. His academic interests include neoplasia, neuroscience, and comparative pathology. Outside of teaching, Dr. Lanza advisor to several non-profit groups at Penn and Drexel and Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Science.
Class of 2024 Lecture and Laboratory Teaching Awards
Elizabeth Woodward joined the Department of Biomedical Sciences as a clinical assistant professor in 2016. Prior to her appointment to the faculty, she held postdoctoral research appointments at the New Bolton Center’s Reference Andrology Laboratory and the University of Kentucky Gluck Equine Research Center, where she also received her PhD in equine reproductive physiology. As a faculty, she is a physiology course organizer, teaches anatomy, serves on multiple college committees and is a faculty advisor to the Penn Vet Wine Club. Her research interests lie in the field of reproductive physiology, particularly in the areas of sperm physiology and equine endometritis.
