CVM Faculty, Staff and Student Accolades

Congratulations to Marie Kerl, DVM, MPH, DACVIM-Small Animal Internal Medicine, DACVECC, an adjunct teaching professor in pathobiology at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine, on receiving the Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society’s Ira Zaslow Distinguished Service Award.

This award is the highest honor the VECCS presents, and is given annually to an individual who has demonstrated extraordinary commitment and exceptional contribution to the specialty of emergency and critical care, as well as to the VECCS. The award is named after Ira M. Zaslow, one of the founding fathers of the VECCS and the ACVECC.

Kerl has served in many positions for the VECCS, including member-at-large on the board of directors, president-elect, president and past-president. She also served on the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care board of regents as vice-president, where she also led the ACVECC Scientific Program Committee. Kerl has been a member on the editorial board of the Journal of Emergency and Critical Care since 2004, and currently serves as an assistant editor. She has also been a member of the National Veterinary Response Team since 2007 and has been the regional medical director for Veterinary Centers of America since 2017 and regional operations director since 2020.

A press release from the VECCS stated, “Dr. Kerl has dedicated invaluable hours as a member of the ACVECC Examination Committee, further demonstrating her passion for mentoring, training and certifying the next generation of veterinary leaders and colleagues.”

Congratulations to Rajiv Mohan, PhD, FARVO, and his lab team on receiving the Travel Award from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Sabeeh Kamil, MBBS, a research fellow in the lab, received the prestigious award for presenting his research findings at the trans-agency scientific meeting titled, “Developing Medical Countermeasures to Treat Acute and Chronic Effects of Ocular Chemical Toxicity” held Feb. 25-26, in Rockville, Maryland.

Congratulations to Cheryl Rosenfeld, DVM, PhD, a professor in the CVM Department of Biomedical Sciences, who was recently voted to be the first female president of the United States Developmental Origins of Health and Disease Society. The U.S. DOHaD Society was founded in 2016 and is an affiliate of the International DOHaD Society. This organization is focused on all facets of the study of the fetal origins and early life programming of health and disease.  The primary emphasis of the organization is to promote the research principles of DOHaD, it also strives to support trainees and early career investigators in their scientific and professional development.

Congratulations to Nicole Nichols, PhD, an assistant professor in the CVM’s Department of Biomedical Sciences and one of the fall 2019 recipients of a Dr. Richard Wallace Faculty Incentive Grant. She received the award for her proposal to study, “The role of adenosine 2A and serotonin 2 receptors in breathing over the course of respiratory motor neuron loss.”

The Mizzou Alumni Association supports the development of faculty through its Dr. Richard Wallace Faculty Incentive Grants program. Since its launch in 1994, the alumni association has provided start-up funds of about $650,000 to more than 300 faculty members for the initiation of research or professional development projects.

Nichols’ research focuses on understanding how plasticity can be enhanced in models of motor neuron death to restore breathing.

Rajiv R. Mohan, MSc, PhD, FARVO, University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine Ruth M. Kraeuchi Missouri Endowed Chair Professor of Ophthalmology and a professor of ophthalmology and molecular medicine, was invited to give a presentation at the 17^th Annual International Congress of  Drug Discovery Science and Technology held Nov. 15-17, in Nanjing, China. The theme of the conference was “The Disruptive, Integrate, Innovation and Development.”

Mohan delivered his lecture, “Gene Therapy for Treating Corneal Scar and Blindness,” as part of the new biotherapy discoveries series of presentations.