CVMA Teacher of the Year Award Recipients

Dr. Cate Creighton is an associate professor at the Atlantic Veterinary College (AVC) of the University of Prince Edward Island. Along with her anesthesia service colleagues, she teaches preclinical lectures and labs, as well as clinical rotations.

Dr. Creighton graduated from AVC in 1995 and was a mixed animal clinician in Northeastern USA for nine years before returning to the Maritimes to practice small animal medicine. She completed her anesthesia and analgesia residency training program at AVC and became a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Anesthesia and Analgesia in 2012. Following her residency, she taught at the University of Adelaide‘s DVM program before returning to AVC in 2013.

Advice to veterinary students and new graduates: It is really important to prioritize your work-life balance, even when it is tempting not to. Also remember that learning is a life-long process, so be patient with yourselves.

Dr. Dominique Gagnon obtained her DVM degree from the Faculté de médecine vétérinaire (FMV), Université de Montréal in 2010. Her interest in surgery lead her to pursue a general internship the same year at the University of Guelph, followed by a specialized internship in small animal surgery at the Veterinary Emergency Clinic (VEC), a private practice in Toronto.

She then completed a residency program in small animal surgery in combination with a research project leading to a DVSc from the University of Guelph. She is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons (ACVS) since 2017. Following her residency, she worked for a few years at the 404 Veterinary Emergency and Referral Hospital in Newmarket, where she acquired a lot of experience.

Her interest in research and teaching led her towards academia. As a faculty member, she has worked at the FMV since 2017 where she teaches small animal surgery at the undergraduate and graduate levels. A woman of defiance and soul of profound convictions, she gives great importance to animal well-being while still maintaining a high standard of quality in her work. She also aspires to continue to evolve, both as a person and a professional.

Advice to veterinary students and new graduates: The road to becoming a veterinarian is demanding. You will face challenges and moments of doubt, but there will be successes that will remind you of why you have chosen that profession. Keep in mind that your passion and your commitment make a difference, for your patients as well as their owners. Don’t forget that learning is a continuous process and that each experience, even the hard ones, will help you evolve. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when necessary and never forget the importance of collaboration and teamwork with your colleagues. I wish you all the best and a lot of satisfaction in your career. Good luck and congratulations on all the progress already made!

By day, Dr. Janet Beeler-Marfisi, a Diplomate of the ACVP (Clinical Pathology), does research on lower airway disease in horses and leukemia in dogs. Janet participates in the diagnostic service for the OVC’s Large and Small Animal Hospitals, teaches, and mentors several graduate and undergraduate students.

By night, Janet thinks up novel ways to help students truly learn their way through this Mount Everest of knowledge that is a veterinary medical education. She also loves hearing from former students when they have questions on challenging cases. She especially likes helping them understand case data and to select tests that will help them achieve the best diagnostic yield!

Janet’s motto is, No Student Left Behind. She is truly grateful that she can be one of the little fires along the path to a career in veterinary medicine.

Advice to veterinary students and new graduates: We speak for "The No Voice". To help us in the lab help you with this important duty of care: Provide a history, so there's no mystery! Serum before EDTA and be happy all day! Separate your sera, and we will cheer ya! Send in a blood smear, so all will be clear! Also, if a piece of case data doesn't make sense, don't allow yourself to get hung up on it—put it aside and analyze all the rest. Eventually, it will fit! Be brave. Be kind. Be careful with your heart. You've got this!

Dr. Cameron Knight graduated from Massey University Veterinary College (New Zealand) in 1992, did his residency training in anatomic pathology at Cornell University in New York, becoming a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists in 2008, and completed his PhD in New Zealand in 2016. For nearly 30 years, he has taught anatomy, histology, and pathology at four veterinary colleges in three countries and still loves teaching.

He is currently an Associate Professor of Pathology at the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM).

Advice to veterinary students and new graduates: Keep up your sleep, exercise, and hobbies while you’re in vet school or a new vet. You need them more than ever now that you’re busy, and they are not dispensable. Anatomy is as basic as learning the alphabet was when you were 4 years old, and just as important. Stick at it until it’s second nature because you can’t recognize abnormal until you know what normal is. Look around you in class and realize that you’ll still be friends with a lot of these same people decades from now, and how lucky that makes you. My day one histology lab partner in 1988 is now my oldest friend. Take any opportunities that come your way, even if it would be more comfortable not to. You’ll see the world and find new passions that hadn’t even occurred to you. Finally, there’s never been a better invention than the bicycle; make sure you always have a few around.

Dr. Trisha Dowling is a veterinarian and professor of veterinary clinical pharmacology at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada and the founder and co-director of the Canadian global Food Animal Residue Avoidance Database (CgFARAD).

She graduated from Texas A&M in 1983 (BS Animal Science) and 1987 (DVM). After a residency and Master’s at Auburn University, she became board certified by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and the American College of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology. She is also a certified Mindfulness Teacher. She has been teaching veterinary pharmacology at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine since 1993 and the Mindful Veterinary Practice elective since 20120.

She has received numerous teaching awards including the Norden Distinguished Professor and the UofS Master Teaching Award and has twice won the CVMA Teacher of the Year. In addition to teaching, she consults with veterinarians regarding drug therapy and conducts drug research.

Advice to veterinary students and new graduates: Stay curious! When the work gets hard and you are tired of peopling and empathy and compassion are hard to find, curiosity will save you. Pay attention - to the client or the colleague. Curiosity is caring: “How are you? How can I help you? Tell me more? How are you unique from others?” Then just listen hard and stay present. One question will lead to another, and you will find that we are all more alike than we are different. Curiosity is key to enriching your life and role in the fellowship of veterinary medicine.