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The National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America has announced the recipient of its inaugural Veterinary Technician of the Year Award.

Kara Burns, MS, MEd, LVT, of Topeka, Kan., was this year's recipient.

Burns began her career in human medicine as a counseling psychologist and poison specialist. Her passion for working with animals eventually led her to pursue a veterinary technician license. Burns now works for Hill's Pet Nutrition as a veterinary technician specialist.

She serves as president of the Kansas Veterinary Technician Association and is a member of the organizing committee for the Academy of Veterinary Nutrition Technicians.

The award was created to honor a NAVTA member who contributes to the veterinary technology profession at large.

John Graham has been awarded the national Simmons Educational Fund Business Aptitude Award. It is a national award given to a third-year veterinary student to bring attention to the importance of business education in veterinary practice. Graham is an executive member of the Ross chapter of the Veterinary Business Management Association. The award consists of a $15,000 scholarship and an all-expense-paid trip to the 2010 North American Veterinary Conference. Each of the 29 veterinary schools or colleges that participate in the competition has an award winner, who then competes for the national award. Ross University is the first and only international school to compete in the SEF awards.

Dr. Elizabeth A. Sabin, an AVMA Education and Research Division assistant director, has earned the American Society of Association Executives' Certified Association Executive credential—the highest professional credential in the association industry—the ASAE announced in February.

Dr. Sabin joined the AVMA staff in 1998 as assistant editor in the Publications Division and came to her current position in October 2001.

The CAE program has served to elevate professional standards, enhance individual performance, and designate those who demonstrate knowledge essential to the practice of association management.

Dr. Sabin earned her DVM degree from the University of California-Davis in 1992. Five years later she earned a doctorate in immunology from Cornell University. Prior to joining the AVMA staff, Dr. Sabin was a scientist at the Heska Corporation in Fort Collins, Colo., where she coordinated the company's canine leishmaniasis vaccine efforts and studied the intricacies of heartworm immunology.

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