HOUSE OF DELEGATES

Carlson, Strother declare candidacies

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Former AVMA vice president Dr. René A. Carlson is a candidate for 2010 AVMA president-elect.

Dr. Carlson made her announcement at the Candidates' Introductory Breakfast July 10 in Seattle prior to the annual session of the AVMA House of Delegates.

At the breakfast, Dr. Jan K. Strother, the Alabama VMA alternate delegate to the HOD, said she is running to succeed Dr. Gary S. Brown as AVMA vice president.

In addition to owning an American Animal Hospital Association-accredited practice in Chetek, Wis., Dr. Carlson has been highly engaged in organized veterinary medicine. Highlights from more than two decades of volunteerism include serving as AVMA vice president, as Wisconsin's delegate to the AVMA HOD, and as president of the Wisconsin VMA.

She stressed the need for innovation in veterinary education to ready future generations of veterinarians.

"Now is the time to reassess our educational models and methods, our core competencies and curriculum, to achieve a veterinary medical degree relevant to the future and based on the very mission and objective of our AVMA: to advance animal and human health, including its relationship to public health, biological science, and agriculture," said Dr. Carlson, a 1978 graduate of the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine.

Dr. Strother is a 1986 graduate of the Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine and founder and hospital director of a companion and exotic animal practice in Hartselle, Ala. She has been a member of the AVMA HOD since 2000 and was elected to the former AVMA Council on Public Relations in 1994, serving a term as council chair.

Dr. Strother applauded the AVMA's efforts to step up its outreach to veterinary students, saying she welcomed the challenge of communicating the relevance of organized veterinary medicine to a diverse student and academic audience.

"I believe there has never been a more important time in the history of veterinary medicine to present our story to our students, the future leaders of our profession," Dr. Strother said, "to market our successes to them and to safeguard our future by staying engaged and involved with their challenges and concerns."

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