Fobian, Threlfall elected to AVMA leadership
Dr. Clark K. Fobian was unanimously elected AVMA president-elect by the House of Delegates Aug. 3 during its regular annual session in San Diego. Delegates also chose Dr. Walter R. Threlfall from among three candidates to serve a two-year term as AVMA vice president.
Dr. Fobian is a 1977 graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia College of Veterinary Medicine and has owned and operated a small animal practice in Sedalia, Mo., for the past 30 years. His term as AVMA president will begin next summer at the AVMA’s Annual Convention in Chicago, and he will succeed Dr. Douglas G. Aspros.
“I’m proud and excited about being the president-elect of the AVMA,” Dr. Fobian said. “I come to this position from a practitioner’s point of view, because that’s who I am and that’s who a significant number of our members are—they are practitioners. I respect all areas of the veterinary profession, which includes regulatory veterinarians, members of academia, researchers, and food animal practitioners.
“I want to help ensure that the people who own and interact with animals receive excellent care from the veterinary profession. I look to the AVMA mission statement for guidance. It states that the goal of the Association is to ‘improve animal and human health,’ and that’s my goal as president.”
Dr. Fobian just recently completed a six-year term as District VII representative on the Executive Board along with his service on the American Veterinary Medical Foundation board of directors, which he chaired for the past two years.
Dr. Threlfall is a theriogenology consultant from Powell, Ohio, who taught for nearly 40 years at The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine. As AVMA vice president, Dr. Threlfall is a voting member of the Executive Board and the Association’s liaison to the Student AVMA and student chapters.
“The function of the vice president is to connect with our future colleagues and explain who we are and what we have to offer—a goal which can only be accomplished by listening to students’ concerns and looking for resolutions to meet their needs,” Dr. Threlfall said. “After 39 years working with students at The Ohio State University, I am acutely aware that these students are eager for such a connection, and I am equally eager to provide them with the connection they are looking for.”
Dr. Threlfall is a 1968 graduate of the OSU veterinary college and a diplomate of the American College of Theriogenologists.