Partnership promotes veterinary careers in public and corporate practice

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In January, the AVMA signed a formal memorandum of understanding with the National Association of Federal Veterinarians and the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine’s Center for Public and Corporate Veterinary Medicine to promote veterinary careers in public service and corporate practice.  

The partnership seeks to educate Congress and human resource managers within the federal government regarding the wide variety of job opportunities that veterinarians are qualified to fill and plans to boost career-building programs that seek to recruit, train, and retain the next-generation workforce.

The initiative comes in response to several studies that have outlined potential workforce gaps where veterinarians will be needed to provide key expertise on issues such as public health, food systems, biomedical research, diagnostic laboratory investigation, pathology, epidemiology, ecosystem health, and food animal practice. 

Given that many graduating veterinary students are unaware of the job opportunities available to them outside the traditional clinic setting, the memorandum first aims to boost visibility of the careers that can be found in public and corporate practice through a broad education campaign. 

The second, longer-range goal is for the three partners to increase the demand for federally employed veterinarians and to create better training programs that will assist veterinary professionals who seek careers in public or corporate practice. 

“As the world better understands and appreciates the interconnectedness between animal, public, and environmental health, it is important that we continue recruiting veterinarians with the technical expertise and scientific know-how to fill a critical need in public and corporate practice,” said Dr. Ron DeHaven, AVMA’s CEO. 

“Together with the National Association of Federal Veterinarians and the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, we bring a unique understanding of the current and future workforce needs and are positioned to establish a framework that will help us to balance the needs of society with an ample supply of veterinarians.” 

The memorandum of understanding among the AVMA, NAFV, and the Center for Public and Corporate Veterinary Medicine will remain in force for an indefinite term.