PennVet hires new dean
Dr. Andrew Hoffman has been named the next Gilbert S. Kahn Dean of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, effective Aug. 1.
Dr. Hoffman is currently director of the Regenerative Medicine Laboratory and professor of large animal internal medicine at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine made the announcement Feb. 28.
At Tufts, Dr. Hoffman's leadership of regenerative medicine and stem cell research programs resulted in important contributions to both animal and human health. He regularly mentored faculty with an interest in clinical translational research.
Also at Tufts, Dr. Hoffman helped build and lead what it says is the world's first outpatient pulmonary function testing laboratory for equine and canine patients. He has led the Tufts Lung Function Laboratory for more than 20 years and served for five years as director of the Tufts Equine Sports Medicine Program.
Dr. Hoffman is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, past president of the Veterinary Comparative Research Society, and a member of the International Society for Stem Cell Research.
He received his veterinary degree from Cornell University in 1985 and holds a doctorate in veterinary science from the University of Guelph in Canada.
The selection of Dr. Hoffman concludes a global search to identify a successor to Dr. Joan Hendricks, who is retiring after serving as dean since 2006.
Dr. Hendricks has served more than 30 years on the Penn faculty, where she garnered acclaim for her work in veterinary clinical care and in the biology of sleep.
As dean, Dr. Hendricks has embraced PennVet's important relationship with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with her tireless efforts to show policymakers and citizens across the state what an essential and integral role veterinarians play in ensuring public health and food safety, guarding against bioterrorism and agroterrorism, and working to protect the environment, according to the PennVet press release.
She also led efforts to stave off a potential loss of state funding. In February 2017, Gov. Tom Wolf proposed a budget plan that would have fully eliminated state funding to PennVet. The veterinary school stood to lose almost $30 million, which constitutes 20 percent of its total budget. As the only veterinary school in the state, it has been receiving state funding for 133 years. Eventually, legislators and the governor relented after a concerted effort by PennVet and its supporters. The veterinary school was allocated $30.1 million from the state budget.