Maccabe named AAVMC executive director
The colleges are training the next generation of veterinarians who will lead our profession tomorrow.
Dr. Andrew Maccabe, executive director, Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges
The Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges named Dr. Andrew Maccabe as its new executive director, effective May 15. He succeeds Dr. Bennie I. Osburn, who had served as interim executive director since 2011.
Previously, Dr. Maccabe was the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s liaison for food safety to the Food and Drug Administration. Prior to joining the CDC, Dr. Maccabe was the AAVMC associate executive director responsible for national programs in veterinary medical education.
In anticipation of his new position at the AAVMC, Dr. Maccabe said, “I’m energized by the challenges we face and excited by the opportunities we have to advance veterinary medical education.”
Dr. Maccabe believes the AAVMC represents the future of veterinary medicine. “The colleges are training the next generation of veterinarians who will lead our profession tomorrow. Thirty years from now, they will be practicing in ways that few of us can even imagine today,” he said.
To prepare the veterinary profession for the future, the AAVMC is working with the AVMA and others as part of a national campaign stressing the importance of preventive pet health care. The association also has spearheaded the North American Veterinary Medical Education Consortium, which released the “Roadmap for Veterinary Medical Education in the 21st Century: Responsive, Collaborative, Flexible.”
Among its many recommendations for improving veterinary medical education, the NAVMEC Roadmap emphasizes the importance of the one-health concept, an initiative Dr. Maccabe is qualified to champion. In addition, Dr. Maccabe has noted how “veterinary medical colleges conduct the biomedical research that provides the scientific foundation for the profession and improves our understanding of human and animal health.
After receiving his DVM degree from The Ohio State University in 1985, Dr. Maccabe began his professional career in Jefferson, Ohio, at a mixed animal practice with primary emphasis on dairy herd health. In 1988, he was commissioned as a public health officer in the U.S. Air Force, where he managed the preventive medicine activities of several installations and directed programs in occupational health, communicable disease control, food safety, and health promotion.
Dr. Maccabe also earned a master’s in public health from Harvard University in 1995 and a law degree from the University of Arizona in 2002.