Tuskegee finds a new dean
Tuskegee University College of Veterinary Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health has found a new dean after nearly a year.
Dr. Ruby Perry, former associate dean for academic affairs, was tapped to fill the position, according to a March 30 university announcement.
She had served as interim dean of the college since the resignation of Dr. Tsegaye Habtemariam at the end of May last year.
Dr. Perry (Tuskegee ’77) is a former president of the Tuskegee Veterinary Medical Alumni Association. From 1982-1988, Dr. Perry was an assistant veterinary radiology professor at Tuskegee. She also served as acting chair of the Department of Small Animal Medicine, Surgery, and Radiology. In 1995, she became section chief of diagnostic imaging at Michigan State University, a post she held for six years. She was also a tenured associate professor of veterinary radiology for more than 17 years before returning to Tuskegee in 2007. Dr. Perry is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Radiology.
Dr. Habtemariam had served as dean since 2006. A Tuskegee faculty member since 1979, Dr. Habtemariam had been associate dean for research and graduate studies at the veterinary college since 1998. He has also served as director of the Center for Computational Epidemiology, Bioinformatics, and Risk Analysis; director of Biomedical Information Management Systems; and professor of epidemiology and biomedical informatics.
In 2014, Dr. Habtemariam returned to the Department of Pathobiology as a professor of epidemiology and biomedical informatics, and he continues to teach graduate students in the School of Veterinary Medicine and the Institute of Public Health Studies as well as in the two doctoral programs—integrative biosciences and interdisciplinary pathobiology—that were launched while he served as dean.
During his post as dean, Dr. Habtemariam is credited with serving as principal investigator of several external grants that totaled more than $100 million since 2006, and, more recently, initiation of construction of a $41.5 million veterinary medical teaching hospital in 2013.
He holds a doctorate in epidemiology from the University of California-Davis. He earned his veterinary degree from Colorado State University in 1970, after attending college in his native Ethiopia.
Related JAVMA content:
Multifaceted hospital under construction at Tuskegee (May 1, 2013)
Tuskegee’s diversity legacy continues today (Feb. 15, 2010)