Michael Bailey elected to AVMA Board
Dr. Michael Bailey, a veterinary radiologist and AVMA House of Delegates member, has been elected District II representative on the AVMA Board of Directors, the Association announced April 1.
He and Dr. Robert Thompson Jr. of Delaware were both candidates to replace the current Board chair, Dr. Mark Helfat, when he completes his six-year term this July as liaison for the largest of the 11 AVMA Board districts in terms of membership.
AVMA members in District II, comprising Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, voted throughout March to elect their new Board representative. He is the first black veterinarian to serve as a district representative on the Board.
Dr. Bailey has served as Pennsylvania’s alternate delegate in the HOD since 2016 and is immediate past president of the Pennsylvania VMA. He has also been on the PVMA executive committee and board of trustees for eight years.
Board-certified by the American College of Veterinary Radiology, he works as a radiologist and project manager for Idexx and lives in suburban Pittsburgh. After graduating from Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine in 1982, Dr. Bailey spent time on the faculties at Michigan State, The Ohio State, and Tuskegee universities. At Tuskegee, he was also director of the veterinary teaching hospital and head of diagnostic imaging.
From 2003-2004, Dr. Bailey was an AVMA Congressional Science Fellow in Washington, D.C. Afterward, he worked in private practice and guided imaging quality and safety improvement efforts at a large corporate practice until 2016, when he joined Idexx.
Dr. Bailey says he offers a wealth of experience and knowledge in leadership and in national and global exchanges on academic and professional education with colleagues in Asia, Europe, Mexico, and Australia.
"District II and the (AVMA have) much to gain from strong representation from an individual who understands and highlights the wide-ranging, emerging opportunities, the diversity, and trends that exist for the veterinary profession in District II and nationally, while also understanding the impact of these opportunities on the local, national, as well as the international stage, always using the concept of one health as the driving principle,” Dr. Bailey said.
Earlier this year, Dr. Ronald Gill of West Salem, Illinois, was declared elected to the Board representing District VI (see JAVMA, March 1, 2017).