Granstrom retiring from AVMA
After 22 years with the AVMA, Dr. David E. Granstrom is retiring in March from his position as assistant executive vice president and chief accreditation and certification officer.
Dr. Janet Donlin, AVMA CEO, said he has done a “tremendous amount” for the Association while making the announcement at the end of the AVMA House of Delegates regular winter session on January 11 in Chicago.
Dr. Granstrom received veterinary and PhD degrees in 1978 and 1988 from Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine, respectively. He is a charter diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Microbiology (parasitology).
He also was an assistant and associate professor of veterinary parasitology in the Department of Veterinary Science at the University of Kentucky from 1988-97. His primary area of research was equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM), a debilitating neurologic disease of the horse. His research resulted in development of the first effective diagnostic test; identification of the method of disease transmission; development of the first Food and Drug Administration–approved treatment; and development of effective guidelines for the prevention and control of EPM.
Dr. Granstrom first joined the AVMA in 1997 as assistant director of the AVMA Education and Research Division, where he provided professional staff support for several AVMA councils and committees, including the AVMA Council on Research.
He left in 2001 to become associate director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service’s Animal and Natural Resources Institute. Dr. Granstrom also completed a 21-year career as a public health officer in the Kansas and Kentucky Air National Guard during this period, retiring as lieutenant colonel in 2005.
Dr. Granstrom returned to the AVMA in 2008, this time as director of the AVMA Education and Research Division from 2008-13. He then was promoted to the assistant executive vice president position, which is responsible for governance and administration. He also provided oversight of AVMA accreditation and certification activities, the AVMA Finance and Business Services Division, and the Digital Services and Solutions Division.
Dr. Granstrom told delegates, “It’s been an honor and a privilege and a highlight of my career. There’s nothing like veterinary medicine. We continue to attract people to this profession who are naturally altruistic and believe in the greater good. We do things for the right reasons, because it’s the right thing, and I hope you all continue doing that.”