Eades To Oversee VERO Operations As New CVMBS Associate Dean In Canyon
Story by Jennifer Gauntt, CVMBS Communications
After almost four years serving as department head of the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences’ (CVMBS) Large Animal Clinical Sciences Department (VLCS), Dr. Susan Eades has been appointed CVMBS associate dean for administration, Canyon campus.
Eades will begin her new role, which oversees the college’s Veterinary Education, Research, & Outreach (VERO) efforts, on March 1.
“Dr. Eades has served with distinction in her administrative and faculty roles since joining our college in 2017 from Louisiana State University (LSU). She is deeply committed to our evolving role in the Texas Panhandle and to our ability to impact delivery of high-quality veterinary care to rural communities,” said Dr. John August, CVMBS dean. “Our educational, research, and outreach programs in Canyon are of critical importance to the production animal industries and people of the Panhandle and High Plains.
“Dr. Eades will join an existing group of outstanding faculty and staff in Canyon, and she will work closely with our department heads in College Station to support our faculty and staff who are located on that campus,” he said.
Eades brings with her more than three decades of experience in higher education veterinary medicine and almost two years of experience serving as interim assistant dean for hospital operations at the CVMBS’ Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH).
She said she became excited about the VERO program, which is housed at West Texas A&M University (WT), even before she came to Texas A&M.
“I am amazed at the work of the VERO faculty to recruit, teach, and mentor students and to lay the groundwork for a research program like no other. These faculty have already had a beneficial impact on the Panhandle region and have positioned the program for long-term success,” Eades said.
“I am excited to help with this effort and take full advantage of the opportunities to recruit students into rural and large animal veterinary practice from the West Texas region; to provide real-life experiences at feedlots, dairies, and rural veterinary practices; and to give veterinary graduates the skills needed for rural and production animal practice that are not available at most veterinary schools,” she said.
In her role, Eades also will oversee the final stages of preparation as the CVMBS enrolls the inaugural cohort of 18 students into its 2+2 Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) program at VERO this fall. Getting that program off the ground will be among Eades’ top priorities.
“I hope to help the faculty of the CVMBS, both at the VERO campus in Canyon and in College Station, successfully launch the 2+2 program,” she said. “We will create a cohort of students who work as a team to master the material and skills presented in the first- and second-year veterinary curriculum and then integrate them into the cohort of students in College Station for their third year of veterinary program.
“I am amazed at the work of the VERO faculty to recruit, teach, and mentor students and to lay the groundwork for a research program like no other.“
Dr. Susan Eades
“We will continue to increase the number of students in the fourth-year rotations (which began May 2020 and allow veterinary students on clinical rotations to gain experience at feedlots, producer operations, and with rural practices in the region),” Eades continued. “We also will expand the research program with additional faculty and graduate students.”
August said that Eades’ work at Texas A&M and in her former roles has well-equipped her as she works with faculty, staff, and students at VERO.
“Dr. Eades’ administrative experience will be invaluable in Canyon at a time of rapid expansion of our faculty on that campus in preparation for the start of our DVM 2+2 program in the fall, as well as for the continued development of partnerships with colleagues at West Texas A&M University and with food animal industry leaders in the region,” he said.
An Oklahoma native, Eades completed her DVM from LSU in 1982, an internal medicine residency at the University of Pennsylvania New Bolton Center in 1985, and her Ph.D. in veterinary physiology and pharmacology from the University of Georgia in 1988.
But she said that in some ways, moving to Canyon will be like returning home, because her family had settled in the Texas Panhandle and Southwest corner of Oklahoma in the late 1800s.
“I have been attracted to the wide-open spaces of the plains ever since my visits there in my youth,” she said. “I look forward to being part of the community there and contributing to the educational programs at West Texas A&M University and the CVMBS VERO program.”
She is also looking forward to leading the VERO team within its new $22-million, 22,000-square-foot facility, which opened last September.
“We are fortunate to have received support from Texas A&M for the program and the beautiful facility. This entire program is a tremendous opportunity; the skill and teamwork of the faculty that we have is a formula for success,” Eades said. “We have a very exciting future ahead of us. I just want to help the VERO faculty accomplish their objectives and be successful; this will make the entire program successful.”
Dr. Wesley Bissett, associate professor and director of the Texas A&M Veterinary Emergency Team, has been named interim department head, also effective March 1.
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Contact Information: Jennifer Gauntt, Director of CVMBS Communications, Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences; jgauntt@cvm.tamu.edu; 979-862-4216
