New Leader Of Texas A&M BIMS Program Looks To The Future

Story by Courtney Price, VMBS Marketing & Communications

November 25, 2024

Under the leadership of Dr. Jim Herman, Texas A&M’s biomedical sciences program looks forward to building upon a long tradition of preparing Aggies for careers in the health professions.

For many future doctors, veterinarians, and other medical professionals, Texas A&M University’s biomedical sciences (BIMS) program provides a foundation for success as they begin their journey in the health professions.

With more than 2,000 enrolled students, the BIMS major is the largest degree-granting undergraduate program on campus and one of the largest in the United States. About 80% of BIMS majors go on to become clinicians and professional researchers, making it an essential program for training the next generation of healthcare professionals and scientific leaders.

Since the program’s establishment in 1972, it has been housed within the VMBS. That changed in 2022, when the program moved to the College of Arts and Sciences; however, in August 2024, the program officially returned as the VMBS’ sole undergraduate degree program.

“We’re thrilled that the BIMS program is back in the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (VMBS),” said Dr. Jim Herman, associate dean for undergraduate programs and a clinical professor in the VMBS’ Department of Veterinary Physiology & Pharmacology.

“We’re very grateful for the work that the College of Arts and Sciences did to keep the BIMS major flourishing,” he said. “We have all kinds of new ideas to further strengthen the program and ensure that it continues to be highly successful at placing students in professional programs and careers that reach across the One Health spectrum of human, animal, and environmental health.”

Coming Full Circle

Being asked to lead the BIMS program is an opportunity for Herman to return to his roots and draw upon his past experiences in undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs at Texas A&M.

“I was actually a student in the BIMS program, so I know how well it prepared me for my veterinary career,” Herman said. “I knew I wanted to go to Texas A&M for veterinary school, and I eventually landed on BIMS as the best program to prepare me. It offers a phenomenal blend of clinical and hard science knowledge that was very attractive to me.”

After graduating with his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Texas A&M, Herman went into small animal private practice in San Antonio. But when a residency in large exotics opened up at the VMBS, he felt drawn to return.

“I ended up running the Winnie Carter Wildlife Center for a few years and got my Ph.D. while I was there,” he said. “Then I tried working in a lab as a postdoc with my former mentor at The University of Texas Medical Branch, but it wasn’t for me. When a teaching position opened up here at Texas A&M in the BIMS program, I came back and have been here ever since.”

Herman’s enthusiasm for teaching comes partially from his sincere appreciation for the Aggie core values.

“When raising kids, we often say things like, ‘That’s the way we do things in our family,’” he said. “For me, the Aggie core values are the way we do things in this family, and I believe faculty need to embody these values every bit as much as our students. If you expect excellence of your students, you need to expect excellence of yourself.”

Playing To Strengths

Established to fill a gap in pre-veterinary programs at Texas A&M, BIMS has a long history of successfully placing students into professional programs for doctors, nurses, veterinarians, professional researchers, and more.

“One of the reasons we’ve been so successful is that undergraduate students in BIMS have the opportunity to study in our professional school before they apply to professional programs,” Herman explained. “Their instructors are people who know what professional schools expect, and students have programs like study abroad and research opportunities where they actually spend time working with professional school students. It provides insight into the academic expectations of a professional program.”

To continue playing to its strengths, the BIMS program recently conducted a survey of current and former students, plus faculty, to better understand how the program can grow.

“The Biomedical Research Certificate was one program we developed directly as a result of the feedback we received,” Herman said. “We have also added a minor in business, which was another high-volume request.”

Although most students in the program go on to professional or graduate school, about 20% choose a different career path.

“Sometimes, students know that an advanced degree isn’t what they want when they join the program, and sometimes they decide later that they don’t want to spend another four or five years in school,” Herman said. “Either way, we are developing new ways to make the program more valuable as a terminal degree for these students.

“The plan is to create flexible pathways that help students tailor their classes to fit exactly what they want to do after graduation,” he said. “If you change your mind at some point, you also won’t lose any credit hours. We want students to be able to follow their passion and choose what’s best for them. If someone comes to Texas A&M as a pre-med student in BIMS and changes their mind on what they want to get out of their major, that’s still a success to us.”

In addition to adding flexible pathways to the curriculum, Herman’s goals for BIMS include redeveloping the degree plan and adding even more options for students seeking a terminal degree.

“Now that BIMS is back in the VMBS, we are intensively reviewing the degree plan to make sure it aligns with our college,” he said. “We’re redesigning the curriculum so that the available electives better fit students’ career plans. For example, if you want to go to dentistry school, our advisers will provide you with a list of recommended courses.”

Herman is also interested in creating new opportunities for students interested in working with animals without obtaining a veterinary degree, such as the ability to become a licensed veterinary technician or train working and service dogs while enrolled in the BIMS program.

Embodying One Health Principles

The concept of One Health — which combines human, animal, and environmental health — is vital to the VMBS and the BIMS program. In order to promote this idea and take advantage of all of the amazing health expertise at Texas A&M, Herman is planning more collaborations with other academic units on campus.

“We already have a relationship with the Department of Biology because they teach several of our courses,” Herman said. “Whether it’s offering more courses or specialized programs, we want to give our students exposure to as many of the university’s experts and resources as possible.”

Some of the collaborations that Herman looks forward to building are with the Texas A&M Health Science Center and its programs in medicine, pharmacy, and public health.

“To be truly One Health, we need to have a presence in all of these places,” he said.

Another priority is continuing to grow the BIMS program at the Texas A&M Higher Education Center at McAllen. Students there are able to earn the same BIMS degree as they would in College Station but have opportunities to learn from experts in health that serve as the first line of defense in surveillance for many important global diseases.

The Value Of The BIMS Program

As Herman pointed out, the value of the BIMS program goes beyond preparing students for professional school or careers in science and health — it’s also about how the major teaches students to think.

“We’re producing graduates who know how to find and solve problems,” he said. “Whether it’s in the clinic, the lab, or somewhere else, BIMS graduates are people who are ready to intervene in situations and find ways to help. What we teach our students is very practical. We’re not just training students to do what we do — we’re also training them to think in new ways and solve new problems.”

“Looking to my future, I expect the BIMS program to have prepared me well,” said Emily Leeke ‘23, a former BIMS student joining the VMBS’ DVM program this fall. “I feel prepared for veterinary school because the BIMS program has already taught me to start thinking like a doctor, especially because of the clinical case study questions in the advanced classes.

“I feel confident that I’ve been trained to think critically so I can begin leading others in a way that any good Aggie and any good clinician would,” she said.

The program also allows students time to grow into who they want to be, encouraging the kind of curiosity that leads to passion-driven careers.

“I chose the VMBS’ BIMS program because of the flexibility,” said Charles Lee ‘22, a graduate of the BIMS program in McAllen who is also joining the Texas A&M DVM class of 2028. “Entering undergrad, I was debating between pursuing a career in human medicine or veterinary medicine. I felt that the BIMS program offered opportunities to explore different elements of both career paths while maintaining the prerequisites for medical and veterinary school.

“I also felt that BIMS was a good educational path for careers in research, teaching, and even biotech entrepreneurship,” he said. “Other similar programs that I considered seemed focused on a career path that I wasn’t fully committed to yet, which is a critical reason why I chose to come to Texas A&M.”

Lee was also the first student at the BIMS program in McAllen to complete the Undergraduate Research Thesis program, thanks to his mentors.

“I wasn’t sure if there would be a professor who could supervise my project since I was at the Higher Education Center,” Lee said. “I reached out to Dr. Negin Mirhosseini and I’ll never forget how excited she was for me to complete this goal. She said, ‘This is Texas A&M. We can do anything here.’ Thanks to her and Dr. Catherine Busch-Silkwood — another of my BIMS professors — I was able to work with main campus faculty to organize and manage a year-long research project, network with local universities, allocate research materials, and direct student assistance, resulting in published research that I’m very proud of.” 

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Note: This story originally appeared in the Fall 2024 issue of VMBS Today.

For more information about the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, please visit our website at vetmed.tamu.edu or join us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Contact Information: Jennifer Gauntt, Director of VMBS Communications, Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, jgauntt@cvm.tamu.edu, 979-862-4216

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