New Associate Vice President, Animal Resource and Attending Veterinarian

To: Executive Vice Presidents, Chancellors, Vice Presidents, Vice Chancellors, Vice Provosts, Deans, Directors, and Heads of Schools, Divisions, Departments and Offices

From: Theresa Mayer, Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships

Date: August 2, 2021

Re: New Associate Vice President, Animal Resource and Attending Veterinarian

Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce that Dr. Debra Hickman will join Purdue University as the associate vice president for animal resources and attending veterinarian in the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships today, Aug. 2.

Deb will be responsible ensuring outstanding animal care and welfare in all of the university's research and teaching programs. She will also hold a position as a Clinical Professor in the Department of Comparative Pathobiology within the College of Veterinary Medicine, and as part of this role, she will lead Purdue’s efforts to establish a unique Residency Training Program in Laboratory Animal Medicine that includes rotations at a partner university and a company in Indiana.

The creation of this newly elevated AVP role is the result of efforts to enhance Purdue’s veterinary medicine research and education programs and align our structure to best practices. As AVP-AV, Deb will report to me, and she will have direct oversight of animal resources and central animal facilities team. The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), which provides protocols for proper animal care, will continue to report to the AVP-Regulatory Affairs, Dr. Chris Agnew.  

Deb brings to Purdue a diversity of experience and expertise. She joins Purdue from Indiana University where she served as the director of Indiana University’s Laboratory Animal Resource Center and Attending Veterinarian for the School of Medicine. In addition to her leadership role at IU, she supports an independently funded laboratory that focuses on enhancing the well-being of animals used in research with research focused on the euthanasia and housing of laboratory rats. She previously spent eight years as the Chief of Veterinary Services for the VA Medical Center in Portland, OR. She is also the president elect of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine (ACLAM). 

Deb takes on the role of attending vet from Bill Ferner, who retired last month as the director of Laboratory Animal Program.

Please join me in welcoming Debra to this new role.

Thank you,

Theresa Mayer

Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships