The Zoetis Distinguished Teacher Award

This year’s Zoetis Distinguished Teacher Award was presented to Michael Mison. The Zoetis Distinguished Teacher Award is the most prestigious teaching award in veterinary medicine. It is presented annually to a faculty member at each college of veterinary medicine in the United States. Its purpose is “to improve veterinary medicine education by recognizing outstanding instructors who, through their ability, dedication, character and leadership, contribute significantly to the advancement of the profession.” The entire Penn Vet student body votes on the recipient.

Dr. Mison is a clinical associate professor of surgery as well as director and chief medical officer of Ryan Hospital. Prior to joining Penn Vet in 2015, Dr. Mison founded Seattle Veterinary Specialists as a managing partner in 2007. Earlier in his career, he served on the faculty of Washington State University, where he received the Carl Norden-Pfizer Distinguished Teacher Award as a second-year assistant professor in 2004. Dr. Mison received his veterinary degree from the University of Florida in 1998 and completed a rotating internship and surgical residency at Michigan State University. He is board-certified by the American College of Veterinary Surgeons (ACVS).

The William B. Boucher Award

The Boucher Award honors a house officer at New Bolton Center for excellent teaching, as was exemplified by William Boucher over four decades at Penn Vet. The entire fourth-year class votes on the recipient.

This year’s winner is Courtney Pope. Dr. Pope graduated from Penn Vet (V’13), where she is currently a resident in Internal Medicine at Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center. She also received the Boucher Award in 2018 (Almanac May 22, 2018).

“Dr. Pope is beyond amazing,” remarked one student. “She’s an excellent teacher and is so friendly and welcoming, making it easy to talk to her and ask questions. She was always looking for ways to help us as students, whether by assisting with our treatment sheets for the weekend or being a morale or confidence booster.”

“She goes out of her way to ensure her students are learning and enjoying themselves,” said another student. “Her fun sense of humor creates an atmosphere where students feel comfortable and supported.”

Class of 2020 Philadelphia Campus Teaching Award

Kathryn McGonigle is an assistant professor of clinical small animal internal medicine at the Penn Vet’s Ryan Hospital. She completed her DVM at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine in 2002, participated in sea turtle field work in Long Island post-graduation, and then practiced as a small animal and exotics general practitioner in New Jersey for four years. She completed an internship at Garden State Veterinary Specialists in 2008 and a residency at the Cornell University Hospital for Animals in 2011. She enjoyed her private practice work at BluePearl Veterinary Partners in Brooklyn through 2015, when she returned to academia. After a year locum as a clinical instructor at Cornell in 2016, she began her appointment at Penn Vet. She greatly enjoys the excitement and challenges of working with veterinarians at all stages of their careers. Special interests include feline medicine, geriatric care, and infectious diseases. She remains fascinated and engaged by the diversity and ever-changing advancements in specialty medicine.

Class of 2020 and Class of 2021 New Bolton Center Teaching Awards

Michael Pesato received his undergraduate degree from the University of Findlay and his veterinary degree from Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine. After completing an internship and subsequent Field Service residency at New Bolton Center, he accepted a position of lecturer in food animal field service. Dr. Pesato’s clinical focus is on overall health and productivity of cattle and small ruminants. He is especially interested in working with small ruminant farms and small bovine herds to develop herd management strategies and preventative healthcare plans. He also enjoys community outreach activities and educating the public on food animal topics. Dr. Pesato received the William B. Boucher Award in 2017 (Almanac May 23, 2017).

Class of 2021 Philadelphia Campus Teaching Award

Mark Oyama is a  professor of cardiology at Penn Vet’s Ryan Hospital and has recently been named the Charlotte Newton Sheppard Endowed Professor of Medicine. He received his undergraduate and veterinary degrees from the University of Illinois. He interned at The Animal Medical Center in New York City and completed his cardiology residency at the University of California at Davis. In 1999, Dr. Oyama joined the faculty at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine and came to Penn Vet in 2005. Since then he has trained over 20 cardiology residents. He earned a Master of Science in clinical epidemiology from the Perelman School of Medicine in 2015. Also at Perelman, he currently holds an associate scholar position in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, which he finds particularly rewarding.

Dr. Oyama received the Zoetis Distinguished Teacher Award in 2016 (Almanac May 24, 2016).

Class of 2022 Lecture Teaching Award

Nicole Weinstein is an associate professor of clinical pathology at Penn Vet. She is the course leader and primary instructor in the second-year clinical pathology course and head of the clinical pathology laboratory in Ryan Hospital. She was previously assistant professor at Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, where she redesigned the clinical pathology course twice, first introducing an emphasis on case/data evaluation and eventually flipping the classroom to facilitate active student learning and problem solving during class. In the course at Penn Vet, she has also used this new model. She attended veterinary school at Colorado State University, then completed a small animal rotating internship at Tufts University, followed by a transfusion medicine fellowship and a clinical pathology residency, both at Penn Vet.

Class of 2022 Laboratory Teaching Award

Deborah Gillette attended Purdue University as an undergraduate and veterinary school at Cornell University. After completing a pathology residency at Penn Vet, she earned a PhD in comparative pathology at University of California, Davis, and became board certified. Dr. Gillette joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin for one year before joining the pathology faculty at New Bolton Center. During this time she received a master’s in health professions education from Penn’s Graduate School of Education. Dr. Gillette left Penn Vet to become a pathologist in the toxicology department of Rohm and Haas Company (now part of Dow Chemical). After retiring from the industry, she returned to Penn Vet in 2018, working for the pathology department at the Philadelphia campus. She also serves as photo editor for the journal Veterinary Pathology. She won the class of 2021 Laboratory Teaching Award last year (Almanac May 14, 2019).

Class of 2023 Lecture Teaching Award

Rose Nolen-Walston was a professional dressage rider and riding teacher before she graduated with her DVM from the University of Georgia in 2001. She completed an internship and residency in large animal internal medicine at Tufts University. Dr. Nolen-Walston spent a year there doing research in adult stem cell biology in mice, then joined the faculty at Penn Vet, where she has been teaching and practicing internal medicine at New Bolton Center. She received the Zoetis Distinguished Teacher Award in 2017 (Almanac May 23, 2017) and the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award in 2014 (Almanac April 15, 2014).

Class of 2023 Laboratory Teaching Award

Nancy Gartland teaches Histological Basis of Pathology and Developmental Biology at Penn Vet and is the director of their labs. After earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in biology from Rutgers University, Dr. Gartland taught there for 10 years. She has been at Penn Vet for 25 years and has also taught at Camden County College for the last 15 years. She completed a doctorate in education from Rowan University. In 2006, Penn Vet honored Dr. Gartland with a Best Teacher of the Decade award. “I am truly grateful to be able to come to work with such a wonderful group of faculty, staff and administrators,” she said. “However, I am mostly honored and truly lucky to be able to teach so many wonderful, brilliant and hardworking students who I expect will change the world for the better.”