Dr. James Coffman to Deliver the AAVMC's Recognition Lecture

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Dr. James Coffman, former dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University (KSU) and an expert in leadership development, has been chosen to deliver the 2013 Recognition Lecture at the AAVMC Annual Conference in Alexandria, Va., on Saturday, March 9.

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The Recognition Lecture is an annual honor given by the AAVMC to an individual whose leadership and vision has made a significant contribution to academic veterinary medicine and the veterinary profession.

Dr. Coffman plans to speak on the convergence of influences that are currently shaping academic veterinary medicine, including the decline in state assistance to public universities, high expectations for outside research funds, the high cost of in-house clinical education, the impact of these factors on high tuition cost, and possible solutions to the pressures of these interconnected forces.

Dr. Coffman's career is an example of progressive leadership in academic veterinary medicine.  He earned a bachelor's degree in 1960, DVM in 1962 and master's degree in pathology in 1970, all from KSU. After earning his DVM, he operated a private equine practice in Wichita from 1962-1965. He served on the faculty of the Department of Surgery and Medicine at KSU from 1965-1969. After two years in private practice in Oklahoma City, Dr. Coffman served as professor of equine medicine at the University of Missouri from 1971-1981. He also was director of the Equine Center there from 1973-1977. Dr. Coffman returned to KSU in 1981 as the head of the Department of Surgery and Medicine. This marked the beginning of his 28-year tenure at KSU where eventually he served as dean of the college of veterinary medicine from 1984-1987 and university provost from 1987-2004. As a provost, Coffman developed a priority focus on furthering minority education and inclusion of minority groups in veterinary medicine, for which the AAVMC honored him with an Iverson Bell Award in 2005.  He retired from KSU in 2009 where the university's James R. Coffman Leadership Institute was established and named in his honor.

Dr. Coffman has authored or co-authored more than 130 articles and book chapters and two books on veterinary medicine and post-secondary education, including the book Work and Peace in Academe: Leveraging Time, Money, and Intellectual Energy through Managing Conflict (JB-Anker), which addresses conflict and dispute resolution strategies in academic environments. 

Coffman is a charter diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and served as its president and chair of the Board of Regents. He has served as president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners and as a trustee of the American Veterinary Medical Association's Professional Liability Insurance Trust, including two years as chairman. A career-long member of AVMA, he currently chairs the AVMA Task Force on Foreign Veterinary School Accreditation.

Past Recognition Lecturers have included former deans, federal government officials, researchers, and academicians.

To hear Dr. Coffman's lecture and join colleagues or other stakeholders in academic veterinary medicine, sign up for the AAVMC's 2013 Annual Conference and Iverson Bell Symposium at www.aavmc.org.

The Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) is a nonprofit membership organization working to protect and improve the health and welfare of animals, people and the environment by advancing academic veterinary medicine. Its members include all 33 veterinary medical colleges in the United States and Canada, nine departments of veterinary science, eight departments of comparative medicine, 12 international colleges of veterinary medicine, and three affiliate members.  On the Web:  http://www.aavmc.org

SOURCE Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges