The National Academies of Practice (NAP), an interdisciplinary organization of health care practitioners and scholars, inducted AVMA President Lori Teller and Drs. Julia Ponder and John Tegzes as 2023 fellows in the Veterinary Medicine Academy. This year’s awards were presented on April 1 during a ceremony in Washington, D.C.
Fellows of the NAP have spent at least 10 years of their professional career in the practice and delivery of health care services.
In 2018, Dr. Teller (Texas A&M ’90) joined the Small Animal Clinical Sciences Department at Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences as a clinical associate professor and teaches veterinary students in primary care services. She developed the veterinary telemedicine program at TAMU and has received funding to improve access to veterinary care in local underserved communities.
She has written multiple peer-reviewed journal articles, two book chapters, serves as a guest editor for an international journal. Dr. Teller is she is a diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners in canine and feline practice. Before joining Texas A&M, she worked at Meyerland Animal Clinic in Houston for many years.
In addition to being the 2022-23 president of the AVMA, Dr. Teller hosts a monthly radio show and provides educational articles about veterinary care to the general public.
Dr. Ponder (Texas A&M ’84) is associate dean for external partnerships and engagement at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. Additionally, she is a faculty member with expertise in public health and conservation medicine as well as a former director the veterinary college’s Raptor Center.
After 16 years in private practice, Dr. Ponder returned to academia to pursue conservation medicine, with a focus on health at the intersection of wildlife and humans. She currently leads the veterinary college’s Community Medicine Initiative, which is dedicated to improving access to veterinary care for underserved populations.
Dr. Tegzes (Pennsylvania ’95) is a diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Toxicology and a professor of toxicology at Western University of Health Sciences, where he helped found its College of Veterinary Medicine.
Within the veterinary college, Dr. Tegzes has served in several roles, notably as a curriculum director from 2004-12. He then transitioned to his current role of director of interprofessional practice and education (IPE) for a university-wide curricular program that involves nine health profession programs. He was appointed interim dean of the veterinary college in September 2022.
Dr. Tegzes serves on several national committees focusing on IPE and on competency-based veterinary education (CBVE). He represents the veterinary profession on the Interprofessional Professionalism Collaborative and on the Interprofessional Education Collaborative. He is also the veterinary representative on the competency revision workgroup for the Interprofessional Education Competency Framework.
Additionally, he serves on the Advocacy Group for Competency-Based Veterinary Education for the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges.