Iowa State selects new veterinary college dean

Ames, Iowa

-- Dr. Lisa Nolan will take the reins as the new dean of Iowa State University (ISU) College of Veterinary Medicine when outgoing Dean John Thomson’s retirement becomes effective Jan 1, 2011.

The university announced its selection of Nolan, currently professor and associate dean of research and graduate studies at ISU, as Thomson’s successor after eight months of deliberation.

Photo courtesy of Iowa State University

Lisa Nolan, DVM, PhD

"I am very excited to work with Dr. Nolan in her new role as dean," says ISU Executive Vice President and Provost Elizabeth Hoffman. "She has been an excellent department chair and associate dean, as well as an outstanding scholar, who has brought great distinction to the college and the university. Under her leadership, we look to the college to enhance its research and educational excellence, building on the outstanding work of John Thomson in fund-raising, facilities and faculty hires."

Nolan could not be reached for comment about her new position, but the university noted in a prepared statement that she has been a member of the ISU faculty since 2003, when she came to the college as a professor and chair of veterinary microbiology and preventive medicine. She served as associate dean of academic and student affairs at the veterinary college from 2007 to 2009, and she also worked as an adjunct professor at North Dakota State University’s Department of Veterinary and Microbiological Sciences since 2003. Her research mainly focuses on bacterial diseases in production animals.

As an alum of the University of Georgia, Nolan earned her DVM in 1988, her master’s degree in 1989 and her PhD in microbiology and preventive medicine in 1992. She is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Avian Pathologists, the American Society for Microbiology, the International Society of Plasmid Biology, serves on the editorial review board of Avian Diseases and has served as the associate editor of Diseases in Poultry since 2005. She also was named distinguished educator of the year by North Dakota State University’s Blue Key National Honor Fraternity in 2001.

Twenty-year ISU Dean John Thomson will take a year’s sabbatical and return to the ISU faculty as a clinical epidemiologist with a focus on outcomes-based medicine and best practices for food-animal care.