Klausner leaving academia to head AMC

ST. PAUL, MINN. — More than three decades in the academic realm of veterinary medicine are drawing to a close for Dr. Jeffry S. Klausner, dean of the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, as he prepares to become president and chief executive officer of New York City's prestigious Animal Medical Center (AMC) on July 1.

It will be a bittersweet experience for Klausner, who says he'll miss "the amazing job of teaching, where one gets to influence the lives and careers of students," but at the same time "will love my new job. It's a great time to be going there (AMC), where we'll be well-positioned for the next decade and beyond to deliver great veterinary care to clients in New York City."

Klausner's vision for AMC for the coming decade includes "maintaining an environment to attract the best people, ensuring that we have the culture to exceed the expectations of clients (AMC now counts more than 50,000 patient visits per year), ensuring that our medicine remains top-quality and evidence-based, and making sure our training programs instill leadership and communication skills in addition to surgical and medical skills."

Klausner notes some parallels and some differences between heading a university veterinary school with a $70-million annual budget and 800 employees, and the 97-year-old AMC, New York City's largest veterinary hospital and research facility with 87 DVMs on staff, 32 of them board-certified.

"Here we have a fine school and animal hospital, where we train and educate students and raise funds to maintain a standard of excellence. At AMC, I'll again work with a great hospital and staff, where residents and interns are trained – and where they, too, have a research mission. So I'll continue to be involved in raising funds, to ensure AMC's future growth and positioning. One difference is, I won't have to worry about the horses, sheep and turkeys anymore. I'll be more focused in my endeavors."

Klausner, who earned his DVM degree from the University of Georgia in 1972, came to the Minnesota campus 33 years ago, leaving a small-animal practice in Aurora, Colo., to enter a graduate program. "I thought I'd be here maybe four or five years, then return to private practice, but it didn't turn out quite that way."

After earning a master's degree, he joined the Minnesota faculty as an assistant professor in 1977, served as chair of the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences from 1988 to 1998 and was named dean of the veterinary college in 2000. The college's budget during his tenure grew from $44 million to more than $70 million and research expenditures rose more than 10 percent.

Klausner, who is board-certified in both internal medicine and oncology, describes the current state of veterinary education as "both the best of times, and worst of times. In many ways, it's a great time to be in veterinary school – the future holds a lot of promise for students to reach beyond the basics if they want to. For example, a student here can now earn in four years both a DVM and a master's degree in public health. Many of our students are interested in public health – they want to have an impact on the health of both humans and animals."

On the other hand, Klausner laments the fact that "it's hard to be world-class in everything. We still teach everything; we don't focus very much, and it's the same with other schools. The Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) sees a growing need for limited licensure for DVMs, for more specialists, if you will. There are pluses and minuses to that, but it will require that all the schools work together more than they do now."

At AMC, Klausner succeeds Dr. Guy Pidgeon, who resigned last year to join Western Veterinary Conference. Gleniss Schonholz serves as president and CEO in the interim.

Robert Liberman, chairman of AMC's executive committee and a board member, says the board looked at about 70 names over the past year, but didn't use a search firm to find Klausner.

"I received many calls from veterinarians around the country, some of them AMC grads and some admirers of AMC. That resulted in a network – a team actually emerged, who provided us with many fine candidates," Liberman says.

"I was impressed with the quality of all of them. All were smart and special, but not all were experienced in all three facets of our unique, three-part institution. Jeff came to be our first choice, with his experience in all three areas – education, animal care and research. We interviewed about 10 candidates."

Frank Cerra, vice president for health sciences at the university, will name an interim dean at Minnesota and begin a national search for Klausner's successor.

Klausner says he and his wife, Diane, won't suffer culture shock in moving to New York City. "She's from Providence (R.I.), and I went to school in Baltimore (he received his BS degree from the University of Maryland in 1968), so in a way moving to the East Coast will be a bit like going back home." He says their two daughters will stay in Minnesota, where the older, Jenny, will be married in June and the younger, Amy, will enter community college this fall.