Meet your Executive Board: Scott Dudis

This post is part of a series made to introduce you to your elected board members, and also to share a little bit about what SAVMA is working on on a national level. The officers are a group of students that are former SAVMA Delegates and were elected by their fellow Delegates to oversee the House. Keep checking back to meet the whole board!

Name, Position on EB: Scott Dudis, Global/Public Health Officer

School and Year: Cornell University (class of 2014)

Hometown: Wyoming, OH

Your area of interest within veterinary medicine: military medicine, public health, epidemiology

Description of office entails: The GPHO and GPHO-elect try to ensure that the Student AVMA House of Delegates works in conjunction with the long-term vision of the One Health Project. The main component of this mission is to coordinate local One Health events at veterinary schools across the nation.  

Your favorite thing about holding that office: There are so many hard-working students and veterinarians that I get to meet through my work on exec board. I love seeing their enthusiasm and pride for the profession, and it helps motivate me to be better as well.

Something exciting that your office has done/is doing for veterinary students this past year:  With financial sponsorship from the GHLIT, we are able to provide funding support to all schools for many of these programs. The most recent themes have promoted awareness of rabies, obesity, and vector-borne illness, and the upcoming theme is food safety & food security.Scott's finest piece

Your favorite  SCAVMA related experience (EB or not): At the 2012 SAVMA Symposium I was able to meet and interact with the celebrity elephant from Water for Elephants – it was an amazing experience with an enormous and impressive creature.

Something fun about yourself: I am currently working toward a future mastery of the fine art of balloon animal creation. My finest piece is a lion, and I'm trying to improve my "monkey in a tree"

Meet your new SAVMA International Exchange Officer-elect

Steen Smith
Oregon State University

Description of duties: Support the IEO in the effort to facilitate exchanges, study abroad opportunities, and/or other international opportunities for members of SAVMA, as well as represent SAVMA at the two yearly International Veterinary Students' Assocation (IVSA) meetings.

In the next year my goals are to:

1. Create a comprehensive database of the policies of our member institutions in regards to international students participating in educational  opportunities.  

2. To better inform SAVMA members of the opportunities IVSA membership provides.  

3. To work closely with the IEO in support of her efforts to further develop international opportunities for our members.

 
Fun fact:
I am from Corvallis, Oregon and have worked in the veterinary field for the last 10 years, including the last 3 years as a Certified Veterinary Technician.  I enjoy fishing, hunting, camping, and other outdoor pursuits.  I worked as a construction site foreman for 7 years before pursuing my undergraduate education.

contact Steen at: SAVMAIEO [at] gmail [dot] com

Meet your new SAVMA Treasurer

Erich Roush
University of Wisconsin

Description of duties: Making sure that SAVMA stays financially healthy, knows where its money goes, and that awards and grants are received in a timely manner.  


Goals for this term:

SAVMA invests in its members, more so now than ever before, making it a necessary challenge to ensure that those investments are made in an efficient and financially healthy manner.  

Incredible advances have been made in the way SAVMA keeps its books.  I plan to keep the momentum going.  


Fun Facts from the SAVMA Treasurer:

“The first practical typewriter was designed in Milwaukee in 1867” www.fun-facts.com (Not that anyone knows what a typewriter is anymore)

“Green Bay has long been known as the "toilet paper capital of the world" because the first splinter-free toilet paper was produced here” www.greenbay.com/media/trivia  (You’re welcome!)

Meet your new SAVMA Global and Public Health Officer-elect

Scott Dudis

Hometown: Wyoming, Ohio

Description of duties: The GPHO and GPHO-elect try to ensure that the Student AVMA House of Delegates works in conjunction with the long-term vision of the OneHealth Project. The main component of this mission is to coordinate local OneHealth events at veterinary schools across the nation. With financial sponsorship from the GHLIT, we are able to provide funding support for many of these programs. The most recent themes have promoted awareness of rabies and vector-borne illness, and the upcoming theme is food safety & food security.

Fun fact: A friend and I were once stranded on an island while backpacking through Greece. We slept in a lean-to and shared one Toblerone for lunch, dinner, and breakfast. A small pack of dogs started following us, so we named them all. Later on the same trip, a bus dropped us off on the highway 10 miles from our destination, so we walked. About half way there, it started to hail (in October), and a Greek woman who spoke no English took us into her home, fed us dinner, and we watched what I surmise to be Greek soap operas for an hour until the weather cleared. I quickly learned how to say "thank you" in Greek.

contact: rsd65 [at] cornell [dot] edu

Meet your new SAVMA International Exchange Officer

Julie Stafford
Home State: Alaska

Description of duties: There are really two big jobs that I
have as IEO. First I facilitate exchanges into and out of the SAVMA
schools for veterinary students. This means if you are interested in
going to a veterinary clinic or school abroad you should let me know
and I will help you set it up. Or if you have worked/externed with a
clinic in the US that you think was particularly awesome and would be
willing to host an international student let me know! Second I get to
travel to the IVSA meetings which happen twice a year. There I
represent SAVMA just as at our bi-annual SAVMA meetings I represent
IVSA. The IVSA meetings (Summer=IVSA congress and winter=IVSA
Symposium) happen anywhere in the world, this year they will be in
Norway and then South Africa, and they are super fun!

Goals for this term:

1. Communication with my IEO-elect so that you guys have twice the
representation and twice the exchange placement power!

2. Promotion of IVSA within SAVMA, so that everyone can be aware of the
opportunities available to veterinary students across the globe.

3 Updating the SAVMA international opportunities section of SAVMA's
website. I am aware that a lot of the info is out of date and very
little opportunities are listed on there. I would like to change that!

Contact: SAVMAIEO [at] gmail [dot] com