Spotlight on the Gibson Family a Legacy Continued Tuskegee Veterinary
Safety first- Personal safety an afterthought for veterinarians
Dr. Allen Cannedy, practice owner and chief diversity officer at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine featured in article on Personaly Safety in the June 15, 2019 issue of JAVMA. Click the link to read the full article https://www.avma.org/News/JAVMANews/Pages/190615a.aspx
SPOTLIGHT on the Gibson Family… "A Legacy Continued…"
"Mother Tuskegee" and the Tuskegee University College of Veterinary Medicine's (TUCVM) outstanding track record of producing legacies are putting the spotlight on the Gibson Family (Father – Dr. Thomas Gibson and daughter – Dr. Terri Gibson) in the Fall/Winter issue of the Veterinary Medical Perspective.
The Gibson Family
Dr. Thomas L. Gibson has many proud highlights in his veterinary career. Among some of the most memorable ones include several times being selected as president of the Southeast Chapter of the Southern California Veterinary Medical Association (SCV-MA), the largest regional professional association in the United States; buildng a new small animal hospital, Alameda Animal Hospital in Compton, California; serving as a proctor for the California State Board Exam; and providing opportunities for foreign veterinarians to complete requirements in order to take the California State Board. In the past, Dr. Gibson worked with a teen post program of 200 youth where he introduced them to the veterinary profession. One of his clients expressed a sincere interest in becoming a veterinarian and was motivated by the enthusiasm of Dr. Gibson to move to Tuskegee and study veterinary medicine. That client is now Dr. Roland Powell, a 1965 graduate of the Tuskegee University veterinary program. Dr. Powell established a practice in Jackson, Mississippi and later employed then college student Ruby Perry, who is now dean of the Tuskegee University College of Veterinary Medicine.practice in Van Nuys, California. In 1959, he established the Alameda Animal Hospital, where he practiced for almost 60 years prior to his recent retirement. Whenever the opportunity presented itself, Dr. Gibson was happy to offer employment to fellow Tuskegee graduates, including Drs. William Allen, Ollie Haggans, Burt Woods, and Tami Pygatt Dankaro, Doris Hag-gans, Jesse Featherstone, and Renee Hines. His wife, Patricia, has been a partner to him serving as the administrative director at Alameda Animal Hospital and Gibson Dog and Cat Hospital in Los Angeles. They had four children prior to the demise of one of their daughters. "Mother Tuskegee" has an endless family legacy list which includes two other Tuskegee University graduates in Dr. Gibson's family besides himself. His son, Thomas A. Gibson, an accounting major, who graduated in 1983, and his daughter, Dr. Terri E. Gibson, who graduated from the Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine in 1991. She practiced with her dad a short time before she continued her studies. Dr. Terri E. Gibson is a second generation veterinarian, following in the footsteps of her father. Prior to veterinary school, she received a BA degree in biochemistry from Mills College in Oakland, California. It was her love of animals and background working in her family veterinary hospitals that led her to become a veterinarian. Dr. Gibson received her board certifiction to become a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists in 1991, thus becoming the second African-American board certified veterinary ophthalmologist in the country. She is licensed to practice veterinary medicine in 13 states and is currently the owner of Global Veterinary Ophthalmology Consulting, Inc.
Dr. Bonnie Barclay on Why Mentors Matter – – specially for black Veterinarians
Mentors matter.
from a vet's office, to an animal
health company – and into the
field to look for ticks
That may resonate for people in many professions, but it rings especially true to Dr. Bonnie Barclay when she thinks of African-Americans who aspire to become veterinarians.
Barclay helps train sales reps and veterinary customers as a senior professional services veterinarian at Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA Inc.
As an African-American veterinarian, she also represents a statistical anomaly: Blacks make up 2.1 percent of veterinarians in the United States even though they comprise 12 percent of the workforce, according to the 2017 stats (link is external) from Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"It's a field most blacks don't even consider," says Barclay, who lives in Atlanta.
To encourage more African-Americans to explore veterinary careers, she speaks with students at historically black universities. She also has hired and mentored minority interns and staffers in a career that spans more than 30 years.
Barclay says aspiring black veterinarians benefit from seeing living examples that they can pursue their passion. She says it is important for professionals like her to open doors for the next generation, to give them a chance.
That belief is born of personal experience.
Growing Up
Barclay says she always knew she wanted to become a veterinarian.
As a girl growing up in Detroit, she often traveled in the summer to her grandparent's farm in Crawfordville, Georgia, population 534 (link is external) by the latest count. Her grandparents raised cattle, and those summer trips nurtured her interest in animals.
to help aspiring vets, just as she got
help entering the field.
"When you're a small child and you love animals, everybody says you should be a vet," Barclay says. "Sometimes it sticks."
She followed her passion to undergraduate degrees in zoology and animal science from two historically black universities – Howard University and Tuskegee University, where she went on to earn a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree.
While at Tuskegee, Barclay says, she told a professor she wanted to apply her training to care for racehorses. The professor introduced her to Dr. Ernest Colvin, an African-American dentist in Baltimore (link is external) who owned racehorses and who would later become the first black chairman of the Maryland Racing Commission.
Colvin helped Barclay find work with racehorses at a time when most equine vets at the track were white men.
"I definitely did not meet that perception," she says.
Barclay practiced as a vet for 13 years in Michigan, Washington D.C. and Kansas City, working with horses and small animals. She earned an MBA, went to work in the mid-1990s for an animal-health company and joined Boehringer Ingelheim in 2009.
She says she never forgot the opportunity that dentist in Baltimore gave her so many years ago.
"That's why I am very much involved with the alumni group at Tuskegee," she says.
'There are unconscious biases'
It has not always been easy for Barclay as a black veterinarian.
"In America, there are unconscious biases," she says. "Because you don't look a certain way, or act a certain way, or speak a certain way, sometimes you won't have as many opportunities."
Her solution? To buckle down, work harder and try to surmount whatever obstacles life puts in her way.
She knows the stats.
More than 91 percent of veterinarians in the United States are white, the federal government said (link is external) in 2017. African-Americans also are under-represented in related fields. They make up 2.3 percent of veterinary assistants and lab animal caretakers and 2.8 percent of non-farm animal caretakers.
The American Veterinary Medical Association launched an effort in 2005 to increase diversity at U.S. veterinary colleges. It says it encourages veterinary schools to devote time, energy and resources to increase the number of historically underrepresented students in programs that lead to a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree, to graduate culturally competent professionals and to create inclusive learning environments. In the 10 years after the program started, the proportion of historically underrepresented students in vet schools increased from 9.7 percent to 14.6 percent, the AVMA said (link is external) in 2015.
"During our science education, veterinarians and veterinary technicians learn that genetic diversity and biodiversity make for a stronger species or a stronger ecosystem—one that is more able to adapt to change and external pressures, compared with its non-diverse counterpart," the AVMA says (link is external) . "Taken at face value, then, diversity and inclusion would seem to be traits for a group, a practice, a business, a company, or an association to strive for. But it's not always easy."
'There is always someone who opens the door'
who also attended Tuskegee University.
He now appears in the Animal Planet TV
show "The Vet Life."
Barclay tries to give back.
Years ago, she says, she hired students in a minority internship program at another company. One student, she says, went on to star in a nationally televised program about veterinary life.
The Tuskegee Veterinary Medical Alumni Association honored her with a Distinguished Service Award (link is external) in 2008. The Kansas City Royals honored her (link is external) that same year as a new member of the Black Achievers Society of Greater Kansas City.
Often in speaking engagements, she says, she tries to paint a picture for college students of the options that can await them in the veterinary field, such as working in a practice or focusing on research and development for animal-health or human-pharma companies.
"There are a zillion things a veterinarian can do," she says.
It is possible, of course, that by giving back she will inspire students not only to become veterinarians but to continue the cycle of paving the way for others to follow, as well.
"I believe that to whom much is given, much is required," she says.
She mentions the Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Scholars Program. It provides veterinary students in the U.S. and Europe with summer research stipends to work with faculty research mentors to gain insights into the scientific process. All U.S. veterinary colleges, including Tuskegee University, have been part of the program for over two decades
The company also is refining a new strategy to better attract underrepresented students to careers in science, technology, engineering and math.
In ways big and small, she says, mentors touch the lives of others and open new possibilities.
"There is always someone who opens the door," she says. "You just never know who that person is going to be."
Dr. Miles-Richardson Makes History with CEPH Role
Morehouse School of Medicine's Stephanie Miles-Richardson, D.V.M., Ph.D., is making history. She was elected president of The Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH), an independent agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to accredit schools of public health and public health programs outside schools of public health. Dr. Miles-Richardson is the first African-American president of and the first to hail from an HBCU institution.
Dr. Miles-Richardson currently serves as Associate Dean of Graduate Education in Public Health and Director of the Master of Public Health (MPH) program at Morehouse School of Medicine.
"I am honored to have the opportunity to play a leadership role in the national conversation regarding public health education," Dr. Miles-Richardson said. "My nomination and subsequent election are a testament to the impact of our small but mighty public health program. We are very intentional about our efforts to achieve our institutional vision—to lead the creation and advancement of health equity."
The MPH Program at MSM was established in 1995 to address the increasing shortage of underrepresented minorities in leadership positions in the field of public health. In 1999, it became the first accredited MPH program at an HBCU.
Source: https://tvmaa.org/articles/
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