Working/Functional Title

Asst. Prof. (HP) Community Medicine/Primary Care

Position Summary

The College of Veterinary Medicine at Michigan State University invites applications from outstanding individuals for the position of Assistant Professor in the Health Programs (HP) appointment system in Community Medicine/Primary Care for the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences (SCS).

The role of the successful applicant will encompass clinical service, education, and research/scholarly activity. The amount of time dedicated to each of these endeavors is flexible and will be geared towards the interests, strengths, and qualifications of the applicant. The current Primary Care team consists of two full-time and one part-time primary care faculty, three licensed veterinary technicians, and a veterinary assistant in the Veterinary Medical Center. The position will be responsible for training Doctor of Veterinary Medicine students, veterinary nursing students, and veterinary interns assigned to the Primary Care Service.  The Primary Care service sees outpatient appointments for routine wellness and medical concerns for dogs and cats. In addition, this service performs sterilization surgeries, routine dental procedures, and other elective surgeries commonly performed in a primary care setting. Considerable effort is devoted to clinical service and instruction. The ideal candidate will have strong experience in primary care and shelter medicine and/or high volume spay/neuter.

The Community Medicine Program will be a mobile primary care/surgical unit that will go out to animal welfare organizations to perform routine spay and neuter surgeries, routine vaccinations, and physical exams on shelter animals. This position will be responsible for creating and maintaining professional relationships with these organizations, over-site of the mobile unit, coordinating care and stocking of the unit. The Community Medicine Program will hire an additional licensed veterinary technician and a mobile unit driver/program coordinator.

The position includes extensive instruction of veterinary medical and veterinary nursing students and will evolve from occurring predominantly in a teaching hospital to a hybrid of mobile and in-hospital teaching. Instruction will include surgical and anesthetic supervision of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine students and veterinary nursing students with the goal of also providing experience in an outreach shelter environment.

This position will also be responsible for teaching and the continuous improvement of didactic (classroom) and laboratory courses. This will include the development of educational support materials in assigned courses in the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine programs. The instructional model employed at MSU utilizes direct and experiential learning for pre-clinical and clinical veterinary and veterinary nursing students. The goals are to emphasize critical thinking, increase student autonomy, and provide hands-on experience under direct veterinary and veterinary nurse supervision, aiming for a model of excellence in companion animal first opinion and preventative care.

Health Programs (HP) appointments are unique to Michigan State University Colleges of Human, Osteopathic, Veterinary Medicine, and Nursing and were created to enhance programs in clinical education, patient care services, and clinical research. HP faculty appointed in the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences typically have 50-70% clinical assignments devoted to clinical and pre-clinical instruction, patient care services, and the general administrative efforts of the Department and College. In addition, HP faculty are expected to be active in research and other scholarly endeavors. A complete description of the Michigan State University HP system is available in