Dean, College of Veterinary Medicine

Dean, College of Veterinary Medicine

Job no: 538744

Work type: Tenure-Track Faculty

Location: Main Campus (Gainesville, FL)

Categories: Executive/Director/Management, Veterinary Medicine/Animal Care

Department: 28011100 - VM-DEAN

Classification Title:
Dean, College of Veterinary Medicine

Classification Minimum Requirements:
Doctor of Veterinary Medicine or equivalent

Job Description:

DEAN, COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE

The university seeks a proven leader with demonstrated vision and the ability to achieve results that support and enhance the University's educational, research, and public service mission. This position requires a bold vision of the future role of academic veterinary medicine in a global society. Strong written and verbal communication skills are essential, as is the ability to be collaborative, impartial, and able to distill complex issues and make sound judgments and recommendations on sensitive and sometimes confidential matters.

QUALITIES AND QUALIFICATIONS

In addition, candidates should possess the following:

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP & VISION

• Ability to develop a clear vision and strategy consistent with the university's land-grant mission and best practices
• Demonstrated commitment to excellence in veterinary scholarship and sustained support of collaborative biomedical and clinical/translational research
• Demonstrated commitment to excellence in and innovative approaches to veterinary professional education and graduate training
• Demonstrated leadership skills that result in the production of high-quality services and exceptional standards
• Demonstrated commitment to interdisciplinary activities
• Strategic thinking with the capability of contributing at the senior administrative level and leading other leaders

COMMUNICATION & COLLABORATION

• Superior communication skills, with the ability to engage effectively with a variety of audiences; demonstrated excellence in clear and compelling written and oral presentation; and the experience, capacity, and commitment to serve as an articulate and proactive spokesperson for the university
• Ability to foster collaborative activities locally, nationally and internationally
• Ability to maintain effective liaisons with alumni, state and national veterinary professional organizations, and other stakeholders
• Experience with advancement and fundraising that promote the missions of the College

EXPERIENCE, KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

• Doctor of Veterinary Medicine or equivalent and a distinguished record of visionary leadership, research/scholarly accomplishments and excellence in academic administration
• Demonstrated successful leadership in veterinary medical education
• Demonstrated commitment to high impact translational research
• Demonstrated effectiveness in planning, administration, personnel, and fiscal management
• Successful experience or demonstrated potential in fundraising, development activities, and collaboration with industry
• Demonstrated ability to lead a college to achieve excellence in teaching, research, and outreach, in support of the missions for a land-grant university
• Record of accomplishment in recruitment and retention of outstanding faculty
• Record of building, leading, mentoring, and motivating staff; and the ability to encourage change and growth in both people and programs. A strong commitment to personal and professional development, and the ability to build a robust, multidisciplinary, autonomous and collaborative team
• Demonstrated commitment to promoting well-being, resilience, and a healthy work environment across all levels of the academic community.

Dean, College of Veterinary Medicine

The College of Veterinary Medicine is connected to two University of Florida administrative units, with funding and reporting structures to the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences and UF Health, the university's academic health center.

As the fifth highest ranked U.S. College of Veterinary Medicine, the University of Florida seeks a seasoned professional with a distinguished record of visionary leadership, scholarly accomplishments and excellence in academic administration.

The successful execution of this role requires a dynamic, visionary leader with a demonstrated commitment to excellence in veterinary scholarship and sustained support of collaborative biomedical and clinical/translational research. This role requires an ability to collaborate and build successful internal and external partnerships.

The dean establishes the strategic vision and leads the College in pursuit of its goals to provide a high-quality environment for teaching, learning, research, outreach, and clinical service.

The College of Veterinary Medicine

As a leading veterinary institution, the UF College of Veterinary Medicine is focused on the advancement of the health and welfare of animals, humans and the veterinary medical profession by offering a world-class education, innovative research and state-of-the-art clinical services.

In addition to the professional veterinary medical degree (D.V.M.) program, the College of Veterinary Medicine offers ten separate graduate degree programs and special interest certificate programs in Aquatic Animal Health, Veterinary Business Management, Food Animal Veterinary Medicine and Shelter Medicine. The veterinary medical curriculum is highly innovative and provides students with early exposure and training in technical and clinical skills within a state-of-the art clinical skills lab.

As a reflection of the UF College of Veterinary Medicine's commitment to excellence in teaching, the College's D.V.M. graduates have consistently ranked above the national average on the North American Veterinary Licensing Examination for the past several years. Last year, the College received 3,000 applications for 150 openings in the entering class.

The UF College of Veterinary Medicine is pioneering a learning health care system, powered by real-world data and artificial intelligence, that integrates clinical records, diagnostics, wearable sensors, imaging and farm data into a centralized informatics infrastructure to guide more predictive, personalized care. Real world data adds real-world context by capturing diverse cases, long-term outcomes and actionable insights often missed in controlled studies.

Through UF's AI initiative, the College's clinicians and scientists are pushing the boundaries of veterinary data science to diagnose pain in animals, personalize treatment plans through precision medicine, and protect animal health, economic stability and sustainable food production through early illness detection in livestock.

Other priorities include advancing comparative medicine by integrating research from both animal and human models, broadening the College's impact in areas like neurophysiology, immunology and infectious disease, and safeguarding healthy populations and environments in the state of Florida, where its biodiversity makes it prone to zoonotic diseases and toxicity.

A $1 million upgrade to UF's Equine Performance Lab in 2025 is propelling the institution's Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority-funded research on how supplements and medications affect racehorse performance, capitalizing on the college's unique position to impact Florida's $12.8 billion equine industry.

The UF College of Veterinary Medicine's research portfolio exemplifies its commitment to veterinary medicine and One Health through team science and leading-edge technology.

The UF Veterinary Hospitals serve as a major regional referral center, offering a broad range of medical and surgical services and advanced diagnostics, and annually treating more than 70,000 small and large animals. The small animal caseload, including the satellite emergency clinic in Ocala and the new hospital at the World Equestrian Center is now the largest in the nation among veterinary medical teaching hospitals.

Outreach to animal owners regarding the care of agricultural interests is provided through the Veterinary Extension Service, which is closely associated with UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

• At the UF Small Animal Hospital, dogs in need of mitral valve repair have access to one of the most advanced and rarely available procedures in veterinary medicine, open-heart surgery performed by a highly specialized team. with high success and recovery rates.
• The College is an international leader in the area of disaster response, leading and training in different aspects of animal rescue.
• The College became the first veterinary college in the world to use true-to-life synthetic canine cadavers in student surgery labs and was involved in developing the technology with the manufacturer, Syndaver Canine.

The College is also home to the Center for Inflammation and Mucosal Immunology (CIMI) at the University of Florida, a dynamic hub at the forefront of immunological discovery. More than a research center, CIMI serves as a catalyst for innovation, bringing together investigators across disciplines to advance a comprehensive understanding of inflammation and mucosal immunity.

UF Health

UF Health, the University of Florida's academic health center, is the country's only academic health center with six health-related colleges located on a single, contiguous campus. The six colleges are:

• Dentistry
• Medicine
• Nursing
• Pharmacy
• Public Health and Health Professions, and
• Veterinary Medicine.

The colleges, major research centers and institutes and clinical enterprise, focus on building collaborative specialized clinical services centered on quality and innovation.

The vision as a preeminent academic health center is to optimize the college's collective expertise to improve patient care, education, discovery and the health of the community. Success is predicated on research-based, multidisciplinary, cross-college programs. The colleges teach the full continuum of higher education from undergraduates to professional students to advanced post-doctoral students.

The academic health center is also a world leader in interdisciplinary research, generating 52 percent of UF's total research awards. Seven major health-related research centers and institutes are designed to create synergy and collaborative research opportunities. Research activities reflect a depth of purpose by focusing on the translational nature of biomedical research, following the continuum from fundamental research to clinical research to patient care.

The Office of the Senior Vice President for Health Affairs and President of UF Health includes several administrative units that provide leadership and support to all the health colleges, centers and institutes. Among these are Academic and Administrative Affairs, UF Health Communications, Finance and Planning, Libraries, Information Services & Technology and the Student Health Care Center. The academic health center includes two primary campuses in Gainesville and Jacksonville as well as numerous educational, clinical and research affiliates across the state.

Institute of Food & Agricultural Sciences

The University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) is a federal-state-county partnership dedicated to developing knowledge in agriculture, human and natural resources, and the life sciences, and enhancing and sustaining the quality of human life by making that information accessible. While extending into every community of the state, UF/IFAS has developed an international reputation for its accomplishments in teaching, research and Extension. Because of this mission and the diversity of Florida's climate and agricultural commodities, IFAS has facilities located throughout Florida.

As the agriculture and natural resources enterprise in a land-grant institution, UF/IFAS has three main units, focused on teaching, research and Extension. These are, respectively, the UF/IFAS College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (UF/ IFAS CALS), UF/IFAS Research, conducted under the auspices of the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, and UF/IFAS Extension, with offices in all 67 Florida counties.

UF/IFAS CALS offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in more than 20 disciplines. Nationwide, UF/IFAS CALS is one of the largest and most comprehensive colleges of its type. UF/IFAS Research facilitates all research activities conducted by UF/IFAS faculty and students, on the UF main campus and at 17 off-campus locations. Likewise, UF/IFAS Extension facilitates extension outreach activities conducted by UF/IFAS faculty on the UF main campus, at 17 off-campus locations and at 67 county-based locations which includes faculty at the state, regional and county levels.

UF/IFAS values it's deep, mission-aligned partnerships across units. An excellent example of this is the strong collaboration with the College of Veterinary Medicine, especially in equine and livestock species (beef and dairy cattle and small ruminants). These collaborative efforts enhance teaching, research, and extension, advancing animal health, management, and welfare while enriching student preparation for careers in veterinary medicine.

Expected Salary:
Commensurate with education and experience.


Required Qualifications:
Doctor of Veterinary Medicine or equivalent

Preferred:
The university seeks:

• A proven leader with demonstrated vision and the ability to achieve results that support and enhance the University's educational, research, and public service mission.
• This position requires a bold vision of the future role of academic veterinary medicine in a global society.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills are essential.
• Must be able to be collaborative, impartial, and able to distill complex issues and make sound judgments and recommendations on sensitive and sometimes confidential matters.
• The successful candidate will be tenured or eligible for tenure upon hire.

Special Instructions to Applicants:
Review of applications will begin in early April and will continue until the position is filled.

Candidates should provide

• A letter of application summarizing qualifications,
• A complete curriculum vitae,
• Names, addresses, e-mail addresses and telephone numbers of at least five references.

Inquiries and nominations can be sent to University of Florida Human Resources Strategic Talent Group, at View email address on click.appcast.io or Audrey Gainey at View email address on click.appcast.io.

The University of Florida is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

The "government in the sunshine" laws of Florida require that all documents relating to the search process, including letters of application/nomination and reference, be available for public inspection upon request.

Health Assessment Required:No

Advertised: 19 Feb 2026 Eastern Standard Time

Applications close:


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