New Faces

Dr. Leanne Alworth, a clinical veterinarian at the Office of Lab Animal Resources, must know the constantly changing research regulations and laws as well as how to care for the animals that are used for research.

She received her DVM in 1995 from Louisiana State University and went into private practice for a year. Afterwards she took a residency at the University of Missouri in lab animal treatment and helped teach classes in anatomy and husbandry. 

The potential for collaborative research with the faculty in Illinois and the faculty’s progressive stands on animal welfare issues played a part in Dr. Alworth’s decision to come to Urbana.

A member of the Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine, Dr. Alworth will also be teaching courses in lab animal care at the College. She wants to share with students and others what she has seen in the laboratory. “It is important that people have an understanding of what lab animals go through,” she says. The public, in general, is usually only exposed to advocacy groups’ portrayals of lab animal treatment, she says, but there is another side. 

“I really enjoy my fellow veterinarians,” says Dr. Melissa Behr, a diagnostic pathologist at the Laboratory of Veterinary Diagnostic Medicine. She certainly assisted many during her 12 years at the state diagnostic laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico, before coming to Illinois.

Diagnosing disease from tissue samples is “a big responsibility,” says Dr. Behr. She especially enjoys working on cases that take a little more investigating. “Whenever you get the answer, it’s very exciting,” she says. 

After graduating from Cornell with a DVM in 1979, Dr. Behr worked in private practice for a year and then completed a pathology residency at Cornell. She did two years of post-doctoral work on inhalation toxicology at the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute in New Mexico, followed by two years at the University of California-Davis, where she learned the skills of a diagnostician.

When she returned to Albuquerque, she continued studying inhalation toxicology at Los Alamos National Laboratory while working at the state veterinary diagnostic laboratory. She has developed a particular interest in skin pathology. 

Dr. Behr is impressed with the Illinois students she teaches in the necropsy laboratory. “They are hardworking and ask good questions,” she says.

Dr. Jennifer Brinson, who recently completed a residency at the College, is continuing on as a visiting clinical assistant professor in small animal internal medicine. She received her undergraduate degree and DVM at Purdue University and went to the University of Missouri for her veterinary internship.

Dr. Brinson developed a specialization in respiratory diseases during her residency, in part because she has one herself. But she deals with all kinds of medical cases as she works with fourth-year students on clinical rotation. She lectures throughout the curriculum on respiratory topics and works with students evaluating the conditions of respiratory systems. “When I hear something that students won’t hear,” she says, “I take my stethoscope and let them listen.” 

Sometimes when clients are making decisions, Dr. Brinson introduces them to her own animals and shares the decisions she has had to make about their care to illustrate the effort she is willing to make for animals. “This job is about helping people relate to their animals,” she says.

“I lost my dog when I was six,” says Dr. Brinson. “That was my inspiration never to let another child go through what I did without understanding why.”

Dr. Elaine Caplan’s interest in alternative therapy was sparked by a few “miracle cases.” For example the time, during her 1982 internship at the Animal Medical Center in New York City, when she saw a paralyzed dog that was treated with acupuncture get up and walk again. She has learned through the years “you just never can say never.” 

Dr. Caplan joined the College of Veterinary Medicine faculty in 1999 as a visiting clinical assistant professor in oncology and soft tissue surgery and is also working with the complementary/alternative therapy clinic. She recently completed a surgical oncology fellowship at the College under the supervision of Dr. Nicole Ehrhart.

Dr. Caplan received her DVM from Texas A&M University in 1981. After her internship at AMC she practiced in New York City and in Texas. During those years she also became certified in acupuncture and chiropractic treatments. In 1993, Dr. Caplan returned to New York City to do a surgery residency and practice acupuncture. She was an instructor of surgery at Iowa State University from 1997 to1998.

The surgery oncology unit attracted Dr. Caplan to Illinois, where she admires the way the surgery and medicine units work together to create an effective clinical environment.

An interest in eco-systems, amphibians, and reptiles is part of the reason Dr. Rhian Cope came to America from Australia and here to the College as an assistant professor in morphology in the Department of Veterinary Biosciences.

She is presently researching the effects of ultraviolet rays on the immune systems of amphibians and reptiles. Dr. Cope also hopes to develop animal models of skin cancer that could be useful on human medical research. 

Dr. Cope would prefer to have a full schedule of both research and clinical work, “but you can’t do both,” she says, “there aren’t enough hours in a day.” For the 10 years since graduating from the University of Queensland with a degree equivalent to a DVM, Dr. Cope has been doing research and emergency clinical care all around Australia. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Sydney in photoimmunology and photocarcinogens. 

Dr. Cope really enjoys research. “It is addictive,” she says, “one great adventure.”

Besides doing research, Dr. Cope will be teaching anatomy to students in the College. “They are a keen, enthusiastic group of people,” she says. 

Dr. Stephen Greene, an associate professor in anesthesiology, teaches students how to deal with animals in surgery or in pain. “Things can happen very quickly,” says Dr. Greene. “You need to know what was happening a minute ago, so you can know what is happening now.” He finds that teaching keeps him refreshed: teaching constant vigilance requires constant vigilance.

Dr. Greene received his DVM from the University of Missouri in 1981. Then he completed 2 years of research at the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute  in New Mexico and a residency here at the University of Illinois. His first appointment was at Texas A&M University, and he spent the last 11 years on the faculty at Washington State University. He came to Illinois in part to work with anesthesiology’s new program in pain management. His research will address new analgesic techniques and drugs for pain management. 

Dr. Greene appreciates the relationship that the College faculty has developed with the clinics. “We hope to apply things we learn to the population that comes to the clinic, and we will learn a lot too,” he says. “It will work both ways.”

“Animals are telling us things, and we have to be smart enough to keep our ears, eyes, hands and minds open.” This is what Dr. Mark Martinelli, a visiting clinical assistant professor in equine studies, teaches his students. 

Dr. Martinelli earned his DVM at Michigan State University in 1988, completed a clinical fellowship the following year at Oregon State University, and then took a equine surgery residency at Illinois. He left Illinois in 1995 to complete his doctoral work at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. 

In Glasgow, Dr. Martinelli lectured on the diagnosis of lameness and on nuclear scintigraphy while completing his Ph.D. He gave talks throughout Europe on nuclear scintigraphy and on the advantages of using computers in the daily practice of veterinary medicine, a subject about which he has published a book. Though he appreciates the impact computer-assisted systems of diagnosis could have on daily productivity and improved diagnosis, he also acknowledges that “machines will never replace the good physical examination.”

Dr. Martinelli was offered a full-time position at the University of Glasgow but returned to Illinois because of the excellent reputation and facilities here. He is also working with the Henry Ford Bone & Joint Center in Detroit to explore the applicability of equine treatment techniques to arthritis and other bone diseases in humans. 

Dr. Joseph Thulin did not anticipate returning to Illinois when he left in 1993 to work at the University of Connecticut, but he is glad to be back. “It is nice to be back with familiar faces and in a familiar environment,” says the current director of the Office of Lab Animal Resources at the Urbana campus of the University of Illinois. He is also an assistant professor in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine. 

Dr. Thulin graduated from the College in 1988, did a residency here in lab animal medicine, then worked for 3 years in clinical veterinary practice. “When you are a clinical vet,” says Dr. Thulin, “you are the expert.” But that experience changed when he became an administrator. 

“There is much more involved in being an administrator,” says Dr. Thulin. The gratification isn’t as immediate, and it takes more time and effort to sell your point of view because, he says, “it’s part of the people bureaucracy.” 

Since returning to the College in 1998, Dr. Thulin has been teaching courses in veterinary medical ethics and lab animal medicine in addition to supervising lab operations and administration. He has been building databases of information on many aspects of the lab animal research program and hopes to develop a Web-based training program in the near future.