On Thursday, November 14, the College of Veterinary Medicine will host an investiture ceremony to bestow professorships on two veterinary faculty members. A named faculty appointment signifies excellence and prominence in the areas of research, teaching, or service.
Please read below for information about our donors and recipients. Dr. Pamela Wilkins will be named the Inaugural Delores R. Pajak Professor in Companion Animal Practice. Dean Peter D. Constable will become the Inaugural Louis I. Mund Professor of Veterinary Medicine.
The Delores R. Pajak Professorship in Companion Animal Practice
Delores Rose Pajak resided in Capron, Illinois, a small town in Boone County east of Rockford, Illinois, and about eight miles from the Wisconsin state border. When she passed away in 2014 at age 77, she left her estate in trust to support her younger brother Raymond, who died in 2017.
Although the college has no record of serving Ms. Pajak directly as a client or discussing her philanthropic interests with her, the terms of the trust she created show that she valued companion animals and their health.
The College of Veterinary Medicine and the Delta Society were designated equal recipients of her estate upon the death of her brother. The Delta Society, formed in 1977 and renamed Pet Partners in 2012, is a nonprofit organization supporting therapy animal teams that bring the universal connection of the human-animal bond to people in need.
In establishing the Delores R. Pajak Professorship in Companion Animal Practice, the College of Veterinary Medicine allows Ms. Pajak’s love of animals to continue in her name. The holder of the professorship will make scholarly contributions that improve the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, or control of clinical conditions affecting dogs, cats, or horses.
Dr. Pamela Wilkins
Inaugural Delores R. Pajak Professor in Companion Animal Practice
Dr. Pamela Wilkins has earned a singular reputation for her expertise in critical care medicine in horses and especially neonatal foals. One of only a handful of clinicians boarded in large animal internal medicine as well as in emergency and critical care, Dr. Wilkins has contributed new knowledge that has advanced the practice of equine medicine and improved survival rates in foals and adult horses with critical illness.
Dr. Wilkins’s publications number more than 370 manuscripts, abstracts, proceedings, and book chapters. Her research encompasses validating the use of point-of-care lactate and glucose monitors in critically ill horses, describing the process of mechanically ventilating foals, demonstrating the safe use of enrofloxacin in pregnant mares, and using measures of hemostasis as a prognostic indicator in foals. Funded by the Dorothy Russell Havemeyer Foundation, Dr. Wilkins has organized four international workshops to address emerging topics in equine health.
Many of the nearly 100 interns, residents, and fellows trained by Dr. Wilkins are now prominent in practice and academic settings around the world. She was honored with equine educator awards at the International Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Symposium in 2009 and 2019.
Other international awards include the Boehringer-Ingelheim World Equine Veterinary Association Applied Research Award, the Ira M. Zaslow Distinguished Service Award from the Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society, and the Specialty Lifetime Achievement Award in Large Animal Internal Medicine from the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine.
Dr. Wilkins earned her veterinary, master’s, and PhD degrees at Cornell University. She served as an equine clinician at Cornell and as a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania New Bolton Center before joining the faculty at the University of Illinois in 2008.
The Louis I. Mund Professorship in Veterinary Medicine
Louis I. Mund grew up in Dupo, Illinois, a small town in St. Clair County about 10 miles south of St. Louis, Missouri. Mr. Mund ran a very successful auto repair service for more than 30 years and invested heavily in local real estate.
As he contemplated estate planning, he chose to make the University of Illinois one of five beneficiaries. His gift to the university was divided equally between the College of Veterinary Medicine and the Department of Anthropology. (A portion of land owned by Mr. Mund was excavated by University of Illinois archeologists in the 1980s.)
Mr. Mund owned a small herd of beef cattle that he ran on his land. He was an avid collector of World War II memorabilia as well as an avid sportsman. He enjoyed discussing antique shotguns and shooting clay pigeons on his hillside trap range. His gift to the veterinary college was inspired in large part by his close relationship with Drs. Lizabeth Vollmer and Dwight Boehm, owners of the Waterloo Animal Hospital in nearby Monroe County. Dr. Boehm is a 1987 graduate of the College of Veterinary Medicine.
Mr. Mund designated his gift to the college to the support of faculty members whose field of research directly contributes to the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, or control of bovine diseases. Creation of the Louis I. Mund Professorship ensures that Mr. Mund’s generosity will be remembered in perpetuity.
Dr. Peter D. Constable
Inaugural Louis I. Mund Professor in Veterinary Medicine
Dr. Peter D. Constable’s influential career integrates veterinary scholarship, mentorship, and leadership at the highest levels. He is internationally known both for impactful and clinically relevant research and for statesmanship within veterinary academia. For the past 10 years he has led the College of Veterinary Medicine with integrity, open-mindedness, and a deep commitment to the land-grant mission of teaching, research, and service.
Dr. Constable’s research spans multiple species and disciplines, from diseases of cattle to biostatistics, veterinary education, and the cardiovascular response to endurance training in dogs. His work on abomasal diseases and acid-base and electrolyte disturbances in domestic animals has changed the practice of large animal medicine. Among his numerous international speaking engagements are multiple invited keynote presentations at the World Buiatrics Congress. He holds board certification in the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and the American College of Veterinary Nutrition.
He has published more than 270 peer-reviewed articles and 50 book chapters and is lead author of Veterinary Medicine: A Textbook of the Diseases of Cattle, Horses, Sheep, Pigs, and Goats, now in its eleventh edition and the most heavily cited textbook in veterinary medicine. His mentorship includes serving as major advisor for eight PhD students and teaching dozens of residents, graduate students, and visiting scholars as well as thousands of veterinary students.
Notable awards recognizing Dr. Constable include the Kirk Award for Professional Excellence from the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, the Distinguished Alumni Award from The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine, and the Docteur Honoris Causa from the Université de Liège.
After completing his veterinary degree at the University of Melbourne, Dr. Constable practiced in Australia and England before joining The Ohio State University for an internship and residency in Food Animal Medicine and Surgery, and master’s and PhD degrees in cardiovascular physiology. After 13 years on the University of Illinois faculty, he served as head of the veterinary clinical sciences department at Purdue University 2006 to 2013. In 2014 he returned to Illinois as dean.
