This message will appear in the Chicago Veterinary Medical Association Bulletin.
It’s not the Olympics, but there are gold medals. (Well, technically, “medallions.”)
It’s not the Oscars, but there are heartfelt acceptance speeches.
I’m talking about an investiture ceremony, the occasion of formally presenting an outstanding faculty member with a new title, one created through a generous donation and bestowed after a rigorous assessment confirming that the recipient merits this prestigious academic honor.
In 2024, our college bestowed seven new named faculty positions. To give you an idea of how impactful that is, before last year the college had only one such position, the Field Chair in Reproductive Biology, which was established in 2004. So, after 20 years, we went from having one named position to having eight.
Read about the College’s Investitures of 2024
What Is a Named Faculty Position?
Because many people outside academia are not familiar with endowed chairs and professorships and investiture ceremonies, I want to highlight what these appointments mean not only for the selected faculty members, the college, and the donors but also for our patients, students, referring veterinarians, and alumni.
I’ll focus on our October 11 investiture, at which Dr. Heidi Phillips and Dr. Kimberly Selting were named inaugural Dr. John A. Coyne Professors through a transformative gift from our 1974 alumnus and long-time member of the Chicago Veterinary Medical Association.
Dr. Coyne endowed two named professorships, one designated for Small Animal Surgery and another for Small Animal Clinical Practice. Recipients were selected through an internal nominating process and a comprehensive review of their scholarship and contributions by experts in their fields from outside our university.
The endowments generate annual income used by the faculty recipients to advance their scholarly activities. Because the gift is an endowment, the college retains the position in perpetuity, awarding it to another faculty member when the current professorship holder retires.
Drs. Phillips and Selting, New Coyne Professors
Dr. Phillips, a surgeon, has devoted her professional life to improving the lives of dogs and cats through surgical procedures. She is perhaps best known for being the first in the U.S. to perform laser-assisted turbinectomy and other novel approaches to relieving airway problems in brachycephalic breeds. Here’s a link to a video of Dr. Phillips working with her patients while explaining their plight in lay language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgL9xg77MjA
Dr. Selting built our hospital’s radiation oncology program, overseeing the acquisition of a state-of-the-art linear accelerator in 2019. Radiation has become an integral component of our world-class oncology program, spanning patient care, discovery of new oncologic therapies, and a thriving radiation oncology residency.
She explained the value of a named faculty position this way: “Funds from this professorship will help secure collaborators for research projects and allow me to offer clinical trials that drive the collection of preliminary data. Having more clinical data will ultimately encourage owners to try out treatments and make the best decision for their pets.
“Dr. Coyne’s tremendous gift benefits our work not just financially but also by enriching the experiences of the veterinary students and residents and the lives of the pets we help and their owners. All those factors expand the impact and ultimately grow the profession of veterinary medicine.”
Dr. Coyne, Our Donor
Dr. Coyne has had a remarkably successful career and continues to enjoy practicing. He and his family have made numerous gifts in support of the college, including to veterinary scholarships and to renovations throughout the Veterinary Teaching Hospital.
At the investiture, Dr. Coyne noted that he gives, in part, because he feels grateful for his veterinary degree “which afforded me a life of loving what I do every day. Not everyone gets that.”
He added, “I also give because I hope to, in some way, propel veterinary medicine forward. I hope to make a difference by supporting the profession, the college, and all the way down to the individual.”
He and his family clearly relished learning not only about the work Drs. Phillips and Selting do but also about their families and personal goals and challenges.
Patients, Students, and You
Both Dr. Coyne and Dr. Selting reference the power of a named faculty position to propel or grow the veterinary profession. I agree. Colleges of veterinary medicine have many vital missions: delivering transformative education, clinical and diagnostic services, and innovation.
Our seven new named positions contribute to all these missions, both at the level of college reputation and at a very personal level, touching the lives of this student, this patient, this client.
That our college has had an impact on clients and other animal lovers can be seen in the very existence of our named faculty positions. Except for the Coyne professorships, the gifts were made by grateful clients or, in some cases, by Illinoisans who valued the human-animal bond and the veterinary profession but whose only connection to our college was through their veterinarian, an Illinois graduate. We are grateful to our alumni who help connect animal owners who have philanthropic intentions with our college development staff.
As alumni, as referrers, as employers of our veterinary graduates, you also benefit when our college advances the knowledge and practice of veterinary medicine.
I’ll close by quoting Dr. Phillips, who directed these remarks to Dr. Coyne and his family at the October investiture ceremony: “You have, through your own hard work and diligence, made a living for yourself and family that you share so kindly today with Kim and me and our services, as well as those many animals and students who will benefit from your gift.”
