Tufts Dean Speaks at Texas A&M, Becker

Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine dean Deborah Kochevar has been a sought-after speaker at college ceremonies this year.

She spoke yesterday at the commencement ceremony of the veterinary program at Texas A & M University in College Station, Texas, where she received her doctor of veterinary medicine degree in 1981.

Today, she will be the honors convocation speaker at Becker College in Leicester. 

In September 2011, Kochevar served  as an expert on the One Health academic panel, part of the inauguration of Becker College President Robert E. Johnson, Ph.D.

“We are pleased to have Dr. Kochevar, a global leader in veterinary medicine and health science, speak to our honors students and join in this annual celebration of academic excellence,” Johnson said in a prepared statement. “We share in her commitment to innovation and the health of animals, people, and the environment; in fact, many Becker College animal studies graduates and faculty have studied and worked at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University.”

President-elect and member of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges board of directors, Kochevar has won many teaching awards, including the Norden Distinguished Teacher Award and the Student American Veterinary Medical Association National Teaching Award in Basic Science. She counts time spent teaching as the most satisfying part of her professional career.

A member of a number of nonprofit boards, including the National Association for Biomedical Research, Consortium for Conservation Medicine, Cummings Foundation, Inc., Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, and Massachusetts Society for Medical Research, Kochevar also serves on one corporate board, for Charles River Laboratories International, Inc.

She is also a diplomate and past president of the American College of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology and is active in the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA).

Kochevar graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor of arts degree in English and biology from Rice University in 1978. She received a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Texas A&M University in 1981, and a Ph.D. in cellular and molecular biology from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 1987.

She was a National Institutes of Health National Research Service Award Fellow from 1984 to 1986. In the mid-1990s, she spent a year in Washington, DC, as a Congressional Science Fellow to the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee.