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It is my great pleasure to announce for the third time in its 47 year history, the Charles Louis Davis and Samuel Wesley Thompson Foundation has a new Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Francisco (Paco) Uzal.
A member of our Board of Directors for over fifteen years, Paco has risen through the ranks, being the architect of the Latin Comparative Pathology Group (LCPG, aka the Foundation’s Latin American Division), the first LCPG President, and ultimately, the Foundation’s first Vice-President for Latin American Affairs. His work, often self-funded, established Divisions in Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Peru, and held courses in many others. Three years ago, he was elected President of the Foundation by the Foundation's Board, and has excelled in that job, overseeing the Foundation's courses all over the world, (which have ranged up to 50 in some years), as well as being the primary architect in the Foundation's response to the 2020 pandemic, expertly and quickly pivoting from in-person to virtual seminars, while most organizations were still trying to figure whether they would even be capable of having meetings. He has also served twice during that time as the President of the Latin Comparative Pathology Group, not only establishing it, but also establishing it as one of the best-regarded pathology educational organizations throughout Latin America. During his entire time as a member of the Foundation's board and its president, he has lectured for us around the world many times on topics ranging from diseases of horse and ruminants, gastrointestinal disease, and descriptive pathology, and is most assuredly one of our most popular speakers.
Superlatives fail to do justice to Paco’s contributions to the field of veterinary pathology, and to the education of all those who practice it, especially those who are in the early stages of their career. It has been my great pleasure to work side by side with him in a shared vision of pathology education for everyone around the world, and it is my great honor to call him a friend. As a friend, I am posting a short bio below (to his great chagrin, as one of the most humble men I know) for those few pathologists around the world who have not had the good fortune to meet him.
The position of Foundation CEO and the Chairman of its Board is one that is a career in the making, and a position that is a second career in itself. It calls for men and women of vision, and provides years of service to fulfill that singular individual's vision. Those of us who do it don't do it as a career box check, but because we are driven to improve global education in veterinary pathology, and to give back far more than we have been given, all the while allowing others to collect the credit and accolades. It is a job conducted largely off the stage
And so, to the members and friends of the Foundation, I present your new Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Paco Uzal.
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Francisco A. Uzal, DVM, MSc, PhD, Dipl. ACVP, is a Professor of Diagnostic Pathology and Branch Chief of the San Bernardino Laboratory of the California Animal Health and Food Safety, UCDavis. He is a leading expert on clostridial diseases of animals with special emphasis in enteric diseases. Dr. Uzal has published ~ 250 articles in peer reviewed journals. He is the senior author of the chapter on “Alimentary Diseases”, for the 6th edition of “Jubb, Kennedy and Palmer’s Pathology of Domestic Animals” (2015, Elsevier), and the first author of the recently published textbook on Clostridial diseases of animals (2016, Wiley and Blackwell). He is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists and a member of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians. Dr Uzal is an Associated Editor and Photo Editor of the Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation and Anaerobe and member of the editorial board of several other journals. He has been the coordinator of the Post-mortem Program for the California Horse Racing Board for the past 12 years. He is currently the Vice-President of the Davis/Thompson Foundation and president-elect of the Latin Comparative Pathology Group. Over the past 15+ years he has mentored a large number of Latinamerican veterinarians and vet students visiting his laboratory in California and lectured in many countries of Latin America, Europe, Asia and Oceania. He received the 2016 Life Achievement Award from HENAA for his contributors to education in science and technology.