147th AVMA Annual Convention

Convention Management and Program Committee

The Convention Management and Program Committee (CMPC) is comprised of a Chair and nine Section Managers. Each Section Manager oversees a subcommittee of Program Coordinators who are responsible for organizing a specific portion of the educational content.

James E. Creed, DVM, MS.
CMPC Chair

Dr. Creed is semi-retired after being active in the veterinary profession for 38 years. He served on the faculty at Colorado State University's Veterinary Teaching Hospital for 21 years and at Oklahoma State University for one and a half years before becoming Chairman of the Department of Veterinary Medicine/Surgery at the University of Missouri-Columbia for eight and a half years. Dr. Creed was Assistant Dean for Service and Director of Oklahoma State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital for seven years. He served on the AVMA Convention Management and Program Committee for two terms before being selected as Chair of the committee. He served as Companion Animal Program Coordinator for the Western Veterinary Conference from 1997-2005.

Dr. Creed is an emeritus member of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons, American Veterinary Medical Association and the Missouri Veterinary Medical Association. He was President of Optimist International in 1979-80.

Mary Anna Thrall, DVM, MS, DACVP
Companion Animal Section Manager

Dr. Mary Anna Thrall is a professor of veterinary clinical pathology at Colorado State University (CSU) College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. She is also a professor at Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine, St. Kitts, West Indies, and a consultant for Antech Diagnostics, Inc. Her BA degree is from the University of Evansville (1966), her DVM degree is from Purdue University (1970), and her MS degree is from CSU (1977). She was a small animal practitioner from 1970 to 1974. Dr. Thrall has served as CSU’s Section Chief of Clinical Pathology, and was a member of numerous committees, including Faculty Council, Graduate Education Committee, and Tenure and Promotion Committee.

Her research area was characterization and therapy for feline models of lysosomal storage diseases, including the mucopolysaccharidoses and Niemann Pick C1 disease. She was primary investigator or coinvestigator for approximately 50 research awards including grants from the National Institute of Health, the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation and the national Niemann-Pick Foundation. Another area of research interest is therapy of ethylene glycol (antifreeze) toxicosis.

She is active in continuing education (CE) for veterinarians, and has provided more than 250 CE programs. She is author or coauthor of more than 300 scientific publications, abstracts, proceedings, and book chapters. She is primary author of a clinical pathology textbook, Veterinary Hematology and Clinical Chemistry.

Dr. Thrall is a Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Pathologists (ACVP), and a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology (ASVCP). She served as the President of ASVCP and is current president of ACVP. Dr. Thrall’s awards include the Association for Women Veterinarians Distinguished Service Award, a CSU Distinguished Faculty Award, and the Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine Distinguished Alumna Award.

Elisa M. Mazzaferro, MS, DVM, PhD, DACVECC
Interactive Labs Section Manager

Dr. Mazzaferro is the Director of Emergency Services at Wheat Ridge Animal Hospital, in Wheat Ridge, CO. She obtained her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Animal Science from the University of Rhode Island, then obtained her DVM from Michigan State University in 1997. In 1998, she completed a one-year internship in Emergency and Critical Care Medicine at the Veterinary Institute of Trauma, Emergency and Critical Care in Milwaukee, WI, and then a 4 year combined Residency and PhD program from Colorado State University in 2002. Dr. Mazzaferro is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care and currently serves as its vice-president.

Dr. Mazzaferro is an active lecturer and educator, and has presented more than 250 hours of lecture at National and International conferences. She has published a number of manuscripts in peer-reviewed publications, and is the coauthor of two books pertaining to Emergency and Critical Care. She is currently writing two additional textbooks.

Dr. Mazzaferro also is an active member of other Scientific Program Committees, for the Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society, and the Denver Area Veterinary Medical Society. She is a coeditor for the Journal of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care, and in her spare time, enjoys teaching Jazzercise in Conifer and Littleton, CO.

David A. Prigel, DVM
Food Animal/Equine Section

Dr. Dave Prigel is a 1986 graduate of the Univeristy of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine. He has been involved in private practice since graduation with an emphasis on dairy production medicine. Dr. Prigel has owned two rural general mixed practices and currently operates a dairy consulting business and provides relief veterinary services to local clinics of all types.

His work has taken him as far as the Republic of Georgia to work with dairy farmers and veterinarians. He has been actively involved in the Missouri Veterinary Medical Association as a board member and is the past Secretary/Treasurer of the Missouri Veterinary Medical Association.

Dr. Prigel also serves as Missouri's alternate delegate to the AVMA House of Delegates.

B. Taylor Bennett, DVM, PhD, DACLAM
Other Convention Activities Section Manager

Dr. B. Taylor Bennett did his undergraduate work at Vanderbilt University and the University of Tennessee. He obtained his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Auburn University and his PhD from the University of Illinois Medical School. He currently is a consultant in the area of program evaluation and regulatory compliance and serves as the Senior Scientific Advisor for the National Association for Biomedical Research. He spent 36 years at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) overseeing the animal care and use program and spent the last ten of those years as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research.

Dr. Bennett has served as the President of the Association of Primate Veterinarians, the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, and the American Society of Laboratory Animal Practitioners. He served on the Board of Directors of the National Association for Biomedical Research, which he chaired, and the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine and has served as ASLAP’s Delegate and Alternate Delegate to the AVMA, and on the AVMA Panel on Euthanasia.

He has directed an ACLAM approved postdoctoral training program in laboratory animal medicine and was senior editor for the two volume ACLAM text, Non-Human Primates in Biomedical Research and an author of the CRC manual, The Laboratory Non-Human Primate. He has over 50 publications and over 170 abstracts and presentations.

Lydia F. Gray, DVM, MA
Practice Management and Professional Development Section Manager

Dr. Lydia Gray is the Medical Director/Staff Veterinarian for SmartPak Equine where she directs SmartCare, veterinary partnership program; provides technical support; coordinates research and development; and creates nutrition educational programs. She received her B.S. in Agriculture with Bronze Tablet honors from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1990 and her doctor of veterinary medicine, with honors, from the University in 1994. In 2001, she completed her M.A. in Interpersonal and Organizational Communication from the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Dr. Gray was an associate veterinarian at Tremont Veterinary Clinic, a mixed animal practice. In 1997, she returned to the University part-time to develop the Executive Veterinary Program Certificate in Small Animal Practice Management. Dr. Gray became the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) first-ever Director of Owner Education in 1999. She was the Executive Director of the Hooved Animal Humane Society, where she oversaw administrative, fundraising and educational operations; served as veterinarian to the animals on the farm; and acted as a state-approved humane investigator.

Dr. Gray served on the AVMA Council on Communication in 2005 and was appointed to the Convention Management and Program Committee in 2009. Active in her state association, she has been chair of the Education Program Committee and will be installed as President for the Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association in November 2009. She is a frequent speaker at both veterinary and horse owner meetings, and is published in numerous veterinary journals and horse owner magazines.
She is a horse owner and actively competes in dressage with her Trakehner “Newman.”

Richard P. Chin, DVM, MPVM, Diplomate ACPV
Poultry Medicine Section Manager

Dr. Richard Chin is a 1983 graduate of the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine. He obtained his Masters of Preventive Veterinary Medicine from UC Davis, and subsequently completed a residency in avian diagnostic medicine, also at UC Davis. Since then, Dr. Chin has worked as avian diagnostician in California. He currently is an associate professor of Clinical Diagnostic Avian Medicine with the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System, University of California, Davis.

Dr. Chin is a Diplomate, American College of Poultry Veterinarians, and served as the President of the American Association of Avian Pathologists and the Western Poultry Disease Conference (WPDC). He currently serves as the Secretary/Treasurer of the WPDC.

David Schabdach, DVM, MS, Diplomate ACLAM
Public and Corporate Practice Section Manager

Dr. David Schabdach is a 1985 graduate of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. He spent three years in small animal practice in Annapolis, MD before entering the field of laboratory animal medicine.

Dr. Schabdach completed a NIH Fellowship in Laboratory Animal Medicine at the MS Hershey Medical Center in 1992 and has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for the past 15 years.

He was the AVMA liaison to the ACLAM/ASLAP Program Committee for 6 years prior to becoming the Public and Corporate Practice Section Manager.

Julie Legred, CVT
Veterinary Technician Section Manager

Ms. Legred graduated in 1985 from the University of Minnesota, Waseca with an AAS degree in Animal Health Technology and passed the VTNE and MN state certification test in June 1985.

She currently works as Program Coordinator and Instructor in the Veterinary Technology Program at the Minnesota School of Business in Rochester, Minnesota. She also works part time in a small animal/exotic practice in St. Paul, Minnesota and works as a relief technician in various small animal practices in Minnesota.

Ms. Legred and her husband own three swine breeding stock companies. Her role is Human Resource Manager, payroll and Special Projects Manager coordinating and participating with c-sections and embryo transfers.

She is Convention and Sponsorship Chair for the Minnesota Association of Veterinary Technicians, SE Area Representative of the Minnesota Association of Veterinary Technicians, on the Committee for Veterinary Technician Specialties, 2008 President of the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America, and on the AVMA Committee for Veterinary Technicians Education and Activities.

Teri Kado
Liaison and Industry Advisor (Exhibitors)

Ms. Teri Kado is currently Executive Director of the American Veterinary Exhibitors’ Association. She has served on the board for the AVEA since 1995 assisting exhibitors and associations.

Teri has spent more than 20 years in sales and marketing in the veterinary industry working for Mark Anderson, DVM, Veterinary Concepts, and MAI/Genesis, at both the US and England locations. In addition, Teri manages Living Art-N-Life and EngraVet, a specialty company designed for the veterinary industry.