Dr. Jennifer Rawlinson, associate professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences at Colorado State University, will become president of the American Veterinary Dental College in October 2020.
Over the last seven years, Rawlinson built and led the Dentistry and Oral Surgery Service at the James L. Voss Veterinary Teaching Hospital at CSU. Her team provides comprehensive dental, oral and maxillofacial evaluations for dogs, cats, horses, pigs, livestock, llamas and alpacas. They also work with the avian, exotic and zoo medicine service at CSU to perform dental procedures for exotic pets, zoo animals and wildlife.
Last fall, Rawlinson was featured in the media after performing dental surgery on Lewis the llama, who was abandoned in Yellowstone National Park in the summer of 2018. He roamed the wilds of the park for three months and did not allow anyone to recapture him, until Susi Hülsmeyer-Sinay, now his owner, rescued him.
Rawlinson received a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Cornell University in 1998. She worked in private practice for several years, returned to Cornell as a veterinary educator and completed a residency in dentistry and oral surgery at the University of Pennsylvania in 2005.
Rawlinson returned to Ithaca to create the Cornell Dentistry and Oral Surgery Service and develop the dental curriculum for veterinary students interested in caring for large and small animals.
In 2006, she was named a diplomate of the American Veterinary Dental College. She spent six years as a lecturer and sole dental faculty member at Cornell providing care for small, equine, livestock, and zoo patients. During this time, she worked closely with the Cornell Large Animal Soft Tissue Surgery Service to treat equine cases and grow her expertise in equine dentistry.
In 2013, Rawlinson accepted a faculty position at CSU.
Dr. Naomi Hoyer assumed the role of service chief In March 2020, so that Rawlinson could focus on her work with the AVDC.
The American Veterinary Dental College was established in 1988 by an organizing committee of eight veterinarians who were recognized as experts in veterinary dentistry in clinical care, research, publications or in professional education. The primary objectives of the college are to determine the standards required for recognition of board-certified veterinary dentists and to conduct the credentials review and examination procedures to identify veterinarians who have reached the specialist veterinary dentist standard.
