The dean of Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine is a creative leader who harnesses the strengths of a school distinguished by outstanding students and teachers, a broad and flexible curriculum, and dedicated researchers and clinicians managing a patient caseload among the largest in the nation. The dean seizes opportunities to build upon Cummings School’s One Health origins and advance its research mission in areas such as infectious disease, clinical and translational medicine, and neuroscience.
Cummings School is New England's only veterinary school. Now entering its fifth decade, Cummings School has grown from its distinctive medical-school origins to an established veterinary school of the first order. Cummings School attracts incoming classes of students with GRE scores among the highest in the country. Situated on a beautiful 585-acre pastoral campus 35 miles west of Boston, the school is home to more than 500 employees and 425 students. Seven teaching hospitals manage an annual caseload of more than 100,000 patients, including small companion animals, exotic pets, horses, farm animals, and wildlife.
Working in partnership with the faculty, staff, and students at Cummings School as well as Tufts senior leadership, the dean advances an agenda for the future attending to the mission of healing animals, helping humans, transforming global health, and engaging scholars by leveraging existing strengths and areas of distinction. The dean is the face of the school to a wide variety of constituents whose support and affection for Cummings is central to its continued prosperity.
The primary tasks of the dean of Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine include:
- Ensuring educational programs and teaching remain innovative, effective, and meet student needs;
- Growing the research function;
- Supporting excellent clinical service and engagement with the client community;
- Increasing financial resources to ensure the school’s long-term financial sustainability.
The dean stewards Cummings School into the future, preserving the qualities and core values that have made it successful while strategically pursuing new ideas to ensure future success and impact.
History of Deans at Cummings School
Pat Doe, DVM, PhD
Dean
2019-present
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Joyce S. Knoll, VMD, PhD
Dean ad interim
2018-2019
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Deborah T. Kochevar, DVM, PhD
Dean
2006-2018
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M. Sawkat Anwer, DVM, PhD
Dean ad interim
1995-1996
2005-2006
"The value of our innovative, comprehensive Cummings School curriculum, which includes focused programs in areas such as international veterinary medicine, conservation medicine, and wildlife medicine not found at most other veterinary colleges." The Cummings Contribution, Tufts Veterinary Magazine, Spring 2006.
Philip C. Kosch, DVM, PhD
Dean
1996-2005
“This is a very unified place with a common purpose, and what is that purpose? That purpose is to support each other and give each other the opportunity to model the best in ourselves through one’s compassion toward animals and one’s contribution to animal health, welfare, and conservation, and to public health.” Dean Philip Kosch, Building the Future of Veterinary Medicine. Tufts Veterinary Magazine, Summer 2005.
Franklin M. Loew, DVM, PhD
Dean
1982-1995
"While I was dean, I was fond of calling us the 'dandiest little veterinary school' in the country. Today, it has matured into one of the finest veterinary medical educational institutions in the world, thanks to the high quality of its students and faculty, the loyalty and dedication of its staff, and the support of a fine university. The hundreds of talented, dedicated faculty and staff members who built the school came together at a time and place that will never be duplicated." Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine - The Early Years, By Dr. Franklin M. Loew.
Albert M. Jonas, DVM
Founding Dean
1978-1982
On April 29, 1978, the board voted to establish the first major new school at Tufts since the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1933. Al Jonas, a tenured professor at Yale’s medical school, became dean. Tufts began accepting applications for the Class of 1983 (many early students went on to become professors). Birth of a Veterinary School, Cummings Veterinary Magazine, Spring 2018