Dean Alastair Cribb Receives 2025 Diamond Award from The Not Alone Foundation

The Not Alone Foundation, an Atlanta-based non-profit organization dedicated to assisting those suffering from various health-related issues, including chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease, has awarded Alastair Cribb, D.V.M., Ph.D., FCAHS, the fifth dean of Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, with the 2025 Diamond Award For Transformative Leadership in Veterinary Education. This award is reserved for extraordinary individuals whose visionary contributions have significantly impacted the field of veterinary medicine. Dr. Cribb has striven to advance veterinary education, research, and clinical care throughout his academic career. His commitment and leadership have helped faculty across North America transform veterinary education.

The award citation reads: "Your distinguished career as Dean of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University exemplifies the qualities we seek to celebrate. Your commitment to innovative leadership has advanced veterinary education and inspired countless future veterinarians to uphold the highest standards of animal health and welfare within our communities. Your founding role at the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and extensive research in veterinary pharmacogenetics and molecular toxicology speak volumes of your dedication to this noble profession."

Dr. Cribb has long had a passion for veterinary medicine and veterinary education. After practicing, pursuing advanced training in clinical pharmacology, and working in the pharmaceutical industry, he returned to veterinary academia 12 years after obtaining his veterinary degree. Cribb joined the Atlantic Veterinary College and spread his efforts across education, research, and clinical care. In 1996, Cribb moved into a leadership role in veterinary education when he became the founding dean of the new University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM).

Focused on broad competency in rural community veterinary practice, UCVM combined intensive hands-on clinical, professional, and research training in the first three years with a distributed model of clinical education designed to ensure every student was prepared to provide excellent veterinary primary care and population health for the major domestic species and wildlife. Moreover, UCVM was committed to being a research-intensive school oriented towards the relationships between the health of animals, humans, and the environment, with over 100 PhD and thesis-based master's students.

Dr. Cribb said his role as a leader was "not to be the innovator behind the program, but to recruit faculty and staff with the passion and creativity to build a unique program and to create the environment for their success."

Cribb also looked for specific opportunities tied to the region. One example was pursuing the use of simulators to enhance teaching and assessment. By engaging experts from the local film industry, they were able to create new simulation models not previously available. These efforts led to the establishment of a leading veterinary simulator company with models sold globally.

Following the program's success in Calgary, Dr. Cribb worked with several schools internationally to help them adapt the key elements of the foundational program to their local needs. Most recently, he played an important role in helping Texas Tech University develop and launch its program.

Dr. Cribb moved to Tufts University from Calgary to lead Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in 2019. Building on the entrepreneurial and community spirit that has long characterized Cummings School, Cribb seeks to provide the environment for its continued growth, success, and impact.  The Cummings School Strategic Vision 2030 is guiding an expansion of the D.V.M. program and, ultimately, the growth of graduate programs. A new D.V.M. curriculum created by the faculty has just completed its first year. Research programs are expanding, and new clinical facilities are being developed.

Cribb earned his D.V.M. at Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, and completed a small animal internship at Michigan State University. He earned his Ph.D. in clinical pharmacology and pharmacogenetics at the University of Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. Cribb then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He worked in drug safety assessment at Merck & Co. in Pennsylvania for four years before joining the University of Prince Edward Island.

He was a professor of clinical pharmacology at the Atlantic Veterinary College for ten years, where he held a Medical Research Council New Investigator Award and a Canada Research Chair in Comparative Pharmacology and Toxicology. He established the Prince Edward Island Health Research Institute and served on the task force that led to the creation of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). He served on the CIHR Governing Council for five years and was a founding fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS).

Cribb's research expertise is in veterinary and human pharmacogenetics and molecular toxicology. He has published extensively in veterinary and human literature, focusing on improving our understanding of serious but rare adverse drug reactions. His work has helped elucidate the basis of sulfonamide hypersensitivity reactions, the mechanisms of renal toxicity of drugs and chemicals, and the role of genetically determined metabolism in cancer risk.