AAVMC names Pappaioanou to top post

WASHINGTON — Dr. Marguet Pappaioanou is the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges' (AAVMC) new executive director.

She replaces Dr. Larry Heider, who after five years running AAVMC announced his retirement in April. He plans to leave office as Pappaioanou takes the position Nov. 1.

Pappaioanou, DVM, MPVM, PhD, comes from the University of Minnesota where she holds a joint appointment at as a professor of infectious disease epidemiology in the School of Public Health and College of Veterinary Medicine.

"I believe that veterinary medicine has such a vital role to play in responding to crucial societal needs — including food safety and animal health, biomedical research, public health, emergency response, and protecting the wellbeing of our ecosystem," Pappaioanou says. "As the representative of the distinguished institutions where veterinarians are educated and trained, AAVMC can be the nexus for addressing those needs."

Prior to her career in academia, Pappaioanou held numerous positions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), most recently acting deputy director in the Office of Global Health in 2004, and associate director for science and policy in 1999. She co-coordinated CDC's international response to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and avian influenza outbreaks in 2003, and served as a CDC point person for Department of Health and Human Services activities in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Pappaioanou earned her bachelor's and DVM degrees at Michigan State University and her MPVM and doctoral degrees from the University of California-Davis. She serves as an associate editor of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, a CDC publication.