Va. Tech prof earns nation's top veterinary teaching award

Blacksburg, Va.

-- A professor of veterinary anatomy and physiology at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine was awarded the Carl J. Norden-Pfizer Distinguished Teaching Award, considered the nation's top veterinary teaching award.

Dr. Bonnie Smith, of Christiansburg, Va., who has earned more than 20 teaching awards in her 23-year career, was selected out of all professors in the nation's 28 veterinary colleges. A professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology, she is the third Virginia Tech faculty member to receive the award.

"You have the heartfelt congratulations ... of the entire veterinary profession. You hold a special place in our profession as an educator of the next generation of veterinarians, and you have shown yourself to be competent, caring and expert in your teaching ability," Dr. Marguerite Pappaioanou, executive director of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC), told Smith in a letter.

"This is our profession's most prestigious teaching award, and it commends a professor who has been recognized for teaching excellence throughout her career," says Dr. Gerhardt Schurig, dean of Virginia Tech's veterinary college.

Smith teaches aspiring veterinarians gross anatomy, physiology, embryology and morphology. She received her bachelor's degree, a master's degree in zoology, her DVM degree and a doctorate in veterinary anatomy with a minor in human anatomy from The Ohio State University.