Craig Clifford
Dr. Craig Clifford is Director of Clinical Studies for Hope Veterinary Specialists. He is a graduate of Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine, and he earned an MS in Animal Science/Virology from the University of Delaware. After completing an internship and a medical oncology residency at the University of Pennsylvania, he became a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Oncology) in 2003. He joined Red Bank Veterinary Hospital in 2002 as a medical oncologist. Dr. Clifford was responsible for the creation of a clinical studies program at Red Bank Veterinary Hospital. He has authored/co-authored over 50 papers and book chapters relevant to his field. He was responsible for the creation of Veterinary Cancer Society‘s resident review session and the Northeast Veterinary Co-operative Oncology Group. Dr. Clifford has served on the VCS executive board, ACVIM Exam Rating Committee, Residency Training and Credentials Committee, Oncology Pathology Working Group, Co-chair of the Standards of Excellence in Residency Education Task Force and Examiner for the Australian Scientist’s Oncology Specialty Exam. He also serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards for several charities.
Nicole Ehrhart
Dr. Nicole Ehrhart graduated from the University of Pennsylvania College of Veterinary Medicine in 1990. She completed an internship in general medicine and surgery at the Animal Medical Center in New York City. She completed her surgical residency and Masters degree in Clinical Sciences at Colorado State in 1994, and she became Board Certified in Surgery in 1995 during the first year of a 2 year postdoctoral Fellowship in Surgical Oncology and Orthopedic Research. Following completion of her Fellowship, she was recruited in 1996 to the University of Illinois College of Biomedical Sciences as an Assistant Professor in Surgical Oncology. In 2002, concurrent with the opening of the new Flint Animal Cancer Center at Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, she returned to Colorado as a Professor of Surgical Oncology. She holds joint faculty appointments in the School of Biomedical Engineering and the Cell and Molecular Biology Programs, is a member of the Gates Regenerative Medicine Center at the University of Colorado, and is a University of Colorado Cancer Center member.
David Ruslander
Dr. David Ruslander’s primary specialty is radiation oncology, but he is board certified in medical oncology as well. Prior to joining VSH in 2004, Dr. Ruslander worked primarily in an academic environment, with many publications to his credit. He graduated with a veterinary degree from Cornell in 1988 and started his career as an intern at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon, Canada. Dr. Ruslander completed a medical oncology residency at the Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. He came to NCSU in North Carolina in 1992 as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the medical oncology department. A desire for continued learning took him to the University of Zurich in Switzerland, where he worked as an oncologist and received training in radiation oncology. Dr. Ruslander was on the faculty at Tufts from 1997 to 2000 and then at NCSU from 2000-2004 before joining VSH. Dr. Ruslander is a past president of the Veterinary Cancer Society.
Carolyn Henry
Dr. Henry is a Professor with dual appointments at the College of Veterinary Medicine and the School of Medicine at the University of Missouri. After earning her DVM from Auburn University in 1990, she practiced small animal medicine in Alabama and Georgia, developing a passion for care of veterinary cancer patients. She returned to Auburn for an Oncology Residency and concurrent MS degree program. Board certified since 1994, Dr. Henry served on the Washington State University faculty (1993 to 1997) before relocating to the University of Missouri. She has served on the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) Board of Regents and is past president of both the Veterinary Cancer Society and the ACVIM Specialty of Oncology. Dr. Henry has authorship on over 75 manuscripts, 15 book chapters and an oncology textbook published last year. In April 2010, Henry was named Faculty Facilitator for the Mizzou Advantage One Health/One Medicine initiative by the Office of the Provost-a position that serves to foster multidisciplinary educational and research opportunities between human and veterinary medicine and the basic sciences, both inside and outside of the University of Missouri. Her research interests include canine bladder cancer, mammary cancer, osteosarcoma, and comparative oncology/cancer epidemiology.
Heather Wilson
Dr. Heather Wilson is an assistant professor of veterinary medicine at Texas A&M University. She earned her D.V.M. of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Tennessee in 2003, and became a subsequent Diplomate Oncology, ACVIM in 2007. Dr. Wilson regularly writes research papers for top publications in her field. Her research is concentrated in two areas: The first focuses on identifying and characterizing tumor-initiating cells in solid tumors with a one health perspective (i.e. tumors’ similarities and treatment implications across species). The second focus involves clinical trials in client-owned dogs with spontaneously developing tumors, which is used as a basis for informing human clinical trials. Much of this research also has a one health implication designed to streamline drugs or therapies for human trials, decreasing the cost of drug approval while improving therapeutic options for dogs afflicted with cancer.
Chick Weisse
Dr. Chick Weisse is a staff doctor at the Animal Medical Center of New York City. He earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) from Boston University in 1992 with a subsequent Veterinary Medical Doctor (VMD) from University of Pennsylvania in 1998. Dr. Weisse is now a board-certified veterinary surgeon and has extensive experience in endovascular and interventional procedures. He is a specialist in Interventional Radiology, which uses imaging to deliver catheters, stents, and the like into tubular structures such as blood vessels, the urinary system, and the respiratory system; these methods were previously used on humans, but Dr. Weisse is developing them for pets. The benefits of his research include decreased morbidity/mortality rates, minimal anesthesia time, reduced hospital stay, and lower costs to pet parents.