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2020 Alumni Award Recipients

CVM Honorary Alumni Award

CVM Honorary Alumnus: Dr. N. Kent Ames

Dr. N. Kent Ames

Dr. N. Kent Ames received his DVM degree from The Ohio State University in 1974 and completed a residency and master’s degree in food animal medicine and surgery at Kansas State University in 1977. Ames is a professor emeritus in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences at the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine. He has had a distinguished career as a clinician, educator, researcher, and leader in the veterinary profession. He is a six-time recipient of the Student Chapter of the American Veterinary Medical Association’s Outstanding Teacher Award and a four-time recipient of the Norden Distinguished Teacher Award. He received the Distinguished Veterinary Teacher Award from the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges in 1995. Soon after retirement in 2017, Dr. Ames returned to MSU to teach veterinary clinical students.

In addition to his excellence in teaching, Dr. Ames is a leader in the veterinary profession. He served as president of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners and as an AVMA fellow in Washington, DC. He is the author of numerous manuscripts, abstracts, and book chapters, and is the editor of the Noordsy’s Food Animal Surgery textbook.

CVM Distinguished Veterinary Alumni Awards:

CVM Distinguished Veterinary Alumna- Practitioner: Dr. Melissa Owings (DVM ’98)

Dr. Melissa Owings (DVM ’98)

Dr. Melissa Owings received her DVM degree from MSU in 1998. After graduation, she practiced in the Jackson, Michigan area before acquiring Kibby Park Animal Hospital in 2007. As the owner, Dr. Owings is well-respected in the Jackson community. She advocates for her patients and clients and refers them to MSU faculty when necessary. Dr. Owings is the current president of the Michigan Veterinary Medical Association (MVMA) and a member of the MVMA Legislative Advisory Committee. She also is active in her local community, and has served on a state-wide task force for preventing opioid addiction. In addition, she is the current president of the Jackson Junior Welfare League. Dr. Owings established the Barkley and Lulu Foundation in 2012 to provide grant assistance for treatment of local pets who require medical care, as well as to fund the Jackson Cat Project, a sterilization program to reduce cat reproduction in Jackson County. In 2019, the Barkley and LuLu Foundation donated more than $33,000 in grants to local veterinarians to provide medical services to pets in need.

CVM Distinguished Veterinary Alumna- Non-Practitioner: Dr. Noreen Lowe Heikes (DVM ’90)

Dr. Noreen Lowe Heikes (DVM ’90)

Dr. Noreen Lowe Heikes received her DVM degree from MSU in 1990. She earned her master’s degree from Western Michigan University in 2017 and has Michigan teaching certifications in secondary science (biology) and career and technical education in both general agriculture and animal health. Dr. Heikes is a career and technical education instructor at Vicksburg High School, where she teaches courses in veterinary and agricultural sciences. Her program was awarded the Career and Technical Education Program Excellence in Practice Award in 2016 and the Excellence in Education award in 2019, both from the Michigan Department of Education. During the past two years, Dr. Heikes coordinated a voluntary field trip for her students to South Africa to work hands-on with wildlife and conservation veterinarians. Among many additional initiatives in her local community, she has implemented a cat fostering program for students housed in her veterinary science classroom. She also provides leadership opportunities for her students through the Future Farmers of America (FFA) and HOSA - Future Health Professionals organizations.

CVM Distinguished Postdoctoral Alumni Award

CVM Distinguished Postdoctoral Alumna: Dr. Eileen Thacker (PhD ’92)

Eileen Thacker (PhD ’92)

Dr. Eileen Thacker received her DVM degree from the University of Minnesota in 1978. She worked for several veterinary practices in Minnesota. She then moved to Michigan when her husband, Dr. Brad Thacker, became faculty for the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences at MSU. In 1985, she started as a specialist in the Endocrine Section of the Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory at MSU and began her PhD graduate program. She completed her PhD in 1992 with the Department of Pathology. Her research was recognized by the Society of Comparative Endocrinology, for which she received the Daniels Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Knowledge Concerning Small Animal Endocrinology from the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM).

Dr. Thacker was a postdoctoral fellow at the USDA Avian Disease and Oncology Laboratory in East Lansing from 1992–94 before she accepted a research associate position in the Veterinary Medical Research Institute at Iowa State University. She was promoted to assistant professor (tenure track) in 1998, associate professor with tenure in 2000, and full professor in 2006. In 2008, Dr. Thacker became a National Program Leader at the USDA Agriculture Research Service (ARS) in Beltsville, Maryland. She continued in this position until November of 2015, when she became the first center director for USDA-ARS’s National Poultry Research Center in Athens, Georgia. She retired in February of 2019.

CVM Distinguished Veterinary Technology Alumni Award

CVM Distinguished Veterinary Technology Alumna: Dawn E. Christenson, LVT, M.Div. (ATCT ’79)

Dawn E. Christenson, LVT, M.Div. (ATCT ’79)

Dawn E. Christenson received her animal technology certificate from MSU in 1979. She began teaching in the MSU Veterinary Technology Program in 1981, where she made a lasting impression on many students. In 1997, she published the first edition of the textbook Veterinary Medical Terminology (Elsevier), which has been used by veterinary nursing and DVM students at MSU and many other institutions. She has created terminology flash cards as a compendium and an online veterinary medical terminology resource to accompany the second edition of the textbook. In 2019, she published the third edition of Veterinary Medical Terminology.

Throughout her career, Christenson has promoted the advancement of veterinary nursing through her service to state and national organizations including the Michigan Association of Veterinary Technicians, the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America, the Association of Veterinary Technician Educators, and the –American Association of Veterinary State Boards-Veterinary Technician National Exam Committee. Prior to her retirement from MSU in 2011, Dawn began to pursue a master’s degree in Divinity at Chicago Theological Seminary. She studied part-time while she worked full-time in hospice care and, eventually, in the MSU Veterinary Medical Center, where she worked on the Emergency and Critical Care Medicine Service for six years. She graduated in 2016 and currently serves communities in transitional ministry.