Colorado State University Veterinary Staff Receive Awards for Outstanding Contributions to Veterinary Medicine in Colorado

The Colorado Veterinary Medical Association honored several members of Colorado State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at its recent annual conference.

Dr. Susan Lana, an associate professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences and chief of the Clinical Oncology Service at the James L. Voss Veterinary Teaching Hospital, received the Colorado Veterinary Medical Association’s annual Outstanding Faculty Award. Dr. Narda Robinson, an assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences and director of the Center for Comparative and Integrative Pain Medicine, received a CVMA President’s Award for championing a balanced approach to complementary medicine in veterinary medicine. Maura Green, a veterinary technician in the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, was honored with the 2009 Veterinary Technician of the Year Award.

Dr. Lana’s nominators noted that she is a role model for faculty, particularly in her clinical and teaching roles. She has helped develop CSU’s relationship with the National Cancer Institute’s Clinical Oncology Trials Consortium. Lana also oversees the tumor tissue archiving facility at the Animal Cancer Center which provides research materials for collaborators within CSU and around the country.

Dr. Lana has recently taken on oversight of the Animal Cancer Center’s consultation service, which provides more than 3,000 free consultations to clients and referring veterinarians seeking advice about cancer in pet animals.

The President’s Award, which honored Dr. Robinson, recognizes individuals who contributed to CVMA in a special way and whose contribution caught the attention of the CVMA president. Dr. Robinson is both a veterinarian and an osteopathic physician, bringing unique insight into the worlds of animal and human medicine.

Robinson “is a long-time supporter of CVMA in many different efforts… and is the founder and director of the Medical Acupuncture for Veterinarians Program,” said Dr. Jed Rogers, who nominated her for the award. “This wildly successful program is something CVMA is proud to support. She is a national leader in the development of complementary and alternative medicine in our profession. She is ever generous with her time and talents. The insight and perspective she provided this year as CVMA articulated the model for animal chiropractic helped assured that what we created was rigorous, appropriate, credible, focused on the protection of our patients, and based on science and evidence.”

Green came to Colorado State University in 1980 when she was hired as the first and only critical care unit technician. Many of the CCU techniques, protocols and policies that she created then are still used today. She authored a chapter in “Vet Clinics of North America,” detailing how to organize a critical care unit, and gave lectures and wet labs nationally to inspire the formation of critical care at other universities.

In 1998, Green recognized the need for a blood donor program at CSU and single-handedly created a foster parent program for blood donors in which veterinary students would adopt race track greyhounds and bring them to the hospital every month to donate blood. Years later she created a community-based volunteer donor program with more than 100 donor cats and dogs enrolled to donate every two months, for which she received the Outstanding Achievement Award in Creativity from CSU.

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