EAST LANSING, Mich. — Carole Bolin is the new director of Michigan State University’s Diagnostic Center for Population and Animal Health.
The appointment of Bolin, who has been chief of the DCPAH Bacteriology and Mycology Section since August 2000, was effective April 15.
Bolin said that she looks forward to melding the complex missions of the DCPAH.
“We have a business mission to provide excellent customer service to veterinary practitioners and the livestock and pet owners they serve, and we have an academic mission to teach the next generation and create new knowledge,” she said. “Added to that, we have a mission to safeguard animal and human health in the state by closely collaborating with state and national agencies.
“These different worlds – business, academia, and government – have very different cultures, but they can, and do, add value to each other.”
The DCPAH is a full-service veterinary diagnostic laboratory offering more than 800 tests in 11 service sections. In the more than 30 years since its inception, the center has become one of the country's premier veterinary diagnostic laboratories, handling more than 185,000 cases involving approximately 1.5 million tests annually.
Bolin, who came to MSU after 18 years working in research at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Ames, Iowa, said that her eight years of experience at the DCPAH have given her an appreciation for how research is translated into real-world, actionable diagnostic practice.
As a service provider, she has also had the opportunity to talk with veterinary practitioners and other clients and is better able to understand their problems. “I like to think I’ve learned something from every one of those conversations,” she said.
Bolin said that, in recent years, the DCPAH has “fundamentally changed how we talk and think about things” by applying more business principles in an academic environment.
“The DCPAH is a critical bridge between veterinary practitioners, and the pets and livestock they work with, and the problem-solving world of academic veterinary medicine,” she noted.
Bolin received her doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Purdue University in 1982 and a doctorate from Iowa State University in 1986.
Bolin succeeds Willie Reed, who left MSU to become dean of the Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine.
###
Michigan State University has been advancing knowledge and transforming lives through innovative teaching, research and outreach for more than 150 years. MSU is known internationally as a major public university with global reach and extraordinary impact. Its 17 degree-granting colleges attract scholars worldwide who are interested in combining education with practical problem solving.