Q&A: New interim dean at Tufts veterinary school focuses on student experience, growth

On Sept. 1, Melissa Mazan was named dean ad interim of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in North Grafton, succeeding Alastair Cribb, who had served in the role since 2019. Mazan graduated from the veterinary school in 1993 and has spent her professional career at the academic institution, becoming an internationally recognized equine veterinarian. What is the mission of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine? We are the only vet school in New England. As a veterinary school, our first mission is to train and educate fantastic veterinary graduates, but we also have a thriving graduate student population. Our biggest product is people power and brain power. We don't just train people for clinical jobs, although that's the biggest part. We also train people to be researchers, policymakers and people who work in nonprofits. Our mission is to develop and implement innovative, state-of-the-art research and clinical innovations. Something that’s really dear to my heart is that we are not just training people how to do things, but generating, using and propagating knowledge. That's the essence of a university. How do you differ from other veterinary schools? We have a really broad and deep health professions group of schools. We don't just have a medical school and a vet school, but we also have a dental school, physical therapy, a school of nutrition and more. We all work together. We're one of the first to really think about global health and One Health. I would say the ethos of Tufts University is the idea of civic engagement and the development of responsible, engaged leaders. We deliver care to underserved areas of Worcester. We're integral to Massachusetts and New England wildlife through our wildlife clinic, which is one of the biggest in the country. We also have the largest ambulatory veterinary clinic in New England. It’s easy to think of us as the small animal hospital because that's our largest hospital. But our ambulatory service, our hospital for large animals, our wildlife clinic, Tufts at Tech where we work with students from Worcester Technical High School, and our low-cost spay and neuter clinic all form an important part of our footprint. How have your experiences as a student, clinician, faculty member and administrator shaped your approach to educating future veterinarians? We don't want to graduate people who are just technically proficient. There's so much more to being a veterinarian. When you're sitting in a room with someone and talking through the possibilities for their dearly beloved pet, or you're out at a farm and this is their livelihood, you're talking about the next best strategic decision for managing a herd of cattle. Those are things I saw as critically important for our students through my own experiences. You want your basic diagnostic and physical skills to become automatic, so you can free up your brain for creativity and critical thinking. That allows you to recognize those unusual cases where something you've seen a thousand times presents differently. That's where we want our students to be. What are some of the biggest obstacles facing the veterinary profession today, and how is your institution working to address them? One is the cost of veterinary education. It's a very expensive education to deliver. It is hands-on and very infrastructure- and equipment-dependent. We have increased our financial aid, but that's something that we're still really focusing on. What's hit us really hard is the recent changes to federal loans for all students, not just veterinary students, which is forcing students to turn to independent or private loans. With Public Service Loan Forgiveness, after 10 years or 120 payments, federal loans can be forgiven, but that doesn't happen with private loans. The federal loan situation is really serious. We're working on improving scholarships and finding advancement to help. Looking to the future, what would you hope to accomplish in your leadership role at Cummings School? We have a really well-thought-out strategic vision that was put together with our faculty and staff. One of the key things is to push forward the infrastructure that we need for transformative educational, research and clinical experiences. We already have our Veterinary Learning Center going up, which is very exciting. We’re also working on an expansion to our Foster Hospital for Small Animals. It was built and conceived of in the late 1970s for a caseload of about 10,000, and we see about 36,000 cases just in that hospital alone. We want to expand so that we can have centers of excellence that house our clinicians and clinical researchers properly. All of this is critical for Worcester County and beyond. We innovate, train and produce thinkers that Worcester County, as its own biomedical hub, will need to succeed. This interview was conducted and edited for length and clarity by WBJ Correspondent Sloane M. Perron.