Tanya LeRoith, the director of the interdisciplinary diagnostic laboratory, the Virginia Tech Animal Laboratory Services, has been elected to lead of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians. Dr. LeRoith assumes the role of president-elect after serving a term as vice president.
With over 1,000 members from more than 30 countries, the association supports veterinary diagnostic laboratories in the United States and Canada and offers laboratory accreditation. In part through funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the association has spent the past year developing programs to train lab directors, diagnosticians, bench scientists, and Ph.D. students.
“I saw this as a chance to give back to the organization,” said Dr. LeRoith, a clinical professor of anatomic pathology at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. “We all need to take our turn to support the organization, and it was my turn. The dean, my fellow pathologists, and everybody else have been so supportive of my involvement in the organization.”
Dr. LeRoith has been with the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine since 2005. She holds a bachelor’s degree in animal science from the University of Maryland. She earned a doctorate in veterinary medicine from the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine and a Ph.D. in microbiology/patholgy from Washington State University.