In her work as a veterinarian with the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine (FDA-CVM), Bernadette Dunham, D.V.M., Ph.D., influences the lives of thousands of animals and people each day as Deputy Director for the FDA-CVM's Office of New Animal Drug Evaluation. Her office's primary responsibility is to review information submitted by drug sponsors and determine if their data are adequate to support a drug's approval for marketing. Her work has an impact not only on animal health but on the nation's public health and environment.

 

Dr. Dunham is also an Adjunct Professor with the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. This position gives her the opportunity to meet with students and colleagues, researching and lecturing on topics from emerging issues and opportunities in veterinary medicine to the role of consensus building in policy development.

 

Dr. Dunham received her D.V.M. degree in 1975 from Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, in Canada . After working in a companion animal private practice in Ontario for three years, she moved to Massachusetts where she received her Ph.D. in cardiovascular physiology from Boston University . In 1985, Dr. Dunham received the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale Franco-American Visiting Scientist Fellowship to study at the Hôpital Necker in Paris, France .

 

Following post-doctoral studies in Boston, Dr. Dunham enrolled in a residency program in the Department of Pathology at the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University. In 1989, she became the Director of Laboratory Animal Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology at the State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse . Her research focused on the molecular regulation of cardiac gap junction proteins.

 

From 1995 to 2002, Dr. Dunham worked in the American Veterinary Medical Association's Governmental Relations Division in Washington , D.C. While with the division, she served as Assistant Director and the Acting Director toward the end of her tenure. Her work focused on developing and executing the association's strategic plan, with particular emphasis on Federal legislation and regulatory issues. She also identified Congressional and regulatory issues that affected the veterinary medical profession and developed strategies to respond to these issues.

 

Dr. Dunham maintains professional affiliations with the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, and the American Society for Laboratory Animal Practitioners. She has served on the boards of the National Coalition for Agricultural and Food Research, and the Conservation Research Center Foundation. As well, she has assisted with peer-review panels for the National Academies of Science on the topics of emerging animal diseases and the emergence of zoonotic diseases, and with the American Heart Association's New York State Affiliate.