WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 3, 2025) — Esteemed educators Zachary Pardos, PhD, of the University of California, Berkeley, and Jade Sasser, PhD, of the University of California, Riverside, have been named keynote speakers for Catalyze 2025, the annual conference of the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC). Catalyze 2025 takes place April 9–12 in Washington, D.C.
The conference, designed for deans and other educational leaders at veterinary medical colleges, is one of the premier professional development events in international academic veterinary medicine. Over three days, attendees will engage with thought leaders, explore key challenges and opportunities, share best practices, and foster impactful change within academic veterinary medicine.
Keynotes
On April 10, Dr. Pardos will present “Paving New Academic Pathways for Socio-Economic Mobility with AI.”
Dr. Pardos is an Associate Professor at the UC Berkeley School of Education studying adaptive learning and artificial intelligence (AI). His work in higher education, designing human-AI collaborations to pave pathways to and between systems of higher education, has been published in venues such as Computers & Education, NeurIPS, The Internet and Higher Education, and Science. This work has included the development of high-quality AI-assistive tools used by tens of thousands of students, administrators, and faculty to support advising, course selection, and STEM subject learning at community colleges and universities.
Dr. Pardos earned his PhD in Computer Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, followed by a postdoc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At UC Berkeley, he directs the Computational Approaches to Human Learning research lab, teaches data mining in the data science undergraduate program, and is an affiliated faculty in Cognitive Science.
“Climate Justice at the Intersections: Communicating Scholarly and Engaged Perspectives” will be the topic of Dr. Sasser’s keynote on April 11.
Dr. Sasser is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Gender and Sexuality Studies and Society, Environment, and Health Equity at the University of California, Riverside.
Her work explores how environmental problems such as climate change and toxic exposures intersect with reproductive bodies, health, and rights. Her first book, On Infertile Ground: Population Control and Women’s Rights in the Era of Climate Change, was published in 2018 by NYU Press and won the Emory Elliott Book Award. Her new book, Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question: Deciding Whether to Have Children in an Uncertain Future (2024), analyzes the relationship between climate emotions, social inequality, and reproductive anxiety in the U.S. She also has a podcast with the same name.
She received her PhD in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from the University of California, Berkeley.
A full conference agenda and registration information can be found here.
NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: To schedule an interview with a member of the AAVMC team, contact AAVMC Media Relations or call 202-371-9195, ext. 115. Find more news in our Newsroom.
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About AAVMC
The member institutions of the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) promote and protect the health and well-being of people, animals, and the environment by advancing the profession of veterinary medicine and preparing new generations of veterinarians to meet the evolving needs of a changing world. Founded in 1966, the AAVMC represents more than 40,000 faculty, staff, and students across the global academic veterinary medical community. Our member institutions include Council on Education (COE) accredited veterinary medical colleges and schools in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as departments of veterinary science and departments of comparative medicine in the U.S.
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