Dr. Heather N. Fedesco

Director for Academic Affairs and Executive Director of the Spectrum of Care Initiative
Ext. 225 | hfedesco@aavmc.org

Dr. Heather N. Fedesco serves as the Director for Academic Affairs and Executive Director of the Spectrum of Care Initiative. As the Director for Academic Affairs, Dr. Fedesco provides direction and oversight for initiatives and programs that address educational priorities of the academic veterinary medical community. Her work includes supporting the AAVMC Academic Affairs Committee, and developing, implementing, and evaluating AAVMC educational initiatives and programs, as well as coordinating activities relevant to student and faculty affairs.

As the Executive Director of the Spectrum of Care Initiative, Dr. Fedesco leads a Task Force that aims to develop an education model and implementation guidelines to enhance spectrum of care preparation in Colleges of Veterinary Medicine.

Dr. Fedesco has spent over 15 years in higher education as an instructor, scholar, and education consultant. Prior to joining the AAVMC, Dr. Fedesco worked at Vanderbilt University’s Center for Teaching and Purdue University’s Center for Instructional Excellence. In these roles, she applied evidence-based change management strategies to support higher education change initiatives. She also developed, facilitated, and evaluated educational professional development programming focused on helping faculty, graduate students, and postdocs acquire and refine effective instructional skills and strategies.

Dr. Fedesco also held grant-funded research positions at University of Georgia and Colorado College. Her research focuses on identifying how interpersonal relationships and instructional communication improve student motivation and academic outcomes.

Dr. Fedesco earned a PhD and MA degree in Interpersonal Communication at Purdue University. As a graduate student at Purdue, she spent four years serving as Assistant Course Director of Fundamentals of Speech Communication, one of the nation’s largest undergraduate public speaking courses.