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Dr. Tracy McCracken Named
Assistant Director of Education and Training at Center for
Public and Corporate Veterinary Medicine
by Valerie
Ragan, DVM, Director
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I am very pleased to
announce that Dr. Tracy McCracken has joined the faculty
of Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary
Medicine (VMRCVM) as the Assistant Director of Education
and Training for the Center for Public and Corporate
Veterinary Medicine (CPCVM) in College Park, MD. As I
mentioned in my last update, we have been working to
modify our public and corporate track curriculum and to
position ourselves to best train public practice
veterinarians of the future. A large part of the new
direction is an increased focus on a One Health
approach, which includes the integration of veterinary
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medicine, public health and
environmental health. Dr. McCracken's broad and unique
background and special expertise in the area of emerging
infectious diseases from wildlife makes her an excellent
addition to our faculty and will help us expand our public
practice educational portfolio. Dr. McCracken is a 2005 graduate
of VMRCVM in the Public/Corporate track and we are happy to have
her return to the College and the CPCVM as a faculty member.
Dr. McCracken has spent her professional career focusing on the
interrelationships between humans, livestock and wildlife,
particularly in developing nations. After finishing her
bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Biology at Texas A&M University,
she joined the Peace Corps, where she worked in game management
in the national parks of Tanzania. While in East Africa she
directly observed the conflicts and disconnect between
professionals that worked in the conservation and agricultural
fields. She learned that to more effectively address some of the
problems facing Africa; including land degradation, loss of
natural resources (forests and wildlife), increasing
populations, under-nutrition, poor health services and
widespread disease issues, there needed to be a more holistic
approach to development where multiple disciplines worked
together. She then began to focus her research on the issue of
wildlife-livestock conflict in Africa and received a Master’s
degree in Animal Health and Production at the University of
Edinburgh.
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Upon graduation Dr.
McCracken worked in various field projects throughout
East Africa and in the South American Andes focusing on
integrating local communities surrounding national parks
into conservation efforts through education, creation of
income generating projects and improved livelihoods.
After noticing that infectious disease was one of the
major factors hindering livelihoods and development in
many countries she decided to pursue a veterinary degree
and enrolled at VMRCVM with a focus on international
veterinary medicine. While in veterinary school she
spent her summers working on development projects in
Nepal, Ghana and Guatemala. Through the CPCVM and the
public/corporate track she was able to secure
externships with a number of national and international
animal health organizations and the US Army, providing her with a solid background on the issues and
organizations working in international veterinary health. |
Dr. Tracy McCracken
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After completion of her DVM Dr. McCracken was selected as an
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Fellow and began working for the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) on their Global Avian
Influenza Team. Based in the USAID Department of Economic
Growth, Agriculture and Trade (EGAT), Dr. McCracken worked
closely with the USAID Department of Global Health (GH) forging
a previously non-existent working relationship between the
livestock and public health specialists in that organization.
She was also the USAID and USDA liaison for avian influenza and
she helped to implement the first joint veterinary training
activities and programs between these two organizations.
After completing her fellowship Dr. McCracken moved to Rome,
Italy to work with the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) as the Deputy Coordinator for Wildlife Health
and Ecology. There she provided technical support to programs
and policy initiatives on emerging wildlife, livestock, and
zoonotic diseases. She also conducted field research studies on
the wildlife/livestock disease interface, helping to identify
risk factors for disease emergence. While at FAO she led the
field implementation of “One Health” courses which joint train
human, livestock and wildlife professionals in both the
classroom and field to improve collaborative responses to
cross-cutting health issues. While in Rome Dr. McCracken
assisted the CPCVM in arranging clerkship opportunities for
fourth- year students interested in international veterinary
medicine.
In her new role at CPCVM Dr. McCracken is helping to expand
teaching, training and career advisor programs for the Center
for Public and Corporate Veterinary Medicine. In her teaching
she hopes to inspire students to think more openly about the
veterinary profession and its role in society, including the
promotion of the “One Health” multidisciplinary approach to
addressing health challenges.
We are fortunate to have one of our successful graduates back to
help teach our future colleagues about the extensive
opportunities available in veterinary medicine, and how
veterinarians can make a difference in the world. If you are in
the College Park area, please come by and join me in welcoming
Dr. McCracken to Maryland and the Center for Public and
Corporate Veterinary Medicine. |
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Important
Links from this article
Center for Public and
Corporate Veterinary Medicine
Virginia-Maryland Regional
College of Veterinary Medicine
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