Strategic Planning 2025

Strategic direction: Create and sustain an environment where our learners flourish personally and professionally, are inspired to shape the future, and are prepared to confidently and expertly address the most pressing challenges in veterinary medicine and biomedical science.

Train outstanding veterinarians: Ensure veterinary medical students graduate with the confidence and skills to meet the evolving needs of the profession and their communities.

• Successfully deploy the Onward Curriculum.
• Use data-driven approaches to continually assess, evaluate, and adapt Onward
• Assess and, as needed, revise DVM student recruitment and admissions processes to make certain these align with the current best practices and allow SVM to continue to remain a destination for the highest caliber candidates.
• Ensure that veterinary education remains accessible by fundraising new scholarships, supporting debt relief programs (including rural loan forgiveness), and seeking partnerships with organizations that support students.

Develop future scholars: Enhance the recruitment and education of house officers, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows to strengthen the pipeline of academicians, specialists, and biomedical scientists.

• Empower the Clinical Trainee Education Committee (CTEC) to strengthen resident and intern selection processes, assure training program and individual success, and create professional development and mentorship opportunities.
• Grow our financial support of SVM-affiliated graduate and post-doctoral programs, focusing on enhancing professional development and community building opportunities.
• Grow the size of SVM’s DVM/PhD program by leveraging philanthropy, to expand the pipeline of clinician-scientists and academicians.

Expand and improve educational facilities: Modernize educational infrastructure to support leading-edge experiential learning and accommodate growth in our DVM class size.

• Collaborate with UW Facilities Planning & Management to identify immediate opportunities to expand and improve DVM teaching and learning spaces.
• Work with architectural consultants to map the long-term teaching and learning spaces required to support contemporary educational practices and grow DVM class size.
• Determine the scale and timing of DVM class size growth as well as the staff, faculty, and equipment necessary for success.

Cultivate an innovative student mindset: Develop future leaders, change makers, and entrepreneurs who embrace SVM’s innovative spirit and the Wisconsin Idea.

• Create an ‘Innovation and Entrepreneurship Curriculum’ for students, residents, and interns, offering elective/selective opportunities in partnership with UW School of Business and certificate programs.
• Incentivize and recognize trainees who are active in leadership and entrepreneurship.

Strategic direction: Be a national leader in innovative, high-quality, and compassionate veterinary care.

Optimize hospital operations: Strengthen hospital operations through clear communication, shared expectations, and efficient workflow.

• Develop and implement a UWVC internal communication plan to create a shared understanding of our strategic direction, challenges, and progress towards goals.
• Work with our clinical department chairs to ensure patient care and diagnostic medicine are recognized, rewarded, and evaluated using clear criteria.
• Create a continuous improvement program that identifies bottlenecks, optimizes workflow, results in agile decision making, and helps implement collaborative change.
• Improve our electronic medical records system, appropriately incorporating advances such as artificial intelligence, to improve patient and client care.

Strengthen strategic partnerships: Foster bi-directional relationships with regional partners and provide valuable practitioner education.

• Strengthen relationships with WVMA and other Wisconsin veterinary organizations by hosting and co-creating events, encouraging participation in meetings, and recognizing individuals who participate in regional veterinary organizations.
• Prioritize engagement with referring veterinarians including periodic communication and listening sessions, to ensure we are meeting the needs of practicing veterinarians in Wisconsin and other surrounding referral areas..
• Create and foster the development of a veterinary technician career development and recruitment program.

Enhance our reputation for innovative care: Expand our reputation as a provider of leading-edge, individualized, and compassionate patient and client care.

• Elevate the role of clinician-scientists within UWVC and SVM: expand recruitment, align promotion and tenure criteria, and secure new endowments that foster clinical innovation.
• Strategically re-invest in services that have strong potential and ability to grow caseload and/or that differentiate SVM and UWVC from other institutions.
• Spotlight our clinical breakthroughs and innovation, with special focus on those fueled by foundational and clinical science collaboration.

Deliver exceptional client service: Provide an outstanding client and referring veterinarian experience.

• Create a client experience program that utilizes data to improve communication, timeliness, scheduling, and patient care outcomes.
• Prioritize referring veterinarian engagement: improve quality of pre- and post-referral communication, access to medical records documents, and ease of scheduling.

Strategic Direction: Empower research breakthroughs that enhance animal health, human health, and society in an evolving and dynamic scientific research environment.

Advance high impact foundational, translational, and clinical research collaboration Grow interdisciplinary team science initiatives that tackle complex and relevant research challenges.

• Hire outstanding scientists as part of the UW RISE-AI and RISE-THRIVE initiatives.
• Ensure new SVM faculty hires are aligned with existing research strengths or areas of opportunity and engaged in school and campus collaboration.
• Develop events, seminars, and informal gatherings that provide practical information about available research support and strengthen relationships within our scientific community.

Accelerate research translation: Facilitate entrepreneurial pathways that empower researchers to translate discoveries into impactful, market-ready solutions that improve animal and human health.

• Develop an industry engagement program that generates awareness of collaborative opportunities and matches corporate sponsors with SVM investigators.
• Strengthen relationships with School of Business, WARF, SMPH, and other campus entities that support commercialization and market readiness of SVM research innovations.

Integrate research and practice: Develop a robust clinical/translational research infrastructure that promotes collaboration between foundational scientists and clinicians to accelerate innovation in clinical veterinary practice and accelerate basic research into clinical applications.

• Develop a Clinical Research Core to provide administrative support and expertise in design, implementation, and trials-relevant compliance.
• Expand our Clinical Innovation Fund to accelerate new high impact services and discoveries.

Diversify our research portfolio: Evolve our research areas to meet industry and societal needs, ensuring our long-term relevance and impact.

• Prioritize new hires, RISE, industry engagement, trials and biobanking core, and other initiatives to synergistically broaden our portfolio.

Integrate research into education: Infuse research innovation and information literacy throughout the DVM curriculum.

• Continue to support the DVM Summer Scholars Program, by exploring new pathways for funding including philanthropy, institutional streams, and external grants.
• Develop core information literacy content within the Onward Curriculum as well as opportunities for DVM and graduate students to earn research-focused certificates.

Strategic direction: Embody the Wisconsin Idea to inspire future professionals, strengthen our understanding of real-world challenges, and co-create economic and community well-being.

Strengthen community engagement: Support bidirectional and timely exchange of knowledge and resources to positively impact the state, in alignment with the Wisconsin Idea.

• Strengthen SVM outreach programs by exploring synergies, new philanthropic and external partnerships, school-level reinvestments in core educational experiences, and other strategic expansion opportunities.
• Develop and deploy ‘Outward,’ a program focused on creating on-site continuing educational experiences for regional veterinary practices and related industries.

Showcase the school’s impact: Create awareness of the health impacts, training approaches, and research outcomes that differentiate the SVM and UWVC.

• Engage our communications team and leverage technology to identify and promote the positive impact of programs, faculty, and staff at state, national, and international levels.

Inspire future professionals: Expand our engagement with K-12 and undergraduate students in underserved rural and urban communities to encourage careers in veterinary practice.

• Create a centralized K-12 and undergraduate outreach program to coordinate our offerings and strategically expand efforts to engage rural, agricultural, and urban students.

Strategic direction: Foster a supportive, accountable, and engaging environment that maximizes resources, reduces barriers, and empowers individuals to collaborate, grow, and shape the future of veterinary medicine.

 Achieve operational excellence: Ensure financial stability, optimize resource utilization, champion adaptability, support proactive and nimble decision making, and cultivate an ethos of continuous improvement.

• Effectively deploy the new campus budget approach, align funding with core missions, strengthen revenue streams, and develop win-win partnerships.
• Audit SVM’s administrative structure post-Workday transition, identify areas to strengthen and opportunities to engage in the campus shared-services model.

Enhance communication and participatory decision-making: Promote open, transparent, and effective communication while encouraging active participation in inclusive decision-making.

• Develop a widely accessible platform to store and broadly share relevant information, including committee information, policies, guidelines, SVM and campus events, and links to key resources
• Audit our School’s internal communication practices to improve access to information, optimize engagement, and provide opportunities for open discourse.

Cultivate an engaged workforce: Foster a culture of engagement, empowerment, respect, and recognition that drives innovation, belonging, and collaboration.

• Develop an SVM faculty honorific program to enhance awareness of outstanding accomplishments.
• Create an SVM-wide staff recognition plan, ensuring highly dedicated and deserving individuals receive kudos as well as local and external awards.
• Improve our transparency by creating an effective online directory and organizational chart, including committee memberships, and ensuring all members of our community have pathways to communicate ideas and viewpoints.

Support team growth and development: Provide meaningful support, ensure equitable access to resources, and promote a culture of mutual accountability to empower professional growth.

• Promote utilization of local and external professional development opportunities.
• Develop a robust on-boarding protocol for faculty and staff, including clear expectations and pathways for early feedback.