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Mandese receives Zoetis Distinguished Teacher Award

Dr. Wendy Mandese

Dr. Wendy Mandese, a clinical assistant professor of primary care and dentistry, has received the UF College of Veterinary Medicine’s 2020 Zoetis Distinguished Veterinary Teacher Award.

Mandese was selected based on criteria that included peer and student evaluations; quality of teaching and impact on student learning; and teaching-related research, service and publishing activities.

Her focus is on teaching the core competencies of general practice and preventive medicine. She teaches students in the general medicine clerkships and lectures in the core cardiopulmonary disorders course and in the animal welfare and ethics course.

However, her most unique role in teaching at the college is in her coordination of the externships for students that she organized into a course called the Small Animal Practice Based Clerkship, said Dr. Chris Adin, chair of the college’s department of small animal clinical sciences, who nominated Mandese for the award.

“In that role, she has helped to recruit, screen and educate over 40 private practice partners in northern Florida that allow our students to get ‘real world’ experience as a credit accruing course,” Adin said, adding that Mandese’s overall teaching scores were the highest of any member of his department for each of the last three years.

In addition to her teaching excellence and innovation, she has brought recognition to college programs in the area of educational scholarship through publications in peer-reviewed journals.

A 2002 graduate of the college, Mandese joined the UF faculty in 2012 after eight years in private veterinary practice. She has twice received Small Animal Clinician of the Year Awards as well as a UF Superior Accomplishment Award in 2016.