John Vanleeuwen

Primary tabs

Slide - 50 Years, 50 Voices - John Vanleeuwen - 00:00
My Name is John Vanleeuwen and I'm a professor in the department of Health
Management at the Atlantic Veterinary College at UPEI. 


Slide - Internationalization - 00:10 
I think what I really noticed in the University over the last 23 years
since I've been here is that the University has become much more
international and now you see regularly all over our campus, people of all
ethnic backgrounds and that's wonderful to see. I particularly have a
strong penchant for wanting to do international work and so that's
gratifying from my perspective as well and I've helped to bring,
particularly Kenyan, graduate students to the University.


Slide - Farm Calls - 00:47 
I have a split position, it's farm service half-time, and epidemiology
half-time and so as a veterinarian doing farm animal work I often go to
farm calls and so, I– I have lots of memories of particular farm calls
that I've been on. Probably one of my favorite farm calls was one that
happened at midnight, as they sometimes happen and it was a calving, and I
proceeded to deliver twin heifer calves from a dairy cow and the farmer
said that she's good breeding, this is really great, it's really happy that
you were able to get me two live calves and as I was cleaning out there was
another cow in the neighboring maternity pen who was starting to calf as
well and I said "Well, you know maybe I should just go and check her rather
than you call me in a couple of hours when you need me to come back to
check her'' So I checked her and lo and behold, I felt two more heads in
this cow and I said "yeah we should probably do this now and take them
out". So I pulled out another heifer, and he said "Wow, she's good breeding
as well, what are the chances of pulling a forth heifer out of this?" and I
said "Eh, not great from an epidemiology perspective our odds are against
it" but lo and behold I pulled a forth heifer calf out of that other cow,
well two from that cow and two from the first cow and so he had 4 new
heifers in his barn, live heifers and all of good breeding. He said "John,
we've made a lot of money tonight and so how about we celebrate with a
beer" and so we actually had a beer, it was about 1 o' clock at night that
time but it was a great memory.


Slide - Helping Farmers and Veterinarians - 02:31 
I do volunteer work with Farmers Helping Farmers, a PEI-based organization
and Veterinarians Without Borders, so they're based in Ottawa a national
organization and done a lot of work with both organizations and it's been
really enriching also a little bit challenging because it marries my
volunteer efforts with my professional efforts and so, that's a good thing
but it also becomes a little bit challenging when I try to divide my time
and my wife says "It's time to come for dinner" and I'm busy doing
something and I say "Well, is this work-related or is it
volunteer-related?" Well it's both actually. So, it's wonderful to go to
Kenya I go every year a couple of times now and we're helping farmers,
we're helping veterinarians there, we're helping train the next generation;
taking students with me from Canada and so seeing them have a broad
perspective on veterinary medicine from around the world, what it's like in
other countries, coming back with a whole new appreciation for what it's
like to be in Canada and the benefits we have here and then working with
Kenyan veterinarian students as well, so all of that just really enriches
my job and makes it so that I'm not really feeling like I'm working. It's a
great job.


Slide - Working with Kenyan Students & Farmers - 03:52 
It's wonderful to have graduate students from Kenya come here, get
training, and bring that expertise back to Kenya to build their human
resources capacity but probably one of the most enriching things is working
with the farmers in Kenya and them telling me after they've been
implementing some of the recommendations, that now they can send their kids
to either high school or to university and before with their low milk
production they had no hope of ever doing that and so it's making a real
big difference in their lives and not only that but quality of life, they
can buy medicine when they need it, they can feed their children better,
I've partnered with Jennifer Taylor and she's done great work in nutrition
in Kenya as well.


Slide - Special Thanks - 04:44 
Lots of colleagues that have supported me and all of my efforts along the
way. Two particular people that are, I think, mentors of mine here at AVC
are Greg Keefe our current Dean and Ian Dohoo Professor Emeritus,
Epidemiology and Farm Service clinician and they've really supported me and
all of my activities but all of the farm service unit and the department
has done that as well. Special shoutout to Bob Curtis, actually, who
recently passed away and so good to bring that in with this historical goal
for this project; his retirement actually allowed me to have my job here
because they were looking for someone not to replace him because you can
never replace a Bob Curtis to help fill in some of the holes that his
retirement created so, absolutely great memories of all of the people that
have supported me along the way.


Slide - Final Thoughts - 05:46 
I love the track that the Institution is on in trying to expand its
internationalization. I think that's really important and a huge growth
opportunity for our University as our President has seen and is moving in
that direction. And, I forgot to give a shoutout to my wife and kids, they
definitely deserve a lot of credit because of course when I go away for 3
weeks at a time to go to Kenya, they are you know learning the show at the
Homefront and I couldn't do it without their support too.