Welcome back, Dr. Sarah Abood!
Please join us in welcoming back Dr. Sarah Abood (DVM, PhD) to the Pet Nutrition Team as an Associate Professor and new recipient of the Nestlé Purina Professorship in Companion Animal Nutrition! Dr. Abood recently held this position from 2018-2020 and jumped at the opportunity to join our team once again.
Congratulations to Dr. Abood and thank you to Nestlé Purina for making this position possible! To learn more about the professorship and the impact it will have on enhancing clinical nutrition education for veterinary students, please read the announcement provided by the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC).
We recently interviewed Dr. Abood to learn more about her veterinary background and interests, and her answers can be found below.
How would you describe yourself?
I would describe myself as an extrovert, a veterinary nutritionist, mother, wife, avid reader of fiction and non-fiction, middle-child, amateur birder, writer/author, baker, hiker, entrepreneur, photographer, and world traveler.
What interests or motivates you most?
I have always been interested in how things work (biology, physiology, mechanical engineering), as well as why people do what they do (artistic expression through all mediums, sociology, psychology). I am motivated by big ideas, team spirit, delicious food, the natural world, and bright shiny objects.
Where did you work before re-joining the OVC Pet Nutrition Team, and how did you know you wanted to come back?
For a number of years, I have been doing contract work in the pet food industry with a couple of other veterinary nutritionists and our focus has been on helping entrepreneurs who want to start their own pet food company. This type of business entrepreneur does need to be educated and I do some educating while formulating balanced diets for our customers, but at the same time, I have always found it very rewarding to teach veterinary students. So, when the chance to return to the OVC became available, it was not difficult to imagine myself back in Guelph and I jumped at the opportunity to get immersed in academic life again.
What do you hope to accomplish in your new position at the OVC?
I have three main goals in which I will use my clinical nutrition expertise and my love of teaching: 1) support the training and mentoring of both veterinary students and nutrition residents, 2) support Dr. Adronie Verbrugghe’s ongoing research activities with her nutrition graduate students, and 3) deliver excellent nutrition support for patients in various services in the OVC Health Sciences Centre and the Primary HealthCare Centre.
What aspect of returning to the OVC and the Pet Nutrition Team are you most excited about?
I am most excited about working with (and learning from) all the dedicated individuals who make up the OVC community. I see a lot of camaraderie among and between the numerous services, and I have also experienced a high level of respect for what the Pet Nutrition Team (and the OVC Clinical Nutrition Service) has to offer the college and its stakeholders. I feel fortunate to be an integral member of this group!
Tell us about your pets, past and present.
My family had to recently say goodbye to our 11-year-old dog, Oadie. He was a Manchester terrier-cross with the typical independent streak of a terrier, and I have missed him because he was my regular walking buddy. With our adult sons in the process of ‘fledging’ the nest my husband and I are taking a break before talking about our next dog to rescue. Before Oadie, we shared our home with LuLu (a domestic shorthair cat who lived to be 18) and Happy (a yellow Labrador) who lived to be twelve. Growing up with four siblings, my parents agreed there was room for only one pet and we all loved these dogs: Tammy the Standard Poodle, Hamlet the Great Dane, Dandy the Airedale, and Ollie the Welsh terrier. As a kid, I did not get to name any of the family pets, but I did select the names for Happy and LuLu. 😊
