Baird named College of Veterinary Medicine’s associate dean for clinical affairs

Dr. Nickie Baird has been selected as associate dean for clinical affairs in the College of Veterinary Medicine and professor with tenure in the college’s Department of Clinical Sciences, effective Jan. 10, following a national and international search.

He comes to Auburn from Purdue University, where he served in rank as a tenured professor four and a half years and on faculty 20 years in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences. Baird was chief of staff for nine years, member of the Teaching Hospital Administrative Council for 15 years and member of the hospital’s interim management team during a recent transition in directorship from 2019-20.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from North Carolina State University, master’s degree from Texas A&M University and a doctor of veterinary medicine from Auburn in 1984. He is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons, or ACVS. Prior appointments include a three-year faculty appointment at Penn and eight years as a faculty member at Auburn from 1990-98, achieving tenured associate professor rank.

“It is difficult to find the words to adequately express my appreciation to the Auburn faculty, staff and administration for giving me the opportunity to return home as associate dean for clinical affairs,” Baird said.

“My experiences at other institutions provide me the unique perspective through which to take a fresh look at our program to build on our strengths and make changes in areas that can be improved. I look forward to working alongside Auburn’s world-class faculty in our state-of-the-art facility to provide the best possible care to patients and great service to our clients and referring veterinarians while continuing to produce the outstanding practice ready graduates that have always been a strength of the Auburn program. Our goal will simply be to make Auburn a little better today than it was yesterday.”

In his role as chief of staff at Purdue, he has represented the interests of the large animal faculty and staff to the hospital director. He currently contributes approximately 24 weeks of clinical service per year in Large Animal Surgery I and contributes to didactic/lab courses in Large Animal Surgery I, Large Animal Surgery II and Applied Anatomy of Production Animals.

Over the course of his appointment at Purdue, he has mentored 42 graduate students, residents and interns. Of those in the graduate student track, he has served as primary advisor for five and mentor for 10. In the clinical track residency program, he has served as a committee member for 11 residents. He has also served on five master’s advisory committees and chaired one. Baird has a consistent record of service as a mentor for veterinary students—36 since 2005.

Baird has contributed to the publication of 57 peer-reviewed research papers, seven published proceedings in the field of food and fiber animal surgery and has also contributed to multiple case studies derived from hospital patients. He has delivered 15 scientific lectures to regional, national or international groups and has engaged the veterinary and veterinary surgery communities with 19 national, 24 regional/state and 16 local continuing education presentations. These have led to 12 peer-reviewed continuing education publications, editorship of four books with multiple chapter contributions and 19 published book chapters.

He has been engaged in the ACVS, American Association of Bovine Practitioners and the World Buiatrics Congress, in addition to serving on numerous committees at the university, college and department levels.