Gregory Daniel, former interim dean, to retire, leaving a permanent imprint on veterinary college

Gregory B. Daniel’s stint leading the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine may have had the word “interim” attached to it, but his impact on the college carries the word “lasting.” 

Daniel helped guide the Animal Cancer Care and Research Center to its late 2020 launch in Roanoke a few months after his stint as interim dean from late 2017 to mid-2020.  

With the center’s focus on comprehensive cancer care and translational research that could help find treatments for human cancer as well as that of dogs and cats, the project underscored the bridge between animal and human medicine that Daniel has often fulfilled in a four-decade career as a veterinary radiologist and educational administrator.

After 17 years at the college, Daniel is retiring as a professor of radiology, a role he resumed after serving as interim dean largely because the radiology specialty at the veterinary college was in danger of disappearing if he did not step in. 

Daniel led the veterinary college between the tenures of Cyril Clarke, veterinary college dean from 2013-17 before becoming Virginia Tech executive vice president and provost in late 2017, and M. Daniel Givens, the current dean who started on June 1, 2020.

“I didn’t approach it as being an interim,” said Daniel, who also led the development of a strategic plan the college has followed since his tenure. “Being the dean was my job. I don't think I kicked many cans down the road. I think most things that came up that I felt like we needed to take care of, we did.” 

The entirety of Daniel’s career has been in higher education, but he also enjoys the day-to-day clinical work. “I think it is important that senior clinicians are working in the hospital,” Daniel said. “There are so many places in which the senior clinicians are in their office and everyone else is running the clinic.  I think a commitment to clients and emphasis on teaching is important.”

Similar to Givens, Daniel is a Kentucky native with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Auburn University. Daniel spent 20 years at the University of Tennessee and could have easily finished out his career in Knoxville on a leadership track serving as director of radiological services for 16 years. 

But a one-week working visit to Virginia Tech in the 1990s – “This is the prettiest place I’ve ever been in my life,” he told his wife, Sandy – piqued his interest in Blacksburg. A decade later, it was an easy choice when presented an opportunity at Virginia Tech.

“Marty Larson contacted me and said, ‘We have a department head position open here at Virginia Tech,’" Daniel said. “She asked me if I would apply for it. It took me about a millisecond to decide I would do that.”  

“I had known him for many years in radiology, I knew he would be an incredible, incredible department head, just a man of such incredible integrity and intelligence, and just overall incredibly nice guy,” said Larson, professor emerita of radiology. “And so I was ecstatic that he came to interview and that he wanted the job.”

Daniel joined the college as head of the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences in 2007, a role he would keep until becoming interim dean in 2017. 

“How fortunate we were as a college to have Greg Daniel come here, initially as department head in 2007 and later serving as the interim dean before me,” said Givens. “Greg Daniel is an individual whose name you can mention anywhere in veterinary medicine, and individuals will immediately communicate their respect for his clinical ability. They will communicate admiration for his work. And they will communicate gratitude for his willingness to make whatever contribution he can make for the good of the profession.”

Daniel served as president of both the American College of Veterinary Radiology in 2004 and the American Association of Veterinary Clinicians in 2013. He became an expert on the burgeoning field of nuclear medicine during his early days at Tennessee. A 2022 recipient of Auburn University’s Wilford S. Bailey Distinguished Alumni Award, Daniel has been credited with authorship or co-authorship of 142 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals plus 31 book chapters. 

He has seen radiology grow from primarily X-ray radiographs and early-stage ultrasound to encompass MRI and CT technology during his nearly four decades in the field.

Daniel comes from a family of radiologists in human medicine – his father, brother and sister - but he had no aspirations to go into either radiology or human medicine. 

“Since I've been about 6 years of age. I've always wanted to be a veterinarian,” Daniel said. "I've never considered anything else.”

He had thoughts of going back to Kentucky to be an equine veterinarian, but meeting his wife, Sandy, soon after arriving at Auburn altered his future choices. They married two days after their graduation and ended up at the University of Illinois, where Daniel had an internship.  

Sandy Daniel, who retired in 2013 as a microbiology instructor in the College of Science at Virginia Tech, landed a researcher job at Illinois and later was encouraged to pursue a Ph.D. That necessitated Gregory Daniel finding new work after his internship ended, and the opening that was available was in radiology.

“I really didn't have any intentions of going into radiology,” Daniel said. “But you know, I’m certainly glad I did. It's been a great opportunity and a wonderful career.” 

Daniel has also often been connected to human medicine, beginning with his work and volunteer experience as a teenager.

“I worked in the human hospital in the summer during the week and then I worked at the vet clinic on the weekends.” Daniel said. “I worked in a veterinary clinic to get the experience, but I made more money at the human hospital.” 

Later in his career, he worked closely with both medical and veterinary radiologists at Tennessee. 

“I've always had a link to human medicine,” Daniel said. “When I first got my faculty position at Tennessee, I was the liaison between The UT Medical Center and the College of Veterinary Medicine.  My role was to develop research collaboration between the medical school and the veterinary school in advanced imaging.” 

When Daniel came to Virginia Tech he thought he would be giving up his connections to medicine, but plans for the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC soon developed after his arrival. 

He served as a block director for developing the curriculum at the new medical school and later, as interim dean, guided development of the Animal Cancer Care and Research Center in connection with the institute. 

Daniel’s dual expertise in animal and human medicine has certainly made him a tempting target for other universities to hire, but he’s really had no thoughts of leaving Virginia Tech.

“I've been contacted by a lot of colleges to apply,” Daniel said. “And I've really had no interest in that because I like Virginia Tech. I guess I'm old school. It’s not just a job, I have to get invested in it. And I feel like I'm invested in in Virginia Tech. I couldn't have gone to someplace else.”