Veterinary college's Distinguished Alumni Awards honor graduates from three decades

Kevin Myatt

9 Aug 2024

(From left) Matthew Iager, Sara Waltz Johnston, and Michael Erskine DVM are the 2024 distinguished alumni award recipients. — (From left) Matthew Iager, Sara Waltz Johnston, and Michael Erskine are the 2024 distinguished alumni award recipients. Photos courtesy of recipients.

Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine graduates from three decades are being honored with Distinguished Alumni Awards.

The Lifetime Achievement Alumni Award is given to a recipient who has graduated more than 10 years ago, while the Outstanding Recent Alumni Award is given to one who has graduated within the last 10 years. The Outstanding Faculty Alumni Award is given to a faculty member who has made excellent contributions to student and alumni education and membership.

Matthew Iager DVM ’96, Sara Waltz Johnston DVM ’16, and Michael Erskine DVM ’88 have been selected for these three honors, which will be presented during the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine's (VMCVM) Connect 2024 on Oct. 4-5.

Lifetime Achievement Alumni Award

The recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Alumni Award, Iager is a veterinarian licensed and accredited in five states with Mid-Maryland Dairy Veterinarians, which he joined in 1996. Iager is also owner of MD-West-View Genetics, a U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service approved donor facility in Boonsboro Maryland, and is the head research veterinarian for new drug product evaluation with Trophogen Inc. in Rockville, Maryland.

“My time at VMCVM not only provided the scientific knowledge, tools, and skills needed to excel in my veterinary career,” Iager said, “but it also helped shape my personality, interests, and ability to communicate and work with others while challenging me to be the very best in my chosen field.”

A certified American Embryo Transfer Association (AETA) and International Embryo Technology Society veterinarian for embryo export to 26 countries worldwide, Iager was the 2019 president of the AETA, served on its board of directors from 2015-20, and continues to serve on its government liaison, research, and promotion committees. Iager was the 2021-22 president of the National Dairy Shrine, capping six years on its board of directors. He was also president of the Maryland Holstein Association from 2016-18, receiving its Distinguished Service Award in 2019, and is presently secretary and treasurer for Holstein Foundation USA.

Iager served on the college's board of directors from 2000-07.

“My most meaningful memory was being recognized at our graduation ceremony as the recipient of the Robert L. Hogsett Award, which honors leadership, professionalism, and proficiency in clinical veterinary medicine,” Iager said of his days as a veterinary college student. “That award planted a seed for me for a lifetime of serving, leading, and giving to the dairy industry and food animal sector of veterinary medicine.

“The friendships that I made with classmates, faculty, staff, and administration exemplify the close family that exists at Virginia Tech.”

Outstanding Recent Alumni Award

The recipient of the Outstanding Recent Alumni Award, Waltz is the medical director over multiple sites for a privately owned group of urgent care providers called Truss Vet in North Carolina. As an urgent care center, Truss Vet works to bridge the care for owners between their primary veterinarians and emergency veterinary care, managing cases that are generally not life-threatening but would still benefit from more immediate evaluation.

“It feels unreal,” Waltz said of receiving the alumni award. “I feel wildly honored to have been both nominated and then selected.

“It means that I've made it. I've proven to myself that I can do hard things and that I am capable. It's a reflection of perseverance, hard work, and wild determination.”

Waltz, who lives in Pittsboro, North Carolina, with her husband, two boys, and a hobby farm, has a passion for leadership and teaching. She has worked in several facets of veterinary medicine including emergency care, general practice, and in a leadership capacity. She has held roles at BluePearl Specialty Hospital in Cary, North Carolina; Thrive Pet Healthcare; and Petfolk. Waltz recently began presenting various continuing education topics and will be lecturing in several conferences this fall.

As a student, Waltz was a student ambassador, president of the Companion Animal Club, co-founder and co-president of the VMCVM Chapter of the Women’s Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative, and vice president of the Class of 2016, among other honors.

Waltz said she got into the veterinary college on her fourth round of applications after completing a master’s degree in the process and that being recognized for her successes and contributions has made accomplishments feel “that much more impactful.”

While Waltz said she has many fond memories of her time at the veterinary college, it is “the incredible clinicians and educators I’ve met along the way and how they’ve inspired me” that have left a lasting impact. “They taught me the impact of, and great joy found in, teaching.”

Outstanding Faculty Alumni Award

The recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Alumni Award, Erskine has been the Jean Ellen Shehan Professor and director of the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center (EMC), the college's equine care center and teaching hospital in Leesburg, since 2015.

Under Erskine’s leadership, the Equine Medical Center has bolstered its emergency and critical care capabilities and last winter, opened the Jane and Stephen Hale Equine Performance Evaluation Center, a new indoor arena with 21,000 feet of floor space and three surfaces to allow clinicians to better diagnose and treat injuries affecting the mobility of horses.

“It's a tremendous personal honor to be recognized by your peers, but I think this award really underscores the achievements made by everyone at EMC, and for that I am especially proud,” Erskine said.

Erskine, who worked at a thoroughbred race track in Pennsylvania and then Damascus Equine Associates in Maryland before joining Equine Medical Center in 2013, has been a diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners since 1996. He is a past-president of that board, a past-president of the Maryland Veterinary Medical Association and the Maryland Horse Council, and presently serves as chair of the Maryland Veterinary Foundation.

Erskine is active in the American Association of Equine Practitioners and most recently served as co-chair of the its Commission on Equine Veterinary Sustainability emergency coverage sub-committee. He has been a key national-level voice in efforts to develop solutions to the growing lack of emergency equine care veterinarians.

As the veterinary college’s first class in 1984 prepares to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its graduation, Erskine recalls his own time at the college when it was still relatively new.

“I was in the fifth class of the VMCVM, and being part of a new school and seeing its development and evolution firsthand was very exciting,” Erskine said. “It gave me a sense that there was a lot to our education and profession, and I remember feeling great anticipation and confidence to begin my career well-prepared with all the doors open.”