POMONA, CALIF. — Philip Nelson, DVM, PhD, takes the reins of Western University of Health Sciences' (WesternU) fledgling veterinary medical college, replacing Dr. Shirley Johnston, the program's founding dean.

In May, Johnston, who became the nation's first female dean at WesternU in 1998, graduated 81 students of the college's charter class, a final step in the program's accreditation process. She recently was promoted to vice president for university advancement and announced Nelson's succession last month.

Nelson is the veterinary college's former executive associate dean for preclinical programs. He earned a DVM from Tuskegee Institute in 1979, and has spent the majority of his career in academia, researching feline leukemia and feline immunodeficiency virus in cats as biological models for human HIV. He served as a Mississippi State University associate dean and headed the Department of Small Animal Medicine Surgery and Radiology at Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine.