Patricia Wlasuk named director of scholarship giving for College of Veterinary Medicine

Patricia Wlasuk, a six-year employee of the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, has been named director of the college’s new UF Veterinary Access Scholarship program following a national search.

Prior to her appointment, Wlasuk served as assistant director of development and alumni affairs. She was first hired as a development associate at the college in 2009.

With student debt continuing to rise more rapidly than veterinarians’ wages, the college’s dean, James W. Lloyd, D.V.M., Ph.D., recently launched a scholarship initiative that is now known as the UF Veterinary Access Scholarship. It is aimed at rapidly increasing annual scholarship awards tenfold.

“The UF College of Veterinary Medicine is a national leader in so many areas,” Wlasuk said. “We need to be a leader for our students and the profession by taking the debt load issue head on.”

Currently, the college awards $500,000 annually to 448 students. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association’s 2015 Report on Veterinary Debt and Income, mean educational debt for new veterinarians has grown by about $6,854 annually over the past 10 years and stood at an estimated $135,000 in 2014.

“By providing more scholarship support, our hope is graduates will have more career options and access to accept job opportunities that are important to the profession and the health and welfare of animals and humans,” she said.

The University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine is supported through funding from UF Health and the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.