The American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) will welcome John A. Stick, DVM, Michigan State University’s large animal hospital chief of staff, as a new member of the board of directors this week during the 55th Annual Convention in Las Vegas, Nev.

Stick will serve a three-year term as the representative of District V, the Great Lakes District, which includes Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. He will be inducted with other new board members during the Dec. 8 President’s Luncheon.
 
A 1974 graduate of The Ohio State University, Dr. Stick completed a large animal residency at Purdue University in 1975 and a surgical residency at Cornell University in 1977. He has been a faculty member at Michigan State since 1977, and he was named chief of staff in the large animal hospital in 1992. His areas of interest include performance-related conditions, arthroscopic surgery for joint diseases, and upper airway abnormalities in horses.
 
Stick is a past member of the AAEP Computer, Research, and Educational Programs committees. He is a past president of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons and the Michigan Equine Practitioners Association. During his term on the AAEP board, Stick hopes to focus on equine welfare issues and initiatives to help guide veterinarians through an economic downturn.
 
“One of my goals is to improve horse welfare in this country,” Stick said. “Those of my generation have been blessed by the horse by choosing a career path in veterinary medicine–I hope I can help return the favor.”

Stick and his wife, Claudette, have two grown daughters, Meghan and Mary Katherine. Stick no longer owns horses, but he has two dogs, Leo and Zoey, and a Maine Coon cat named Niles. He is an avid motorcyclist and enjoys taking out his boat, which he keeps off the coast of South Carolina.

The American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) will install longtime Louisiana practitioner Jay Addison, DVM, as a new member of the board of directors during the Dec. 8 President’s Luncheon at the 55th Annual Convention, which is under way in Las Vegas, Nev.

Addison will represent District IV, which includes the states of Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee.

An AAEP member since 1988, Dr. Addison has developed a private racetrack and sales practice serving Louisiana and Kentucky. He also specializes in evaluations at Thoroughbred sales and examinations of polo horses. He graduated from Louisiana State University’s School of Veterinary Medicine in 1983.

Addison has served as the chair of the AAEP’s former Racing Committee and a member of the AAEP’s Racing Task Force. He is a member of the current AAEP Racing Committee. He is also currently the chairman of the Louisiana Veterinary Medical Association’s Equine Committee. He considers his greatest contribution to the profession his service to the racing industry and Louisiana veterinary community, including his role rescuing horses in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. (Read a story about Dr. Addison’s involvement with saving horses in St. Bernard Parish.).

As a member of the board of directors, Addison hopes to focus on equine welfare initiatives and improve the public perception of racetrack practitioners and the integrity of the entire racing industry.

“Professionally, our biggest challenge is restoring and maintaining our integrity in the public’s eye,” said Addison. “It will remain a challenge for our organization for many years to educate the public about the veterinarian’s role in equine performance.”

Addison, his wife, Ellen, and son, Justin, spend their winters in New Orleans and summers at their Louisiana family farm, with frequent travel to Kentucky and New York. Addison’s “passion sport” is polo, and his wife is a sport horse and showing enthusiast. They maintain about 20 Thoroughbred broodmares at their family farm. When he is not with horses, Addison enjoys hunting and fishing. He also established a locally based nonprofit land trust that has put thousands of Louisiana acres in conservation.