Involve a Resident in Your Project

The Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine (VPHPM) residency program model provides a unique opportunity for partnering organizations to add value to their projects. Collaborative projects provide additional resources to address areas of need or emerging issues. In addition to highly skilled residents, partnering organizations gain access to University of Minnesota and CAHFS faculty expertise.

Project scope

VPHPM residents are assigned to an array of teaching, research, and service projects that provide a variety of public health practice learning opportunities. Projects range in scope from local to international, and involve partnerships with government, industry, corporate enterprises, and other University stakeholders.

Assignments are based on a resident's interests as well as the residency program's needs. Residents do not focus exclusively on a single project for any sustained period of time. Rather, residents have a variety of responsibilities spanning multiple competencies and projects in order to gain a breadth of public health practice experience.

Sample resident projects

VPHPM resident Lauren Bernstein worked with faculty member Kaylee Errecaborde, DVM, PhD, a project to create and update policy briefs. Bernstein worked closely with Errecaborde to design a strategic plan for the updates, revise existing briefs, and create new, timely briefs. Bernstein worked on the project at 10 hours a week for three months.  View CAHFS Policy Briefs

VPHPM resident Gus Brihn worked with the Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center (UMASH) to develop safety guidance for agricultural workers, as COVID-19 changed the way in-person work is able to be safely performed. Brihn’s ongoing work with the center also investigated the resiliency of dairy farms to COVID-19, to understand if prior training around occupational health and safety has provided security for those workers in relation to the disease. Brihn worked on the project at between 15-20 hours a week throughout the whole of the two-year residency. View UMASH COVID-19 resources

Past residency supporters

VPHPM residency-associated project stakeholders have included: 

  • American Egg Board
  • American Veterinary Medical Association
  • Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA - APHIS)
  • Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges
  • Banfield
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  • Centers for Epidemiology and Animal Health (USDA - CEAH)
  • Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
  • Food and Drug Administration
  • Food Protection and Defense Institute
  • Global Initiative for Food Systems Leadership
  • Health Food-Healthy Lives, a University of Minnesota Presidential Initiative
  • Minnesota Beef Council
  • Minnesota Department of Agriculture
  • Minnesota Department of Health
  • Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
  • Minnesota’s Discovery, Research, and InnoVation Economy
  • Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association
  • National Center for Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense
  • National Institute of Food and Agriculture
  • National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
  • National Pork Board
  • National Veterinary Stockpile Program
  • OIE (World Organization for Animal Health)
  • United States Agency for International Development
  • United States Animal Health Association
  • United States Department of State
  • University of Minnesota Academic Health Center
  • Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center
  • W.K. Kellogg Foundation
  • Zoetis