DC ACADEMY SEMINAR NEWSLETTER
Thursday, February 6, 2025

Practice Management

Charlotte Lacroix, DVM, JD

• Building a healthy practice culture
• Leadership
• Recruitment / Retention (including some associate contract negotiation/branding information)
• Hot Legal Issues of 2025

THERE ARE NO SEMINAR HANDOUTS FOR THIS SEMINAR
The February 6, 2025, Practice Management Seminar is available to non-members, either veterinarians or staff with management responsibilities. These folks may register for this seminar for only $65. Please have individuals interested in participating complete registration form and make their payment online or provide payment information on the registration form. Please register by January 29, 2025.

If you have any questions, please contact Larry Koffer.

Program Chair: Courtney Scarborough

CE credit is available only to those who attend at the Elks Lodge and/or participate in the live simulcast.

Food for Thought
	Salad BBQ Chicken Breast/(Veggie Lasagna) wild rice/peas/onions Fruit Cup

“Open Mic” Night on March 27, 2025, at Jammin’ Java in Vienna, VA
The DC Academy and the Northern Virginia VMA are co-hosting an “Open Mic” Night at Jammin’ Java in Vienna, VA that is free of charge for members of both organizations and to any non-member recent graduate. The main group performing is the High Pressure Gradients which includes the following veterinarians: Drs. Matt Boothe, Sarah Holdt, Neal Peckens and Mr. Kevin Jones (vet assistant) at CVCA; Dr. Justin Ganjei, VCA VRA and Mr. Frank Ervin. If you have a musical or other performing talent you’d like to showcase, please contact Larry Koffer. If you are interested in attending the event, simply contact Larry and provide your name and email address.

Seminar Notes on the Web!
We advise all members to utilize the digital notes from our seminar notes email or by going to clicking on Seminar Notes, enter the Username and password and you will be redirected to the notes section of the website.

New Nutrition Guide Tool: Addendum from the Nutrition Seminar Speaker
Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Mark Morris Institute (MMI), I’m very excited to introduce you to the MMI Nutrition Guide, an exciting new tool for facilitating therapeutic diet recommendations. The mission of MMI is to provide nutrition education resources to the veterinary profession.

Our newest resource is the FREE MMI Nutrition Guide, a software program that is now available to all US-based veterinarians and veterinary students in AVMA-accredited programs on the MMI website (www.markmorrisinstitute.org). The Nutrition Guide provides concise, evidence-based summaries of nutritional management recommendations for common health conditions in dogs and cats and allows for rapid comparisons of nutrient information between veterinary therapeutic diets produced by different manufacturers. It’s part quick reference online textbook and part inclusive digital product guide for the most commonly used therapeutic diet manufacturers.

The Guide currently contains nutrition information for veterinary therapeutic diets in the US market obtained from the product guides or provided directly by the manufacturer for Royal Canin, Purina, and Hill’s. The disease management summaries have been written and reviewed by multiple Board Certified Veterinary Nutritionists. MMI is dedicated to keeping this resource up-to-date – both the nutritional information and the disease management summaries - and enhancing the user experience as we receive feedback.

You can view a short video on how the program works and then create an account on the MMI website and jump right in.

We hope that you will find the software helpful in the clinic! Happy New Year!

Cailin Heinze, VMD, MS, DACVIM (September 5, 2024 Nutrition Speaker)

Webcast Reception Via Microsoft Teams
Please review the Teams Tutorial if you have not participated in our seminars using our Teams platform.

Sad News: Dr. Douglas Allen Powell
Longtime DC Academy member and past president, Douglas Powell (Univ. of Georgia 1982), passed away earlier this month. His obituary follows.

Douglas Allen Powell Obituary
Doug lost his 7 month battle with pancreatic cancer on January 7, 2025. He is survived by his wife of 46 years, DeVeda; his beloved daughter, Nicole and son-in-law and Matt Jacobs and his precious grandchildren Bradley and Kailie. He is also survived by his sister Robin Eichstadt, brother Richard Powell, brother-in-laws Kenneth Hale (Connie) and Wayne Hale (Sue) and numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, Victor and Marjorie Powell.

Doug's love for animals was also his life's work. As a veterinarian, first in the US Army and later in the US Public Health Service and University of Maryland, Doug focused on laboratory animal medicine. When asked what his occupation was, Doug usually replied "I'm a monkey doctor".

After retirement, Doug enjoyed renovating a fishing cottage on Cobb Island, Maryland. He spent many enjoyable hours out in his boat crabbing, pulling the grandchildren on the inner tube or simply enjoying the scenery on the Potomac and WIcomoco Rivers.

In lieu of flowers, donations are requested to be made to the ASPCA or the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine.

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