Dr. Michael Blackwell, chief of staff of the Office of the US Surgeon General, was named dean of the UT College of Veterinary Medicine in June 2000. Blackwell received his degree in veterinary medicine from Tuskegee University and completed the master’s degree in public health at Loma Linda University. During his 23 years of active duty with the Commissioned Corps of the US Public Health Service (USPHS), Blackwell became chief veterinarian of the USPHS and deputy director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine. He retired as assistant Surgeon General and chief of staff of the Office of the Surgeon General before becoming dean of UT’s veterinary college in 2000.
He received the Food and Drug Administration’s Distinguished Alumni Award and served on the National Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, the USDA secretary’s Advisory Committee on Foreign Animal and Poultry Diseases, and the board of trustees for the US Public Health Service Commissioned Officers Foundation. He retired as UT’s dean of Veterinary Medicine in 2008.
In 2017, Blackwell returned to the university as the director of the College of Social Work Program for Pet Health Equity. In this role, he chaired the Access to Veterinary Care Coalition and served as the lead investigator for AlignCare, the first One Health healthcare system that addressed the needs of people, their pets, and their ecosystem as defined by socioeconomics. Blackwell was inducted into the National Academies of Practice as a Practitioner in 2019.