UC Davis Vice Chancellor for Research Prasant Mohapatra announces selection of Dr. Laurie Brignolo to serve as executive director of the UC Davis Teaching and Research Animal Care Program, effective November 1.
Brignolo arrives at this new position with long-term experience as a manager and director in laboratory animal settings and with a strong skill set that includes departmental leadership, budget management and resource allocation, in-depth knowledge of current standards and regulations regarding animal care and facility design, management of varied Animal Biosafety Level protocols including ABSL3, and a background in comprehensive clinical and preventative medicine background in a wide variety of research animals
Prior to her new appointment, Brignolo served as interim attending veterinarian and interim director of Teaching and Research Animal Care Services at UC Davis. In her new role, Brignolo will report directly to Mohapatra, with responsibility for long-range planning, leadership, and oversight of animal care and use at UC Davis in addition to serving as attending veterinarian. Brignolo will manage and strategically harmonize the distributed operations of over 1 million square feet of animal holding space in 200+ buildings that are overseen by individual vivarium managers.
In addition to her interim leadership roles, Brignolo has served as the director of the Laboratory Animal Medicine Residency Program since April 2013. In parallel with this, she served as associate director of Campus Veterinary Services starting in January 2013. She was senior veterinarian of Campus Veterinary Services from September 2011 until December 2012, and prior to that served as both senior veterinarian and manager of the Primate Medicine Department within the California National Primate Research Center.
Brignolo also serves in a number of external capacities: as a veterinarian for the Global Veterinary Alliance, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that brings high quality veterinary care to underserved areas around the world; as an ad hoc consultant for the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC); and as a volunteer veterinarian with the California Animal Shelter Friends to save shelter animals from euthanasia.
Brignolo is a Diplomate of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine (ACLAM) as well as a member of the American Association of Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS), the American Society of Laboratory Animal Practitioners (ASLAP), the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and as a long-term member and current Executive Board member of the Association of Primate Veterinarians
