June 4, 2021

Dear Dean Burgess,

The School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences has had three chairs in the past nine years. This constant change in leadership, each of them with their own vision for the school, has stalled progress within our school. We feel very strongly that our unit would benefit from a leader with institutional knowledge.

We have one faculty member within our department who has distinguished himself as a leader, scientist, educator, and colleague. We request that you strongly consider Dr. Sean Limesand as the interim director of the School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Limesand has a long-standing record of achievements as a Researcher and Educator as well as recent experience in administration as the chair of the graduate committee (9 years), chair of the IACUC (9 years), and Director of the ARC (3 years).

Our school, now 9 years old, has not had an APR. It is understandable that this has been regularly delayed as we’ve not had leadership in place for longer than 3 years. However, we strongly feel that an APR is critical, and we believe that Dr. Limesand is uniquely positioned to allow this review to continue as scheduled. Dr. Limesand was an active member on the last Animal Science APR committee under the supervision of the then department head, Dr. Ron Allen. In turn, he understands the preparation required for a successful review.

Over his tenure at the University of Arizona, Dr. Limesand has demonstrated to be an accomplished colleague and an excellent mentor to both students and faculty within and outside of our school. We appreciate your consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

ACBS Faculty