ACVNU Executive Board
Shelly Vaden, DVM, PhD, DACVIM
2025 President
Dr. Shelly Vaden graduated from the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine and went on to pursue an internship at Cornell University and a residency in Small Animal Internal Medicine at North Carolina State University. She is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. She also has a PhD from North Carolina State University. The focus of Dr. Vaden’s scholarly activity has primarily been diseases of the kidney and lower urinary tract of dogs and cats. In recent years, this has become the primary focus of her clinical activities as well.
JD Foster, VMD, MS, DACVIM
2025 President-Elect
Dr. JD Foster completed an internal medicine residency at the University of Wisconsin and is a diplomat of the American College of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology. After several years in academia, he now runs the Nephrology & Urology and Extracorporeal Therapies services at Friendship Hospital for Animals in Washington, DC. Dr. Foster’s research interests include nontraditional uses of extracorporeal blood purification, glomerulonephritis, and drug pharmacokinetics in patients with kidney disease. He has lectured internationally on these subjects and has published numerous manuscripts and book chapters in nephrology and urology. He is a past-president of the American Society of Veterinary Nephrology and Urology and a current board member of the International Renal Interest Society.
Rebecca Geddes, MA, VetMB, GPCert(FeIP), MVetMed, PhD, DACVIM (SAIM), MRCVS
2025 Nephrology Advisor
Rebecca graduated from Cambridge University in 2007 and spent 3 years in small animal first opinion practice where she completed a certificate in feline medicine. Rebecca was awarded a PhD in 2014 for the thesis “Calcium-phosphate homeostasis in feline chronic kidney disease” and subsequently completed a rotating internship and internal medicine residency, all at the Royal Veterinary College, gaining her ACVIM Internal Medicine Diploma in 2018. She has been Faculty at the Royal Veterinary College since 2018, splitting her time equally between clinical work and research. Rebecca’s research focuses on CKD-mineral and bone disorder, calcium dysregulation and nephrolithiasis in cats. She became a Founding Member of the ACVNU in 2022 and is excited to have taken on the role of Nephrology Advisor for the ACVNU Executive Board from January 2025. Rebecca is looking forward to ensuring that ACVNU continue to advance and promote nephrology, sharing our collective learnings as a college of kidney-enthusiasts with the aim of advancing the field of veterinary nephrology as much as possible.
Marilyn Dunn, DVM, MVSC, DACVIM (SAIM)
2025 Urology Advisor
Dr Marilyn Dunn graduated from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Montréal in 1994 and completed a one-year internship at the same institution. She completed a residency in small internal internal medicine and a Master’s degree at the University of Saskatchewan and became board certified by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine in 1999. After 2 years in a private practice, she became a professor in internal medicine at the University of Montreal. In 2008, she completed a Fellowship in interventional radiology and endoscopy at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a founding member and past president of the Veterinary Interventional Radiology and Interventional Endoscopy Society (VIRIES) and directs the interventional medicine service at the University of Montreal. She is a founding member of the American College of Veterinary Nephrology & Urology and is a current IRIS Kidney board member.
Cathy Langston, DVM, DACVIM
2025 Secretary-Treasurer
Dr. Cathy Langston completed her internship and internal medicine residency at the Animal Medical Center in NYC. She then became the first fellow in Renal Medicine and Hemodialysis at the University of California-Davis under the training of Dr. Larry Cowgill, before returning to the AMC. There, she ran the nephrology and dialysis service for 16 years before returning to academia. She is currently a professor and Internal Medicine Section Head at The Ohio State University. She has lectured internationally on nephrology topics and authored numerous manuscripts and book chapters. She is the original organizer of the Advanced Renal Therapies Symposium- now the IRIS Renal Week and is also a founding faculty member of the Hemodialysis Academy.
Larry Cowgill, DVM, PhD, DACVIM
Past-President
Dr. Larry Cowgill received his DVM degree from UC Davis in 1971, and completed his internship and residency training at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a National Institutes of Health Special Research Fellow at the Renal and Electrolyte Section of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and earned a PhD in comparative medical sciences. He is board certified in small animal internal medicine and is associate dean for Southern California clinical programs, director of the UC Veterinary Medical Center-San Diego (UCVMC-SD), and professor in the Department of Medicine and Epidemiology.
ACVNU Committees:
(* denotes committee chair)
Financial Committee:
Cathy Langston*
Marie Kerl
Rosanne Jepson
Programs and Continuing Education Committee:
JD Foster*
Larry Adams
Leo Londoño
Carrie Palm
Gilad Segev
Nominations and Appeals Committee:
Jonathan Elliott*
Thierry Francey