Dr. James R. Coffman has been selected to receive the College of Veterinary Medicine Veterinary Medical Alumni Association’s 2005 E.R. Frank Award for meritorious service to the college and the veterinary profession.

The college and the VMAA will present the award at Heritage Evening during the 67th Annual Conference for Veterinarians, June 6, at 6:30 p.m. at the Alumni Center.

Dr. Coffman described his reaction to learning of his award as one of humility. “Dr. Frank was one of my earliest and most important role models, mentors and heroes. To receive an award in his name is a true honor with a real emotional effect,” he said.

Currently Dr. Coffman is a professor of clinical sciences at the College of Veterinary Medicine where he returned in January after serving as provost of K-State for 17 years. Before becoming provost, Dr. Coffman served as dean of the K-State College of Veterinary Medicine from 1984 to 1987. He was also director of the veterinary medical teaching hospital and head of surgery and medicine. Dr. Coffman took a sabbatical leave last fall to finish authoring a new book on leveraging time, talent and intellectual energy through conflict management, entitled “Work and Peace in Academe.”

Dr Coffman has authored or co-authored more than 120 scientific papers and has served as an editorial board member or editor of three major veterinary journals. In 1979, he was involved in a study on laminitis in ponies at the University of Missouri. Before coming to K-State, Dr. Coffman was a faculty member at the University of Missouri-Columbia and spent five years in private equine practice in Wichita, Kan., and Oklahoma City, Okla. He was the 2004 recipient of the Iverson Bell Recognition Award and has been honored as a Norden Distinguished Teacher. He also has memberships in the Phi Zeta, Gamma Sigma Delta, Phi Kappa Phi and Gold Key honor societies. Dr. Coffman has served as president of both the American Association of Equine Practitioners, and the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, and chaired the American Veterinary Medical Association Professional Liability Insurance Trust. He is also one of 10 founding members of the National Academies of Practice, Veterinary Division.

Dr. Coffman attributes his wide range of accomplishments to opportunities he has had to work closely with a broad variety of scholars. “It has been a pleasure to work with all the different disciplines: poets, architects, engineers, accountants, philosophers, physicists, agriculturists and human development specialists. The opportunity to work with a real racial and ethnic diversity of colleagues was of special importance,” he said.

During the remainder of his time at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Coffman will pursue his interest of laminitis in horses. He is also involved in attracting ethic minorities and people of color to the veterinary profession, and finding ways to increase the interaction of the College of Veterinary Medicine with the university at large.

Dr. Coffman is a native of Lyndon, Kan. He and wife, Sharon, have three sons and eight grandchildren. He enjoys oil painting and reading during his spare time and recently developed a keen interest in pueblo pottery.