Scientific Review Committee Experts

Dr. Laura Liscum obtained her doctoral degree in Biological Sciences from Columbia University, NY, in 1982. After 3 years as a postdoctoral fellow in Molecular Genetics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, she joined the faculty at Tufts University School of Medicine. Her research focused on Niemann-Pick C disease, a neurodegenerative disease of aberrant cholesterol metabolism, and was funded by the National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association, and National Niemann-Pick Disease Foundation. She retired in 2016 as Professor Emerita of Integrative Physiology and Pathobiology.

Dr. Liscum has had Petit Basset Griffon Vendéens (PBGV) in the past. She is Assistant Chair of the Health Committee of the Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen Club of America and President of the Health & Rescue Foundation of PBGVCA. She has written many health articles for the PBGVCA’s magazine, Saber Tails. Currently, Dr. Liscum has a 7 year old Basset Fauve de Bretagne and a 13 year old PBGV. She adopted both through their respective AKC parent club rescue committees after their owners died. She is now on the Basset Fauve de Bretagne Club of America Board of Directors.

Dr. Liscum’s Fauve participates in FastCAT and Scent Work, and has aspirations for Rally. Her PBGV is retired, but still keeps the yard free of rabbits.

Dr. April Paulman earned her DVM in 1998 and her PhD in 2006 from the University of Illinois with a 1.5 year stint in private small animal practice between the two degrees.  She completed a veterinary pathology residency and became boarded in anatomic pathology by the American College of Veterinary Pathologists. She is currently a Senior Pathologist at Vet Path Services, Inc, but previously worked as a research pathologist at Covance and Eli Lilly, as well as a diagnostic pathologist at the University of Illinois Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. Research interests include cancer and immunomodulatory drug development, as well as medical device development.  Dr. Paulman has served on professional committees and authored multiple scientific papers.

Dr. Paulman also has a personal interest in canine behavior and positive reinforcement training and hopes to someday add board certification in veterinary behavior to her credentials.

Dr. Askin is a Clinical Professor of Pathology in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Pathology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His research interests include pediatric and adult pulmonary and thoracic disorders, neoplasia, and pathology of the placenta. Dr. Askin is also active in West Highland White Terrier rescue, therapy dog visits through Pet Partners, and is an AKC Canine Good Citizen evaluator.

Dr. A. Duane Butherus is a member of the AKC Canine Health Foundation's Board of Directors and its Scientific Review Committee. He earned a PhD in chemistry, retired after working as a scientist at Bell Laboratories for 31 years, and is presently teaching undergraduate Chemistry. Dr. Butherus has served as Chairman of the CHF Board and Chair of the Foundation's Scientific Review Committee.

He has been an active breeder and exhibitor of Afghan Hounds in partnership with his wife Connie for over 35 years, finishing the championships of more than 30 dogs. Duane has been a member of the Afghan Hound Club of America for over thirty years. Duane was founding President of the Central New Jersey Hound Association and presently serves as the Vice President of the Delaware Water Gap Kennel Club. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Kennel Club and is also a member of the Morris & Essex Kennel Club. Duane has been Show Chair for several clubs, including the Afghan Hound Club of Northern New Jersey Specialty Club and the Delaware Water Gap Kennel Club. He is approved to judge Afghan Hounds, and has judged that breed internationally, including specialty shows in New Zealand, Australia, and Belgium.

William I. Christensen, MD, MPH, is a board member of the AKC Canine Health Foundation.

Dr. Christensen also serves as President of the Australian Terrier Club of America, has been its delegate to the American Kennel Club since 2012, and a member of the delegate health committee since 2014. Dr. Christensen is also a board member of the Desert Empire Terrier Club of Southern California. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Christensen and his husband, Kreg B. Hill, have bred twelve Australian Terrier champions, including the first and only Australian Terrier to achieve a Gold Grand Championship. Dr. Christensen is currently the medical director at Eisenhower Occupational Health Services in Cathedral City, California.

Dr. J. Charles Garvin serves on the CHF Board of Directors. He was the Board Chairman from 2016-2024 and has also served on the Foundation's Scientific Review Committee. He is a retired ophthalmic surgeon and president of a 72-physician medical practice.

Dr. Garvin has been closely associated with Dalmatians since the 1960s. Since then, he has had 86 champions in the breed, most of them owner-handled. Dr. Garvin has judged at the Dalmatian Club of America (DCA) national specialty show five times, including the AKC Centennial Show in 1984, and has judged nationals in Canada and Australia. He has served multiple terms as DCA president and has sat on the club's board of directors for 28 years. A life member of the Central Ohio Kennel Club and the Marion Ohio Kennel Club, he has been Marion's AKC Delegate since 1990 and a club officer for 27 years. He is also a member of the American Kennel Club Board of Directors.

Dr. Holub is the former Chief Medical Officer for VetCor. Prior to that he owned and operated Countryside Veterinary Hospital in Chelmsford, MA. Countryside has been honored nationally as the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) 2010 Practice of the Year, as a Veterinary Economics Practice of Excellence in 2000, and as a Merit Award winner in the 2011 Veterinary Economics Hospital Design Competition. Dr. Holub is also a medical advisor and grant reviewer for EveryCat Health. He is a clinical instructor at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University for first year veterinary students. He holds a BS in Biology from the University of Cincinnati, and a DVM degree from the Ohio State University.

For more than 30 years, Dr. Jerry Klein has been a veterinarian in the emergency room at Chicago’s largest veterinary emergency and critical care hospital, treating thousands of cats and dogs when they are most in need. In addition to his role as Emergency Department Head, Emeritus at MedVet Chicago, Dr. Klein is also the Chief Veterinary Officer of the American Kennel Club (AKC). There, he serves as spokesperson and policy leader in AKC’s health commitments.

A thought leader in veterinary topics and in purebred dogs, Dr. Klein has served as chief spokesperson for the Chicago Veterinary Emergency and Specialty Center, MedVet Chicago, and the American Kennel Club. Dr. Klein obtained his first dog, a Wire Fox Terrier, from a pet shop when he was nine years old. He soon began showing his dog at AKC sponsored events. He eventually began to exhibit and breed generations of champion and best in show winning Afghan hounds including Westminster Kennel Club and National breed winners. As a breeder, owner, handler and judge of purebred dogs. Dr. Klein has judged dog shows around the world, including the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club Show and the AKC National Championship.

Dr. Mary Smith is Chairman of the AKC Canine Health Foundation Board of Directors. She has served as Vice Chairman of the Board and as Chairman of the Foundation's Scientific Review Committee. 

After graduating as a Veterinarian from the University of Edinburgh in 1980, Dr. Smith worked as a general practitioner treating both pets and farm animals, before undertaking advanced training at the University of California.  She then practiced as a board-certified specialist in Veterinary Neurology and Neurosurgery both in academia and private practice.  Dr. Smith is the author of a textbook, medical review articles, multiple book chapters, and more than 25 original scientific papers on both small animal and large animal neurology.

Since 1987 Dr. Smith has owned, bred, trained, and handled Flat Coated retrievers, titling dogs in conformation, hunting tests, tracking, agility, and obedience.  She has served as a board member, event secretary, and event chairman for a variety of local retriever, tracking, and obedience clubs, and on the national board of the Flat Coated Retriever Society of America.

Dr. Jamie Young obtained her DVM from the Iowa State University in 1988 and was in small animal private practice for four years in Southern California.  After completing a residency/PhD program in veterinary pathology at Colorado State University in 1998, Dr. Young became dual boarded in veterinary clinical and anatomic pathology by the American College of Veterinary Pathologists.  She is currently a Discovery Pathologist at Covance and was previously a Senior Pathologist/Research Advisor at Eli Lilly and Company.  Her research interests include cancer drug development and translational medicine.  Dr. Young has served on professional committees, and authored multiple scientific papers and book chapters.

Since 1994, Dr. Young has been involved in assistance dogs as a volunteer puppy raiser, trainer, and breeding program manager, and has donated dogs or volunteered with assistance dog programs across the United States.  She has been breeding Labrador and Golden Retrievers for assistance dog work since 2007, with a special interest in breeding Golden Retrievers with longevity and working ability.  Dr. Young works closely with the Assistance Dogs International North American Breeding Cooperative through its member programs. 

Dr. Milan Hess serves on the Scientific Review Committee of the AKC Canine Health Foundation. She attended Colorado State University for veterinary school. She then completed an internship in small animal medicine, surgery and critical care at Alameda East Veterinary Hospital in Denver. From there she moved to Virginia for a three year residency in theriogenology (reproduction) at Virginia Tech. Milan moved back to Colorado in June of 2002 and joined Colorado Veterinary Specialists as a small animal reproductive specialist.

Milan is an active competitor with her curly-coated retrievers and Papillon in multiple dog sports including conformation, agility, hunt tests, tracking, and obedience.

Dr. Heidi Parker is an associate Investigator in the Comparative Genetics Section of the Cancer Genetics and Comparative Genomics Branch at the National Human Genome Research Institute of NIH. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 2004 where she studied the population structure of the domestic dog. Her thesis research, completed in the laboratory of Dr. Elaine Ostrander at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, established the first classification of dog breeds using genetic data and showed that each breed carries a genetic signature that can be used for identification.

Dr. Parker came to NHGRI in 2004, where she has combined her knowledge of population and breed structure with in-depth investigation of the dog genome to identify genes and genomic loci involved in complex morphological traits and cancer susceptibility. Dr. Parker has capitalized on the purebred structure of the domestic dog by combining information from multiple dog breeds to find the genetic elements responsible for major breed defining traits. She continues to use the breed model to understand the history of dogs and canine variation. Dr. Parker applies genomic methodologies to understanding the inheritance of cancer risk. This led to the discovery of the first cancer associated locus found through population-based analyses in the dog. She is now working to combine multi-omic datasets to address the issue of inherited, non-coding mutations and their role in increasing the risk and development of cancer.

Dr. Parker is also interested in promoting the dog as an accessible platform for learning about genetics. She works with colleagues to create educational exercises for children and takes advantage of every opportunity to present dog genetics to community-based audiences from elementary school through adulthood.

Dr. Cynthia Webster is a Professor and Associate Chair of Research at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. A native of western Massachusetts, she is a board-certified small animal medicine internist with extensive expertise in canine and feline liver disease.

Dr. Webster earned her DVM from Cornell University and completed post-graduate work in liver disease at Tufts University School of Medicine. She leads the veterinary Liver Study Group, an umbrella organization of the Comparative Gastroenterology Society. Her research focuses on how the liver survives toxic insults, particularly during impaired bile flow, as well as copper-associated and immune-mediated chronic hepatitis in dogs.

Her passion for comparative medicine drives her unique dual role: teaching gastrointestinal and liver medicine to veterinary students at Cummings School while also lecturing graduate students at Tufts Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in Boston. This bridge between veterinary and human medicine reflects her commitment to advancing health across species, making her an invaluable member of our review committee.

Bio to come

Bio to come