Dr. Denise Imai-Leonard Farewell
After 12 years with the Comparative Pathology Laboratory and 7 years as Director, I will be stepping down effective September 30th, 2025. Leading this team has been one of the greatest privileges of my career. I’m deeply grateful to our staff, faculty collaborators, SVM leaders, campus partners, and valued clients for our shared commitment to excellence, on behalf of the animals in teaching and research and the scientific breakthroughs that we all help to advance. We, at CPL, have achieved so much during my tenure and these are a few of our accomplishments that I am most proud of:
- Fiscal: Deficit recovery, revenue diversification and financial stability in spite of staff reductions, pandemic-driven restrictions and nationwide reductions in federal research funding.
- Staff: 2-time winner of the campus-wide Laboratory Safety Award. Selected for the AAVMC Leadership Academy, UC Women’s Initiative, SVM Talent Benchstrength program and Staff Assembly and Work-life Balance awards.
- Operations: Updated facilities, automated processes, and created an online client portal, staff dashboard and operations platform.
- Science: Formalized CPL as an animal research core by consolidating and connecting dispersed resources. Independently advanced research in spontaneous diseases of research animals while supporting and strengthening the work of colleagues, resulting in over 45 peer-reviewed publications in notable journals.
- Education: Founded a well-regarded, competitive fellowship in Comparative Pathology. Expanded a web-based seminar series to reach >300 global participants in academia, industry and government.
The interim transition period will be guided by our Associate Director, Stefanie Carroll. The search for a new Director will open next year, in early 2026. Detailed hand-off documents have been provided to staff and SVM leadership. Operational continuity is a priority and will continue uninterrupted.
Thank you again for this opportunity to serve. I have learned and grown so much with this team. I am confident in and excited for our collective future!
If you need me, you can always find me. My personal email is denise.imai@gmail.com. Best wishes and look forward to working with you again soon.
Denise M. Imai-Leonard