Veterinary Excellence Award

First awarded in 2023, the Veterinary Excellence Award recognizes a Veterinarian Member for excellence in their professional practice to the community.

The recipient will be presented with a plaque and a monetary award of $500.00. 

Eligibility and criteria

Any individual who is an UGFA member Veterinarian at the Ontario Veterinary College, Ridgetown Campus, or the Animal Health Laboratory at the date of nomination is eligible for the award. A member may receive the Award only once.  

While there are no fixed criteria for selecting award winners, preference is normally given to nominees who 

  • Have been successful in several areas
  • Have letters of support from more than one constituency
  • Are judged to be “truly excellent” rather than merely “very good” 
  • Providing excellent Veterinary professional practice to the community

Nominations

Nominations may be made by UGFA Members. Please send all materials related to the nomination to UGFA at facassoc@uoguelph.ca.

Notifying of intent to nominate

Inform UGFA of your intent to nominate a Veterinarian Member for an award. Include the following information in your email:

  1. Name of the nominee
  2. Name and contact information of the nominator

Closing date for Nominations: April 6, 2026

Nomination packages

To facilitate the deliberations of the Awards Committee, each nomination package should include the following: 

  1. Table of contents
  2. Signed Nominee Acceptance Form
  3. Tabs to separate and identify the various sections of the package 
  4. Nominee’s CV, which should include professional practice, research & scholarship, and service 
  5. Signed nominator’s letter. This letter summarizes the highlights of the nomination package, with special focus on areas of excellence as described under “Eligibility and criteria” above. This letter should represent the core of the case and offer a picture of where and with what priority the supporting documents fit in. Documents seldom speak for themselves; they are invariably more useful when summarized, abstracted, and explained by someone on the scene and familiar with the nominee.
  6. Letters of support from more than one constituency. The strongest letters address specific areas of excellence and the impact of the nominee. Letters must be current and prepared specifically for the UGFA Award nomination. 

Closing date for Supporting Material: April 20, 2026

Past winners

2024: Josepha DeLay, Ontario Veterinary College, Animal Health Lab

2023: Tiffany Durzi, Ontario Veterinary College, Health Sciences Centre