The Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine welcomed the following faculty members during 2025:
Ana Aghili, DVM, DACVECC, joined the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences as a clinical assistant professor of emergency and critical care effective July 1, 2025. She earned her DVM from Louisiana State University, completed an ECC-focused internship at Washington State University, and then completed her ECC residency at Purdue University. She later worked in private practice and served as a clinical assistant professor at the University of Illinois, where she received the Dr. Erwin Small Teaching Excellence Award for her contributions to student education. At Purdue, Dr. Aghili will be actively involved in the Emergency and Critical Care Service, working closely with students, interns, and residents to foster strong clinical reasoning, effective communication, and a supportive learning environment. She is also developing a gift fund to help pet owners facing financial hardship, reflecting her commitment to community support and compassionate patient care.
Pradip Bajgain, PhD, joined the department of Basic Medical Sciences as assistant professor, effective September 1, 2025. Dr. Bajgain earned his PhD from the Baylor College of Medicine, and completed his postdoctoral training at the National Cancer Institute. He has earned numerous awards for his research, including the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy Career Development Award, National Cancer Institute Director’s Intramural Innovation Award, and National Institutes of Health Fellows Award for Research Excellence. Dr. Bajgain’s research interest is in cancer immunotherapy, with a focus on genetically engineered T-cell therapies.
Grant Burcham, MS, DVM, PhD, joined the Comparative Pathobiology Department as a clinical associate professor of pathology, effective September 1, 2025. Dr. Burcham earned his DVM degree from Purdue University in 2007 and his MS in 2010 — the same year he completed a Pathology residency — before earning his PhD in Comparative Pathobiology from Purdue in 2014. Dr. Burcham is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists (DACVP) and his interests include infectious diseases of livestock and poultry, forage-associated diseases of ruminants, and diseases/conditions that occur at the livestock-wildlife interface. He also has an interest in diseases of native Hoosier wildlife. Dr. Burcham has served as a veterinary diagnostician and assistant director at the Heeke Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Southern Indiana since 2014. He will continue in those roles in addition to his new associate professorship.
Preston Collins, DVM, joined the Veterinary Clinical Sciences department as clinical assistant professor, effective July 1, 2025. Dr. Collins earned his DVM degree by completing a 2-by-2 DVM program, with two years at Utah State University and two years at Washington State University. After graduating, he practiced for four years at a busy small animal private practice in Northern California, seeing a range of cases, from wellness to emergency cases, including GP surgeries. Dr. Collins particularly enjoys the opportunity to teach and work with students every day, and has a special interest in Veterinary Toxicology.
Danielle Cucuzella, DVM, MS, joined the Veterinary Clinical Sciences Department as visiting assistant professor, effective September 1, 2025. Dr. Cucuzella earned her DVM degree in 2019 from Midwestern University College of Veterinary Medicine, and her MS degree from Kansas State University in 2025. She completed an equine internship at Comstock Equine Hospital in 2020, and a rotating internship at Louisiana State University in 2021. She also completed a large animal fellowship at Oregon State University in 2022. Dr. Cucuzella’s research interests include sedation, pain management strategies, and orthopedic disease. She also has special interests in lameness, rehabilitation and sports medicine.
Katie Hebron, PhD, joined the Basic Medical Sciences Department as assistant professor, effective August 18, 2025. Dr. Hebron earned her PhD in cancer biology from Vanderbilt University in 2018. She also has experience from her postdoctoral fellowship (2015-2018) with the National Cancer Institute. She has received multiple awards, including the NIH/NCI K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award, and the Summer’s Way/Friends of TJ Young Investigator Award. Dr. Hebron’s lab focuses on understanding how the tumor microenvironment and cell plasticity promote sarcoma metastasis.
Mi Ran Kim, DVM, PhD, joined the Department of Basic Medical Sciences as clinical assistant professor, effective August 18, 2025. She earned her DVM degree from Konkuk University in South Korea in 1997, and went on to earn her MS degree from Seoul National University in South Korea in 2000. She completed her PhD at Purdue University in 2019. During that same year, she began an adjunct faculty position at Ivy Tech Community College, where she taught Human Anatomy and Physiology until 2024. While teaching at Ivy Tech, she also served as a Purdue lecturer in the Basic Medical Sciences Department. In addition to teaching gross anatomy integrated with histology and physiology, Dr. Kim has a special interest in integrating educational technologies to enhance student learning. She is dedicated to applied anatomy, linking preclinical sciences with clinical practice to prepare students for their professional careers.
Eli Lehmann, DVM, DACVAA, has been appointed as a clinical assistant professor of anesthesiology in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, effective October 1, 2025. Dr. Lehmann earned his DVM degree from the University of Padova, Italy, in 2014. After working for several years in private practice as an emergency and critical care veterinarian in his home country of Israel, he completed a residency in anesthesia and analgesia at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. As a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Anesthesia and Analgesia, Dr. Lehmann’s primary research interests include developing Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocols in veterinary medicine, using microvascular parameters to guide fluid therapy in various species, and locoregional anesthesia techniques.
Jessica Linder, DVM, joined the Veterinary Clinical Sciences Department as a clinical assistant professor of veterinary neurology, effective October 1, 2025. Dr. Linder earned her DVM degree from Purdue University in 2020, and returned to Purdue for her neurology and neurosurgery internship from 2021-2022, and her neurology and neurosurgery residency from 2022-2025. She received the Katie McCallister Compassion Award and the 2025 ACVIM Resident Research Abstract Award in June 2025. A Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Neurology), Dr. Linder’s primary interests are inflammatory central nervous system diseases and seizures.
Camila Benaduce Emanuelli Mello, DVM (Honors), MS, joined the Department of Comparative Pathobiology as a clinical assistant professor of clinical pathology effective July 1, 2025. She earned her DVM degree from Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM), Brazil, in 2015. After graduating, Dr. Mello completed a clinical pathology residency and a master’s degree in clinical pathology at UFSM. She then worked for two years in a private laboratory in Brazil before returning to UFSM to pursue her PhD. In 2022, Dr. Mello began a three-year clinical pathology residency program at Purdue University, and is currently completing her PhD program. Dr. Mello discovered her passion for clinical pathology during her second year of veterinary school. As a faculty member, she is dedicated to teaching, diagnostic services, and collaborative research. Her interests include hematopathology, cytopathology, immunocytochemistry, and canine lymphoma.
Ori Nagasaka, DVM, MS, DACVR, joined the Veterinary Clinical Sciences Department as a visiting clinical assistant professor of diagnostic imaging, effective July 15, 2025. Dr. Nagasaka earned her DVM degree at the University of California, Davis. She then completed a small animal rotating internship at Veterinary Specialty Hospital in Sorrento Valley, San Diego, California, as well as a diagnostic imaging specialty internship at Veterinary Imaging Center in San Diego. In addition, she completed her diagnostic imaging residency and MS at Purdue University. Dr. Nagasaka’s interests are in small animal ultrasound and computed tomography. She is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Radiology.
Tsukasa Sakashita, BVSc, MS, joined the Comparative Pathobiology Department as clinical assistant professor, effective October 20, 2025. Dr. Sakashita earned his BVSc in 2020 from the University of Miyazaki, Japan. He also holds a MS from Purdue University, which he completed in 2025. Dr. Sakashita worked as an emergency and critical care veterinarian in 2020. From 2021 to 2022, he held various intern veterinarian positions in anatomic pathology at the Veterinary Specialist Emergency Center in Japan. A Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists (DACVP), Dr. Sakashita’s clinical interests include dermatopathology and oral and maxillofacial pathology.
Michael K. Wendt, PhD, joined the Basic Medical Sciences Department as professor and department head, effective November 1, 2025. Dr. Wendt earned his bachelor’s degree from St. Norbert College in 2002. After completing his graduate studies at the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2007, Dr. Wendt became an American Cancer Society fellow with Dr. William Schiemann at the University of Colorado Cancer Center. In 2010, Dr. Wendt moved with the Schiemann lab to Case Western Reserve University, where he received a K99/R00 transition award from the NCI. Dr. Wendt joined the Purdue University faculty as an assistant professor in 2014. In 2023, he was recruited to the University of Iowa where he was appointed as the Arlene Holden Professor of Breast Cancer Research and leader of the Experimental Therapeutics program within the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Dr. Wendt’s research program focuses on understanding and targeting metastatic breast cancer. Current work in the Wendt lab is focused on understanding how changes in tumor cell metabolism and production of extracellular matrix proteins affect drug response in metastatic tumors.
