Two faculty members in Purdue Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Comparative Pathobiology have been named as new interim leaders for the department. Clinical Professor and Associate Dean for the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratories, Dr. Kenitra Hendrix, will serve as interim department head, and Dr. Abigail Cox, the Dr. William O. Iverson Associate Professor of Comparative Pathology, will work alongside her as assistant department head and will take the lead on the department’s graduate student affairs. Announced December 18, the appointments took effect immediately.
“Dr. Hendrix will bring her extensive leadership experience as the director of the Indiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory to this new role, while an external search is conducted to identify the next CPB Department Head,” said Purdue Veterinary Medicine Dean Bret Marsh, DVM. He added that Dr. Cox’s knowledge of the department also will be very beneficial during this transition period. “I am grateful to both colleagues for their willingness to assume these roles on an interim basis, and I am confident they will provide the leadership and direction needed to guide the department until a permanent department head is named.”
The department head search already is underway, and an external posting is now available online.
In her role as director of the Indiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (ADDL), Dr. Hendrix oversees two laboratory facilities – the Willie M. Reed Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory located in West Lafayette, and the Dennis R. Heeke ADDL at the Southern Indiana Purdue Agricultural Center (SIPAC) in Dubois, Indiana. In July of 2025, she was promoted to associate dean, in recognition of the expanded scope of her leadership and strategic oversight across the diagnostic laboratory enterprise.
A DVM graduate of Auburn University, Dr. Hendrix completed a clinical microbiology residency and earned her PhD at Washington State University. She is board-certified by the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists in all three specialties – Virology, Immunology, and Bacteriology and Mycology, and joined the Purdue Veterinary Medicine faculty in 2013.
Dr. Cox earned her undergraduate degree in biology at Washington University in St. Louis before coming to Purdue where she earned her DVM degree in 2008. She then completed a residency in anatomic pathology and earned her Master of Science degree in 2011, after which she continued her studies at Purdue, earning her PhD in 2016. A diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists, Dr. Cox also serves as director of the college’s Histology Research Laboratory, and is the head of the Pathology Section of the Comparative Pathobiology Department.