Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab executive receives AAVLD Distinguished Service Award

Closeup of Tim Baszler
Tim Baszler

The American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) awarded the 2020 AAVLD Distinguished Service Award to Dr. Tim Baszler, executive director of the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab (WADDL) and head of Global Health Surveillance Programs at the WSU Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health.

The award recognizes a member who volunteers their time, energy and professionalism to substantially enrich and advance the organization. During the last 30 years, Dr. Baszler has chaired several committees and served as the president of AAVLD in 2012. Dr. Baszler’s service has elevated WADDL’s reputation with peers and strengthened WADDL’s engagement with the USDA National Animal Health Laboratory Network and FDA Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network, both critical for maintaining animal health.

“Tim’s professionalism and work ethic, and his clear focus on goals, has served AAVLD in a stellar fashion, and brought recognition to our Association as one dedicated to advancement of diagnostic medicine to the benefit of all our constituents,” said Dr. Keith Bailey, chair of the AAVLD awards committee.

Dr. Baszler’s commitment to move the AAVLD forward was also recognized when he served as chair of the accreditation committee overseeing the review and accreditation status of 59 publicly supported laboratories in the United States and Canada. As chair, he played an essential role aligning the AAVLD’s essential requirements with international standards, which in turn expanded the recognition of AAVLD accredited laboratories for trade and export testing.

“Being a part of AAVLD has allowed me to continue the quest on a broader scale for effective animal health services and the development of state-of-the-art surveillance systems that can detect emerging pathogens critical to both human and animal health,” said Baszler. “As such it is an honor to work with AAVLD promoting the advancement and delivery of tools for laboratory diagnosticians and regulatory disease officials, with the long-term goal of increasing capacity and capability to ensure a national disease surveillance system can be implemented and effective.”

In addition to serving AAVLD, Dr. Baszler has published nearly 100 publications and mentored more than 50 residents and graduate students.

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