The faculty of the Tri-Institutional Training Program is composed of laboratory animal specialists, comparative pathologists, research scientists and regulatory specialists. Currently, five of the faculty are board certified by the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine and three are board certified by the American College of Veterinary Pathology.

Each post-doctoral fellow is assigned to a member of the program faculty who will serve as a mentor. Fellows meet with their mentors on a quarterly basis to discuss their progress. Each clinical rotation is supervised by a faculty member or a senior management staff member to ensure that fellows meet the established goals for the rotation.

Faculty and Fellow Bibliography

• Odessa Giardino, MS, CVT, RLATG: Ms. Giardino is head of Education and Quality Assurance for the Research Animal Resource Center (RARC), which serves both Weill Cornell Medical College and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Ms. Giardino received her MS degree in biology from Montclair State University, and is a board-certified veterinary technician and a laboratory animal technologist certified by the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS). Ms. Giardino is active in AALAS at the national and local levels, serving as committee chair. Ms. Giardino has extensive experience in the development and implementation of training programs and regulatory compliance in laboratory animal science. She has primary responsibility for monitoring institutional compliance with applicable federal, state, and local regulations and provides regulatory and training support to the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees at Weill Cornell and Memorial Sloan-Kettering. Her special interests include research into models of neuropathology and drug metabolism, and the development of novel surgical models.
• Kerith Luchins, DVM: Dr. Luchins serves as a senior clinical veterinarian in the Research Animal Resource Center, which serves both Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Cornell Medical College. She obtained her veterinary degree from the University of Illinois in 2008. After graduating from veterinary school, Dr. Luchins participated in a companion animal medicine and surgery rotating internship at the Louisiana State University. She then completed a laboratory animal medicine residency program at the Tulane National Primate Research Center. She received her board certification in laboratory animal medicine in 2012 while working as a clinical veterinarian at the Tulane National Primate Research Center. She enjoys training veterinary students, post-doctorate fellows, and technicians and has an interest in neurology and clinical veterinary research.
• Christine Lieggi, DVM: Dr. Lieggi is the Associate Director and Head of Veterinary Services in the Research Animal Resource Center, which serves both Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Lieggi received her veterinary degree from Michigan State University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in laboratory animal medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has been a diplomate of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine since 2005. Christine has experience with a wide range of animal species utilized in the biomedical research setting, including rodents, primates, canines, and farm animals. Her interests include anesthesia and the management of pain and distress in the research setting.
• Neil S. Lipman, VMD: Dr. Lipman is the Director of the Center of Comparative Medicine and Pathology, which serves both Weill Cornell Medical College and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, as well as the Co-Director of the Tri-Institutional Training Program in Laboratory Animal Medicine and Science. Dr. Lipman holds faculty appointments as a Professor of Veterinary Medicine in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Weill Cornell and as a Laboratory Member in the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program at the Sloan-Kettering Institute. He received his veterinary degree from the University of Pennsylvania and training in comparative medicine from MIT. Dr. Lipman has been a diplomate of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine since 1988. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Lipman has also held various animal resource program service and academic appointments at the University of Chicago, MIT, and Brown University. His research and subspecialty interests include animal facility design and management, endocrinological disorders of laboratory animals, rodent caging systems, and the in vitro production of monoclonal antibodies.
• Sébastien Monette, DMV, MVSc: Dr. Monette is a comparative pathologist for the Laboratory of Comparative Pathology and the Genetically Engineered Mouse Phenotyping Service. He holds faculty appointments as an Assistant Laboratory Member in Sloan-Kettering Institute's Cancer Biology and Genetics Program and as an Assistant Professor of Comparative Pathology in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. He received his veterinary degree from the Universit de Montral and completed a residency program and master's degree in veterinary anatomic pathology at the University of Saskatchewan. He has been a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists since 2003. Prior to joining the Laboratory of Comparative Pathology, Dr. Monette was a staff pathologist at the Animal Medical Center, where he acquired extensive experience in diagnostic surgical pathology, with an emphasis on oncologic and ophthalmic pathology. His research interests include the surveillance and epidemiology of infectious diseases in animal populations, and the development and application of diagnostic and prognostic methods in cancer pathology.
• Andrew Nicholson, DVM, PhD: Dr. Nicholson is the Director of Animal Subjects Research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Director of Animal Welfare Assurance at Weill Cornell Medical College. He serves as the Chairman of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) at Weill Cornell and as the Vice-Chairman of the IACUC at Memorial Sloan-Kettering. Dr. Nicholson holds faculty appointments as an Associate Research Professor of Comparative Pathology at Weill Cornell and as an Associate Laboratory Member in the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program at the Sloan-Kettering Institute. He received his veterinary degree from Michigan State University, training in veterinary pathology from the University of Florida, and his PhD degree from the Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell University. For the past 20 years, Dr. Nicholson has been a NIH-funded researcher studying cardiovascular disease and macrophage scavenger receptors using murine models of atherosclerosis.
• Ravi Tolwani, DVM, PhD: Dr. Tolwani is Associate Vice President and Director of the Comparative Bioscience Center at The Rockefeller University. Dr. Tolwani received his veterinary degree from Auburn University, a PhD degree in molecular and cellular pathology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and a master's degree in management from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He has been a diplomate of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine since 1995. Prior to arriving at The Rockefeller University, Dr. Tolwani was an associate professor and an attending veterinarian at Stanford University. His research has focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms of plasticity of the nervous system using mouse models of neurological disease.
• Julie R. White, DVM: Dr. White serves as a comparative pathologist for the Laboratory of Comparative Pathology and Genetically Engineered Mouse Phenotyping Service. In addition, she is head of the Clinical Pathology Division of the Laboratory Animal Research Center's Diagnostic Laboratory at The Rockefeller University. Dr. White provides clinical and anatomic pathology support to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, The Rockefeller University, and Weill Cornell Medical College investigative staff as well as quarantine and diagnostic services. She received her veterinary degree from Louisiana State University and completed a one-year internship in small animal/exotic medicine and surgery at the Animal Medical Center. She completed post-doctoral training in veterinary anatomic pathology jointly at Angell Memorial Animal Hospital and Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, and received board certification in veterinary anatomic pathology in 2003. Dr. White has extensive experience with pathology associated with population medicine and exotic animals, which she acquired during her four years as an associate pathologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society.
• Felix R. Wolf, Dr. Med. Vet, FVH, PhD: Dr. Wolf is Deputy Director of the Center of Comparative Medicine and Pathology, which serves both the Weill Cornell Medical College and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Wolf holds faculty appointments as an Associate Professor of Veterinary Medicine in Microbiology and Immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College, as a Laboratory Member in theCancer Biology and Genetics Programat the Sloan-Kettering Institute, as an Associate Professor in Comparative Medicine at Yale University, and as a senior lecturer at the University of Zurich, in Switzerland. He received both his veterinary degree as well as his PhD degree from the University of Zurich and did his post-doctoral training at Yale University. Dr. Wolf has been a diplomate of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine since 1998 and was a founding diplomate of the European College of Laboratory Animal Medicine. Dr. Wolf has 20 years of experience in laboratory animal medicine. His research and subspecialty interests include pathogenesis of rodent viruses, health monitoring, biocontainment, and biosecurity.