Kollias-Baker appointed to University of Florida racing laboratory directorship

Cynthia Kollias-Baker, D.V.M., Ph.D., has been named director of the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine Racing Laboratory.

Kollias-Baker will take the reins at her new job in October. A 1989 graduate of UF’s veterinary college, she completed an internship in large animal surgery and medicine at Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine in 1990. She received her Ph.D. in the UF veterinary college’s department of physiological sciences in 1994, then spent a year as a post-doctoral fellow in UF’s College of Medicine.

A board-certified veterinary clinical pharmacologist, Kollias-Baker has served on the faculty as an associate professor of equine clinical pharmacology at the University of California, Davis’ School of Veterinary Medicine since 1995.

“This position is an exciting opportunity for me to increase my involvement with the regulatory aspects of the drug testing process and to directly address some of the drug and medication issues facing the dog and horse racing industries,” Kollias-Baker said.

The laboratory supports the state’s Pari-Mutuel Wagering Regulation Program by ensuring that racehorses and greyhound dogs used in Florida’s racing industry are untainted by prohibited drugs. In 2000-2001, the laboratory received and processed 103,512 samples, resulting in 645,427 analyses. The vast majority of samples tested were from racing greyhounds.

The laboratory recently became one of a handful of its type to gain international accreditation status.