Disney donation honors UF parasitologist, expands existing partnership

In honor of University of Florida professor Ellis Greiner’s longtime contributions to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the company has made a $20,000 gift to the UF College of Veterinary Medicine that will fund advanced continuing education programs for the attraction’s veterinary staff.

The Disney/UF Continuing Education Fund expands a 10-year partnership that Greiner helped establish between Disney’s Animal Kingdom and the College of Veterinary Medicine. The fund will compensate UF veterinary faculty, residents, interns and staff who are willing to provide educational opportunities at Disney.

“One of the biggest comments from our veterinary staff has been that while we have all these wonderful opportunities with UF, we really need more continuing education for our technicians and veterinarians,” said Dr. Scott Terrell, a veterinary pathologist and operations manager for Disney’s department of animal health.

“We wondered how we could inspire faculty from UF to come down and provide continuing education for us, and thought one way would be to come up with some funding to compensate people for their time and travel,” added Terrell, who is also a clinical assistant professor in the college’s department of infectious diseases and pathology. “A tremendous amount of work goes into preparing lectures, particularly when they need to be higher level and created specifically for us.”

In addition, Terrell and his colleagues wanted to recognize Greiner, who will retire later this year and whose support has been germane to the UF-Disney partnership.

“Dr. Greiner has been involved in this collaboration from day one,” Terrell said. “He has been supportive from a programming standpoint and has participated in every single joint UF/Disney lecture we have ever had.”

Terrell said Greiner has served not only as Disney’s parasitologist but also as a mentor, for himself, and other Disney veterinarians as well.

“He’s always been the guy we could call who would call us right back,” Terrell said. “We knew he could help us administer the money, would be a good ally and would help us figure out what needed to be done. So it was a combination of wanting to honor him and trusting him to help us get this program off the ground.”

Dr. Rick Alleman, a clinical pathologist and professor in the college’s department of physiological sciences, and Katherine Saylor, a biological scientist, presented a three-hour inaugural lecture to veterinary technicians Feb. 3.

“Dr. Alleman even left CDs with material for the technicians to review at a later time,” Terrell said.

Greiner was modest about his role in the new endeavor.

“Scott is part of our department and we try to be collegial and help each other,” he said. “Disney’s program gives us access to unusual cases that we would not have available to our students and residents, not to mention faculty and staff.”

Greiner said it was important to increase the understanding of animal care needs and diagnostic capabilities for non-traditional animal species that veterinarians care for.

“We also need those submitting samples to us to know how to prepare them properly so that they might be useful in the diagnosis of diseases,” Greiner said. “It also allows us to help their staff understand that some of the etiological agents they may encounter might be zoonotic and thus a risk to their own health.”