Advanced Equine Neurology

Rebecca Ruby, BVSc, MS, DACVP, DACVIM (LAIM)
Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory

Dr. Ruby grew up in California and traveled to New Zealand for veterinary school.  She completed an internal medicine fellowship at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute followed by residencies in anatomic pathology at Cornell University and large animal internal medicine at Iowa State University.  Dr. Ruby has been at the UKVDL since 2018 as a diagnostic pathologist. She is the course coordinator for the Lincoln Memorial University CVM 773 pathology rotation.

Monica Aleman, MVZ Cert., PhD, DACVIM (LAIM & Neurology)
Professor, Co-Director of Neuromuscular Disease Laboratory, UC Davis

Thomas Divers, DVM, DACVIM (LAIM), DACVECC
Professor of Medicine, Cornell University

Dr. Thomas J. Divers earned his DVM from the University of Georgia and completed an internship in large animal medicine at the University of California at Davis. Dr. Divers returned to the University of Georgia for a residency in large animal internal medicine and ambulatory practice followed by 2 years as an assistant professor in the large animal medicine and ambulatory practice at the College. Dr. Divers then moved to the University of Pennsylvania for 10 years where he was an associate professor of large animal medicine and served as chief of the section of medicine at the New Bolton Center, University of Pennsylvania. Currently Dr. Divers is the Rudolph J. and Katharine L.Steffen Emeritus Professor of Medicine in the Section of Large Animal Medicine at Cornell University. Dr. Divers retired in 2022 but still consults on cases, research projects and provides lectures. He has been the recipient of teaching awards at four universities, has received the Educator of the Year Award from both the AAEP and ACVECC and has received the Cornell University Hospital for Animals Distinguished Service Award for service to referring veterinarians. Dr. Divers was inducted into the University of Kentucky Equine Research Hall of Fame in 2018. He is a diplomat of both the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and of the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care.  Dr. Divers served as consulting editor of The Veterinary Clinics - Equine Practice from 2015 until 2022.  Dr. Divers’ recent research focuses have been on newly discovered hepatitis viruses in horses, oxidative stress in racehorses, drug induced renal injury, Lyme disease and leptospirosis. Other research activities have included bacterial and toxic causes of liver failure in horses, diseases of the urinary system, equine neurological diseases and advances in internal medicine and critical care for horses, foals and dairy cattle. 

Carrie Finno, DVM, PhD, DACVIM (LAIM)
Associate Professor, University of California - Davis

Dr Carrie Finno is a board-certified equine internist with a PhD in comparative pathology and post-doctorate training in comparative genomics. She has a strong commitment to biomedical research in the field of translational inherited neuromuscular disorders. At this stage of her career, Dr. Finno has published over 95 papers, including publications in Nature Communications and PLoS Genetics. Through support from her NIH-funded K01 grant and several university- and foundation-funded grants, Dr. Finno discovered parallel gene dysregulation pathways involving nuclear receptors in neural tissue from both vitamin E deficient horses and an experimental mouse model of vitamin E deficiency^-. She is currently a co-investigator on an R01 award aimed at definitively answering one of the fundamental questions regarding vitamin E biology – are the neurologic consequences with vitamin E deficiency independent of the vitamin’s antioxidant effects? Dr. Finno was recently awarded the 2022 Chancellor’s Fellowship at UC Davis for her research efforts. 

Katherine Garrett, DVM, DACVS
Director of Diagnostic Imaging, Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital

Katie Garrett received a Bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from Dartmouth College and her Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine degree from Cornell University.  She completed internships and a surgical residency at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital and is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons (Large Animal).  She is currently a shareholder at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital where her practice focuses on diagnostic imaging.  Dr. Garrett has authored numerous scientific articles and book chapters and lectures nationally and internationally.  She is currently the president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners.

Jennifer Janes, DVM, PhD, DACVP
Associate Professor, University of Kentucky

Dr. Janes is an associate professor in veterinary anatomic pathology. After graduating from veterinary school in 2006 from the University of Tennessee, she spent a year in a rotating internship at Wisconsin Equine Clinic and Hospital near Milwaukee prior to coming to the University of Kentucky for a combined residency in veterinary anatomic pathology and Ph.D. program.  Her dissertation research focused on the pathology and genetics of equine Wobbler Syndrome. She joined the faculty at the UKVDL in the Department of Veterinary Science in 2015 as a diagnostic veterinary pathologist. She also teaches fourth-year veterinary students and does collaborative research predominantly focused on equine neurologic disease.

Amy Johnson, DVM, DACVIM (LAIM & Neurology)
Assoc Professor of LA Medicine and Neurology, University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Amy Johnson graduated from Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine (DVM 2003) and completed an equine internship at B. W. Furlong and Associates in Oldwick, NJ (2004).  She then completed both a large animal internal medicine residency (Cornell, DACVIM-LAIM 2007) and neurology residency (University of Pennsylvania, DACVIM-Neurology 2011).   Dr. Johnson is currently the Marilyn M. Simpson Professor of Equine Medicine in the Department of Clinical Studies at Penn’s New Bolton Center, and she is Section Chief of Internal Medicine and Ophthalmology.  Her primary research focus is improving antemortem diagnosis of neurologic disease in horses in a quest to keep her patients away from the pathologists.  She has a special interest in diseases that are prevalent in her caseload, including both infectious diseases such as EPM and Lyme neuroborreliosis and non-infectious diseases such as EDM. In her spare time, she actively participates in the driving, coaching, and laundry associated with her three kids’ myriad athletic endeavors.