May 5: Faux to Receive WSU Libraries’ Excellence Award

Cynthia Faux will receive the 2016 WSU Libraries’ Excellence Award during a 2 p.m. reception Thursday, May 5, in the Terrell Library Atrium.

The award recognizes a non-library faculty or staff member who has shown consistent support for the WSU Libraries. Faux is a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience.

“I have huge respect for librarians and the work that they do, so for them to consider me for this award is truly an honor,” she said.

Library champion

While teaching anatomy to veterinary students, Faux encourages them to use the Animal Health Library and its resources, said Faux’s nominator and animal health sciences librarian Suzanne Fricke.

“Dr. Faux regularly champions the library to colleagues and students,” Fricke said. “Her ongoing relationship with students throughout the four-year professional program places her in a position to frequently serve as an advisor for summer research projects and senior papers – areas that make use of library resources.”

Faux’s knowledge of the veterinary profession is essential in identifying areas of the library collection where there is an emerging need, Fricke said, and she regularly donates journal subscriptions and monographs. Faux also heads the Animal Health Library Advisory Committee.

“As someone with a rare depth of knowledge and breadth of experience in both academia and the veterinary field, the Animal Health Library has been fortunate to benefit from her thoughtful advice and advocacy,” Fricke said.

‘Geeky nature of anatomy’

Faux’s knowledge and experience come from a varied career path that started with her doctor of veterinary medicine from Iowa State University. She practiced in different settings, completed a large-animal internal medicine residency at North Carolina State University and joined the Washington State Department of Agriculture as a field veterinarian.

An early love of dinosaurs led her to Yale University to earn degrees in vertebrate paleontology, which complements her veterinary medicine background when she is teaching anatomy.

“I like the geeky nature of anatomy,” she said. “I enjoy teaching first-year students because they are so very excited about becoming veterinarians, and their enthusiasm reminds me of why I wanted to be a veterinarian. It keeps a person young at heart.”

—By Nella Letizia