Lisa M. Freeman – DVM, PhD, DACVN

Dr. Lisa Freeman heads the Nutrition Service at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. As one of a small but growing number of board-certified veterinary nutritionists, she teaches veterinary students, practitioners and pet owners about proper feeding for their animals, especially ones which are too sick to eat or who have chronic diseases such as heart or kidney disease, cancer, or obesity. She also performs research on nutritional effects on heart disease, heads the Cummings School's Accelerated Clinical Excellence (ACE) Program, the Residents' Enhanced Veterinary Education and Academic Learning (REVEAL) Program and serves as the faculty advisor for its Paws for People effort.

A native of Florida, Dr. Freeman earned a bachelor's from Tufts University, a DVM from the Cummings School, and a PhD in nutrition from the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy—earning her the rare distinction of holding a degree from each of Tufts University's three campuses. Her original intent was to become an equine veterinarian, but, through her studies, she became increasingly interested in nutrition and its role in preventing and treating disease. I can't imagine any area of medicine being more fun, she says.

Dr. Freeman teaches in all four years of the veterinary curriculum at the Cummings School. Only about one-third of veterinary schools have a board-certified nutritionist on their faculty, and Dr. Freeman's courses allow the school to offer its students more training in nutrition than most of its peer institutions.

Dr. Freeman lives near the Cummings School campus with three dogs, all of which are adopted from the Foster Hospital. One of her dogs works with Dr. Freeman to visit nursing home residents and participate in a reading program for children through Paws for People. She is a trustee of the Westborough (MA) Library. She has also run the Boston Marathon twice as part of the Tufts University President's Marathon Challenge.

Dr. Freeman's academic and research interests can be found on her faculty profile.