Dr. Mark Gallardo, DVM, CVA
Assistant Professor of Veterinary Medicine
magallardo@alaska.edu
Personal Statement
I grew up in Utah’s Rocky Mountains and quickly became passionate about wildlife and wilderness. My initial plan to take over my dad’s optometry practice after obtaining my BS in Animal Physiology and Neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) eventually transitioned into dreams of vet school as my interests in wildlife continued to grow. I completed my DVM at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine followed immediately by a Large Animal post doctoral internship at Texas A&M University College of Veterinary medicine.
By that point, having graduated from Eleanor Roosevelt College while at UCSD, its mission being to foster global vision, critical thinking and cross-cultural understanding, I began turning my focus to international veterinary medicine and research. I participated in National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Ellsworth Foundation funded epidemiologic research in Laos with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and volunteered and taught at animal shelters and research projects in Nepal, Ethiopia, and Mexico. Eventually coming back to the States to work in a mixed animal practice near Portland, Oregon, I continued my collaboration with professors at Texas A&M to publish articles on equine and food animal medicine and surgery.
About that time I developed a love for small animal emergency and critical care medicine while obtaining my veterinary acupuncture certification. Over the following years emergency medicine became my area of special interest as I worked at several clinics in California and Oregon interspersing multi-year travel periods to explore nature and human culture including architecture, food, dress, history, language, and music. At various times I dedicated myself to bespoke philanthropy projects which combined my growing love for photography and long distance wilderness trekking adventures (>500miles) with my interest in helping many of the peoples and cultures around the developing world that had been so good to me. In these travels I also developed a strong interest and appreciation for the profound mind/body health benefits associated with yoga and daily meditation practice, gaining my teaching certificate in yoga while sitting long silent meditation courses up to 20 days at a time.
More recently I was accepted back at my veterinary alma mater, Cornell University, as an NIH Postdoctoral Research Fellow for a PhD program in the Biomedical and Biological Sciences program. After over a year researching disease vector genetics with virology and bacteriology rotations, COVID closed my lab and I decided to finally complete a lifelong dream of traveling to every country in the world, every US state and National Park, and every US territory. I then moved to Ohio to teach anatomy and physiology at Cincinnati State, and ultimately to Fairbanks where I began working part time at a local animal hospital before beginning my assistant professorship at UAF.
Publications and Presentations:
The Neuromuscular Junction in Veterinary Medicine. UAF Department of Veterinary Medicine, 2025, Oral Presentation
Targeting Disease Vector Fertility. Biomedical and Biological Sciences Fall Symposium, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, 2020, Poster presentation
Utilizing the CRISPR/Cas13a system to silence potential fertility genes in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. NIH Postdoctoral Fellow presentation, Cornell Institute of Host-Microbe Interactions in Disease (CIHMID), Research Convention, Cornell University, Fall 2020 Oral Presentation
Swine Pox viral neutralization as a proxy for an African Swine Fever Vaccine (XM-01). Cornell Faculty, BBS Faculty, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Fall 2019 Oral Presentation
Soft tissue surgery review lecture. SPCA equivalent, Veterinary faculty, Cozumel, Mexico, 2014 Oral presentation
Orthopedic and soft tissue surgery review lecture. KAT clinics, Veterinary faculty, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2012 Oral Presentation
Endometritis in Dogs, Television commentator presentation, NBC affiliate KSEE, Fresno, CA 2010 Oral Presentation
“Equine Hepatic Encephalopathy: Proposed Pathophysiology and Current Treatment”, First author, Compendium for the Continuing Education for the Practicing Veterinarian (Equine), Fall 2006, (Vol 1, No 3)
“Spiral Colon Bypass in a Geriatric Potbellied Pig” First Author, JAVMA, May 15, 2003
“Urinary Bladder Rupture in an Acutely Recumbent Horse”, Second author, case presentation at the American Society of Clinical Pathology, 2002 national convention.
“Upper Airway Diseases in Horses” Texas A&M , Oral presentation to faculty, 2002
“Equine Hepatic Encephalopathy” Texas A&M , Oral presentation to faculty, 2002
“Equine Laminitis: Pathophysiology and Treatment’, Cornell University, Oral presentation to faculty, 2001
“Dopaminergic presynaptic receptors in the caudate nucleus and their role in Parkinson’s disease” S.A.C.N.A.S. Graduate-level research symposium poster presentation, Los Angeles, CA, 1996. Oral Presentation. Winner Best Basic Research Project award.
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