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Outstanding 21st Century One Health Pioneer and Leader Joins One Health Initiative Team’s Honorary Advisory Board The One Health Initiative Autonomous pro bono team is delighted to announce that Dr. Roger K. Mahr, a prominent One Health veterinarian, has graciously accepted becoming a member of the team’s Honorary Advisory Board http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/advBoard.php on December 8, 2014.  The OHI Honorary Advisory Board was established in 2010 and has 35 distinguished members from within the U.S. and worldwide.  Dr. Mahr, a small animal practitioner for more than 34 years was unanimously elected as the 2005-2006 President-Elect of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). As president of the AVMA in 2006, Dr. Mahr revealed a vision for a One Health initiative whereby the veterinary medical profession assumed a major leadership role to establish a coordinated mechanism to facilitate collaboration and cooperation among colleagues in veterinary medicine, human medicine, public health, and ecosystem sciences with a focus on “One World, One Health, One Medicine.” During Dr. Mahr’s presidency, the AVMA Executive Board took official action to establish the One Health initiative by approving a recommendation from him to establish the AVMA One Health Initiative Task Force. He then served as the project director for the multidisciplinary national One Health Joint Steering Committee, which subsequently facilitated a transitioning process to the formation of the One Health Commission. The One Health Commission was officially chartered as an independent nonprofit corporation in Washington, D.C. on June 29, 2009.”  Dr. Mahr, who received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree (DVM) in 1971 from Iowa State University, became the first Chief Executive Office of the U.S. One Health Commission https://www.onehealthcommission.org/ from 2009 through the fall of 2013 when he retired. A unique 21st century One Health leader https://www.avma.org/KB/Resources/Reference/Pages/One-Health-How-was-the-One-Health-Commission-Formed.aspx, Dr. Mahr’s shepherding the concept through the AVMA while serving as President led to the establishment of having a major animal (and human) health oriented national organization (AVMA) accepting and subsequently promoting the visionary One Health cause.  Early on he established a productive One Health relationship with the late Ronald M. Davis, MD during his presidency of the American Medical Association (AMA).  Dr. Davis was in strong accord with Dr. Mahr on the One Health issue and the two established a milestone liaison.  The historic AVMA-AMA liaison (in effect to date) that was fostered by Drs. Mahr and Davis, resulted in the landmark adoption of a visionary “One Health” resolution by the AMA at their 2007 convention in Chicago, Ill.  President Davis spearheaded and guided this momentous event.