Rate My Professor Sam Cockerill

Dr. Sam Cockerill serves as the Clinical Services Veterinarian - Operations in the Animal Welfare Office at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. In this role, she provides critical clinical veterinary services supporting animal care and welfare operations for university research activities. The Animal Welfare Office ensures that all animal use in research adheres to stringent ethical standards, facilitating compliance with national and international guidelines for laboratory animal welfare.

Dr. Cockerill has contributed to scholarly discourse on animal ethics governance through her co-authorship of the article 'Acting professionally and impartially,' published in Lab Animal in 2020. Working with Mark Vinson Vallarta and Alyssa Calder, the publication addresses the professional responsibilities and impartiality required of nonaffiliated members in Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUCs). It explores a scenario involving a nonscientific IACUC member contemplating service on a second committee at a former employer, concluding that such arrangements are viable with appropriate safeguards. The authors emphasize the necessity of institutional policies for managing conflicts of interest, including mandatory confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements, interest declarations, and recusal protocols. They highlight practices from New Zealand's Animal Ethics Committees (AECs), where members acknowledge terms of reference and declare interests at each meeting, as well as Australian codes promoting independent decision-making. Institutions are urged to support staff participation in external committees to broaden expertise while maintaining unbiased reviews and preventing perceived or actual biases in animal research approvals. This publication demonstrates Dr. Cockerill's specialized knowledge in promoting effective, ethical oversight in biomedical and scientific research involving animals.