Dr. Mandi de Mestre, professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, and the Dorothy Havemeyer McConville Professor in Equine Medicine at the Baker Institute, is the new director of the Baker Institute for Animal Health effective Feb 16, 2025.

“I welcome Dr. de Mestre to this position and look forward to working with her on the college leadership team,” says Lorin D. Warnick, D.V.M., Ph.D. ’94, the Austin O. Hooey Dean of Veterinary Medicine. “Her expertise in scientific leadership will bring tremendous benefits to Baker and to the college as a whole.”

de Mestre takes over for Colin Parrish, Ph.D. ’84, the John M. Olin Professor of Virology, who stepped in as interim director after Dr. Gerlinde Van de Walle, who served from late 2022 until May 30, 2024. Parrish had previously served as the institute’s director from 2010-2016. “Dr. Parrish has been an outstanding leader and researcher for the Baker Institute,” says Warnick. “We are grateful for his steady guidance throughout the years, including this last period of serving as interim director. I also thank Dr. Van de Walle for her capable leadership, and Associate Dean for External Programs Dr. David Lee for his efforts on behalf of the Institute in recent years.” 

With de Mestre stepping into the role, the legacy of Baker-trained leadership continues: de Mestre first came to the institute to take part in Baker Institute’s Leadership Program for Veterinary Students, and then later returned to work as a postdoctoral position with Dr. Douglas Antczak, now Dorothy Havemeyer McConville Professor Emeritus, where she combined her interest in genetics, pregnancy immunobiology and offspring health — topics that she still studies today.

de Mestre’s training began in her home country of Australia; she received her BVSc from the University of Sydney, going on to work in a leading equine clinical practice in Australia where she specialized in reproduction. “We were focused on treating disease processes of neonatal life, but essentially those diseases resulted from pathologies that originated much earlier in embryonic and fetal life,” says de Mestre. “Here started my fascination with the link between fetal and neonatal health and pathologies that lead to a pregnancy failing.”

de Mestre went on to earn a Ph.D. from the John Curtain School of Medical Research, Australian National University before returning to Cornell as a postdoctoral researcher with Antczak to study placental trophoblast cell differentiation and immune system regulation during pregnancy in the horse.

In 2007, de Mestre joined the Royal Veterinary College as a lecturer in the Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences and would go on to hold several research and administrative positions there for 15 years. 

In 2023, de Mestre returned to CVM as a professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences. At Cornell, she has continued to oversee the Equine Pregnancy Laboratory program, which focuses on unraveling the molecular and cellular mechanisms that support placental function and fetal development in health and disease. She became the Dorothy Havemeyer McConville Professor in Equine Medicine at the Baker Institute on July 1, 2024. That same year, she also was named director of the newly launched cross-campus initiative, Cornell Equine. 

Now, de Mestre is ready to jump into her newest role as Baker director. “It is an incredibly exciting moment to take up the reins as we traverse our 75th year of advancing the health of animals and humans through scientific discoveries and delivering world class training for veterinary researchers. I am both deeply honored and dedicated to lead this impactful organization, renowned for its history of translating its groundbreaking discoveries into vital veterinary treatments and diagnostics utilized worldwide.”

Written by Lauren Cahoon Roberts