Coretta C. Patterson DVM, DACVIM-SA, PG Cert Vet Med, has joined the board of the CPASS Foundation. She will be serving a three-year term that began January 1, 2026. As the first veterinarian and professional health dean named to the board, she helps to round out CPASS’s leadership.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Dr. Patterson to the CPASS Board,” said Dr. Eric E. Whitaker, Board Chairman. “Her leadership and commitment to expanding opportunity reflect the values at the heart of CPASS. With her passion for education and distinguished work in veterinary medicine, she will strengthen our efforts and inspire our scholars.”
In her role on the board, Dr. Patterson hopes to widen pathways for the next generation of students. Eager to welcome more students of color to the veterinary profession, Dr. Patterson has already launched an annual 1-day immersive exploratory experience for STEMM Scholars at Midwestern University, where she serves as dean of the veterinary college.
“It’s exciting, especially to be from Chicago and to be a part of this,” she said. “As a board member at CPASS, I hope to be a bridge to my university and the organization. I want to broaden reach and access to opportunity this institution’s work with students from all backgrounds including those from historically under-resourced communities. It’s important for me to give back and make sure that I’m paving the way for other young people.”
Her Path to Animal Science
Dr. Patterson grew up on the Southeast Side of Chicago and attended Whitney Young High School. Her early exposure to animals—and her mother’s insistence on academic rigor—set her on the veterinary path.
“In first grade, my neighbor gave me a book, What I Want to Be from A to Z, and V was veterinarian. From then on, that’s what I said I was going to be,” she said. “My mother was a registered nurse, and I got the impression being around sick people is a drag, but I always loved animals.”
She spent childhood summers caring for animals on a family hobby farm in Alabama and began volunteering at the Chicago Anti‑Cruelty Society at age 15, after persistently pleading with them to allow it despite being under their age minimum for volunteers.
Dr. Patterson’s connection the Chicago Area Health and Medical Careers Program™ (CAHMCP, or “Champs”), the precursor to CPASS, began when her mother signed her up for the program in high school. She went every Saturday. That experience became foundational.
CAHMCP even helped fund some of her prerequisite college coursework. Her husband, a physician at The Ohio State University Medical Center, also benefitted from CAHMCP. “Champs absolutely played a role in me realizing my dreams,” she said.
Dr. Patterson earned her undergraduate and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degrees from University of Illinois at Urbana. She is a board-certified specialist, licensed to practice veterinary medicine in eight states, and has extensive clinical and academic experience. She served as president of the National Association for Black Veterinarians 2023-2024.
Dr. Patterson currently serves as the founding dean for the proposed Chicago College of Veterinary Medicine at Midwestern University, in Downers Grove, Illinois. The college is in the later phases of its accreditation process and will welcome its first class of DVM candidates in August 2028.
As the first veterinary medical school to operate in the Chicago area in over a century, the Chicago College of Veterinary Medicine presents an opportunity to mentor urban students who might not otherwise get exposure to the field of animal medicine, a mission that aligns with that of the CPASS Foundation.
Why the Board Role Matters
For Dr. Patterson, joining the CPASS board is about expanding both the organization’s scope and Illinois students’ understanding of health careers beyond human medicine. Public health depends on a stronger connection between human and animal health fields, she emphasized, pointing to diseases like COVID‑19 and avian influenza.
“There’s a preponderance of medical doctors on the board, but the program is about all health careers, not just human medicine,” she said. “We need to be thoughtful about the interaction between human healthcare and animal healthcare.”
She’s also intentional about welcoming more underrepresented students to the vet profession. She cites an Atlantic Magazine article that called veterinary medicine “the whitest profession in America,” with only 1.2 percent representation in the field.
To her, CPASS serves as a bridge that can change this. “It’s important for kids to see that this is an option,” she said. “Everyone deserves the same opportunity to succeed. If you like animals and you like science and math, this is a viable career.”
And on a personal level, Patterson sees the appointment as a responsibility as well as an honor. “I’ve achieved a lot as a woman of color and it’s important to share that,” she said. “One of the things we need to learn to do is lift as we climb.”
Her leadership, both on the CPASS board and at the only Chicago-area veterinary college, reflects a full‑circle journey—from CAHMCP student to clinician to educator– shaping the landscape for students who will follow. “I wanted to work alongside the brilliant people at CPASS because I think I can be helpful, but also because I can learn from them.”