Anatomy of an Exceptional and Life-Changing Professor

Occipital, parietal, temporal are words the first-year veterinary students will hear a lot over the next three hours as they examine the animal skulls on the lab tables in front of them, but first their anatomy professor offers these: “massive transition,” “right on track,” “very OK.”

The possibly disappointing results of the first big test of their challenging veterinary education were posted less than an hour ago, and Dr. Mathew Gerard, teaching professor of veterinary anatomy at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine, is sympathetic.

“Perhaps this is not your usual performance,” he says in the accent of his native Coffs Harbour, Australia. “This is a massive transition to make from what you probably were doing four weeks ago, and we’re allowing for that. This is what we expect after our first exam: a range of grades. We’re feeling OK with how you’re doing.”

Gerard knows the first month of four years of veterinary school is undeniably daunting, even without the immediate need to memorize bones, muscles and organs and dissect skin, tendons and nerves, so he makes sure the students understand he’s available to talk. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Gerard, who is uniformly described as empathetic, supportive and amazing, has won multiple outstanding teaching awards, including a campuswide award in 2019, during his two decades at NC State University. His impact on students, both professionally and personally, is far-reaching.

“When you come into a professional curriculum like veterinary school, you don’t expect the support that you are granted in this program,” says Brittany Aveni, a second-year student from Ohio. “Dr. Gerard really defines from the beginning that it is a collaborative group effort. He’s very approachable but also very passionate, not just about the material itself, but also about teaching and making an impact on the lives of his students. He goes above and beyond every day.”

Gerard, who received his BVSc at the University of Sydney, Australia, in 1992, completed his large animal surgery residency at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine in 1997. He returned to Australia to get a Ph.D. in equine exercise physiology before joining the NC State faculty in 2001 as a clinical assistant professor of large animal surgery. His wife, Dr. Wendy Simpson, completed her DVM at NC State in 1995 and now owns the Morrisville Cat Hospital outside Raleigh.

‘None Better Than Mat’

Having grown up on a farm, Gerard always had a passion for animals, and he spent time working at a local veterinary practice. His father, who died in 2017, had spent a year at vet school before changing paths to become a surgeon of humans. When Gerard was considering what he wanted to do, his father suggested veterinary medicine.

“The profession has fit me hand in glove,” says Gerard, noting that he had a strong aversion to a career spent inside an office building. “Dad and I shared many patient stories over the years. After he retired from surgery full-time, he, for a short while, taught human anatomy at a local med school.”

One aspect Gerard enjoyed the most about his clinical surgeon role at NC State was mentoring fourth-year students on rotations and the hospital’s residents and interns. When an opportunity to move into full-time teaching in the anatomy department arose in 2012, he took it.

“The academic environment has kept its hooks in me, primarily because of the reward of teaching,” Gerard says. “You’re standing there, you’re talking about something — and the number of times I could have recorded the chorus of ‘Ohhhhhs’ from teaching a small group of students when they all get it at the same time. That part is a little adrenaline endorphin release, for sure.”

Dr. Laura Nelson, currently associate vice provost for Academic Personnel and Policy at NC State University, was associate dean and director of academic affairs at the College of Veterinary Medicine when she nominated Gerard for the NC State Outstanding Teaching Award five years ago.

“I’ve worked with some outstanding educators, but none better than Mat,” she says. “He is an amazing balance of deeply knowledgeable but also caring and humble. I believe that learners feel safe working with him because he shares his expertise rather than wielding it in ways that make them feel small. He treats his students and everyone around him with dignity and respect.”

Nelson’s nomination letter credited Gerard with turning a subject that incoming students sought only to survive into one viewed as an exemplar of educational excellence. The letter was accompanied by more than 40 student testimonials that included a slew of superlatives: “amazing,” “phenomenal,” “funny,” “supportive,” “incredible,” “encouraging,” “creative” and “just the best.” 

“To describe how effective Dr. Gerard is as an instructor, I would need to write an entire dissertation,” one student said.

For Gerard, the transition from teaching surgeon to full-time anatomy instructor wasn’t entirely smooth. He spent his first year in 2012 and 2013 just trying to stay ahead of the students, he says.

“I thought, ‘I know my anatomy,’ and by the end of day two, I knew I didn’t know it to the level that we were meaning to teach it,” he says with a laugh. “I knew my surgically applied anatomy, period. Everything through an incision is what I knew. And when I realized everything around that incision was what we were teaching, I had to really get after it.” 

A Calming, Can-Do Attitude

Dr. Abby Armwood, now an assistant clinical professor of pathology, completed her DVM at NC State in 2017 and had Gerard for anatomy in Gerard’s second year of teaching the subject. She says she would have thought he’d been at it 20 years. 

Anatomy was particularly challenging for Armwood because she was pursuing aquatic medicine. 

“Learning the horse limb anatomy, when fish don’t even have limbs, was really intimidating to me,” says Armwood, one of several NC State faculty members who learned anatomy from Gerard as students. “Dr. Gerard was always very available. He was very approachable. He had a very calming, can-do kind of attitude. He made anatomy a much more approachable topic, even for someone who was hoping to do fish in the end.”

Aveni, a national-caliber runner and Duke University graduate, was accepted to the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine in 2021 but took a couple of years off to pursue her sport. She hasn’t decided on a veterinary speciality focus and says Gerard’s encouragement as she has transitioned from elite sprinter back to student has been invaluable.

“I’m full of gratitude and thanks for him continuing to support me in this journey and also reassuring me that I belong here and that it’s possible and anyone can do it,” says Aveni, who is working as a teaching assistant in anatomy this year. “Without a supportive mentor like him, I have no idea where I would be right now.”

Gerard remembers in great detail what it was like to be a veterinary student — the stress, the angst, the joy — so empathy is always close to the surface in his interactions with students. His years as a veterinary student were some of the best of his life, he says. 

“Two of my best mates are my anatomy team dissection mates from first year vet school,” Gerard says. “You spend so much time together in that environment, feeling challenged and overwhelmed by the volume of material, and you realize you’re in this thing together. When you succeed at the end of a series of many challenges, that builds a connection that’s very hard to break apart.”

Now, Gerard is the teacher who cultivates those lifelong bonds with his students. He gets invited to weddings a decade after a student’s graduation, is chosen by fourth-year students to give the Oath and Hooding address three years after anatomy class and receives thank-you cards seemingly out of the blue. 

“‘Thank you for being so welcoming and encouraging and making a daunting adjustment easier,’” Gerard reads, when asked for an example, from a card a second-year student recently sent. “‘Thank you for reassuring emails after first exams, encouraging emails during tough points in the semester, helpful life advice in class, book recommendations and great jokes.’”

Gerard is also the type of teacher who inspires other teachers. 

“He was always at student events and supporting student events, dressing up goofily, and it was really meaningful,” remembers Armwood, who sometimes finds it hard to believe she’s now Gerard’s colleague. “Seeing the amount of effort it takes to be good at teaching students, to have that availability, I just have the utmost respect for him, and I’m so grateful for all the time he invested into each and every student.”

‘Just an Average Bloke’

Gerard, who repeatedly stresses that he’s just an average bloke giving teaching a go, says he simply tries to model kindness in all of his interactions. Teaching is its own reward.

“The opportunity to see them arrive in first year, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, generally somewhat terrified, and to see them crossing that stage in fourth year after such tremendous effort is gratifying,” he says. “I know I’m contributing to the education of this next wave of veterinarians, which exponentially increases the impact of what you’re doing because of all the impact these individual students are going to have in their careers.” 

Between lectures and labs, first-year students may spend up to 12 hours a week with Gerard and his colleagues learning anatomy. 

The day after the lab on bones, the students and their scalpels are probing cadavers, looking at the muscles of the head and neck.

Gerard, microphone activated, winds his way through the dozen or so tables, stopping to make sure students are understanding what they’re seeing and talking to the entire group through the lab’s sound system.

Suzanne Henke, a North Carolina native, holds forceps as she stands with three other first-year students taking turns on a dissection. 

“He’s fun during lectures, so he holds your attention very well,” says Henke, when asked to describe Gerard as a teacher. “We’re in that room all day, so it’s important to feel comfortable but also involved and connected to what he’s teaching. And he makes it easy.”

With his personality, she says, his wise teaching, his heart.