Greetings!

With the first term of our 2020-21 year underway and celebrating the news of our record enrollment, I want to take some time this week to highlight a couple of our outstanding faculty members. I think you will appreciate their credentials, both professional and academic, as well as their commitment to our mission.

Dr. Robert Adamski is our full-time Associate Professor of Captive Care and Wildlife for Hybrid Learning. He joined Unity College in August of 2019. Dr. Adamski also serves as the Program Chair for our Captive Wildlife Care and Education Program. He is a certified Wildlife Veterinarian with a terminal degree in Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, awarded by the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Dr. Adamski completed internships at Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) in Saskatoon, Canada, and the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland.

He is skilled in veterinary and wildlife rehabilitation sciences and consults with numerous organizations including Avian Haven, the Center for Wildlife in Cape Neddick, the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council (IWRC), and the Wildlife Rehabilitators Association of Massachusetts (WRAM) that services all of New England. He has a unique background including serving as a clinician and an educator in his field, specializing in exotic animals, and is a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps.

“The whole point of me being here is I want to impart the passion and love I have for wildlife and conservation medicine to our students. You can make a real difference in conservation issues, wildlife conservation, and veterinary medicine, so I want to pass the love I have on to my students,” said Dr. Adamski upon his hiring at Unity College.

Dr. Kristyn Vitale is our full-time Assistant Professor in Animal Health and Behavior for Distance Education. She received a Ph.D. in Animal Science with a focus in Experimental Psychology from Oregon State University and a Master’s in Environmental Science from Miami University. She holds a B.S. in Zoology and a B.A. in Social Geography from Kent State University. Her areas of specialization are animal behavior, animal cognition, and human-animal interaction. Dr. Vitale’s research focuses specifically on domestic cat behavior and the cat-human relationship.

During her graduate career, she worked as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and a Visiting Research Fellow at Kyoto University in Japan, where she conducted cross-cultural research into cat-human social interaction. Dr. Vitale’s research on cat behavior and human-animal interaction has been published in multiple peer-reviewed journals.

Her innovative research has generated significant international attention from media outlets including Science, National Geographic, The New York Times, and The Times of London. She has taught a variety of in-person and online courses on animal behavior and welfare, including courses focused on enrichment, learning, behavior modification, and cat training. She is also an active public speaker and is frequently invited to present at professional associations and to the general public.
It is Dr. Vitale’s vision to provide high-quality distance education experiences that foster critical thinking and empower students to become leaders in the field of animal health and behavior.

Drs. Adamski and Vitale each answered a call to help others and the world, and are truly living examples of the Unity College mission. We are proud to provide these excellent faculty members and their colleagues to our students. I encourage you to check out our Hybrid Learning and Distance Education faculty to learn more about their broad range of credentials and experiences. We work hard to ensure our students are receiving an education from industry leaders who prepare them to embark on exciting careers.

I encourage you to reach out to us with any questions. You can contact us at development@unity.edu.

In Unity,

Dr. Melik Peter Khoury
President