Dairy spotlight: Beth Ventura
Print
EmailVentura is an animal welfare scientist passionate about building animal welfare capacity and skills amongst students training for careers with animals, with particular attention to veterinary students.
Dr. Beth Ventura joined the Michigan State University (MSU) College of Veterinary Medicine faculty as an associate professor of animal welfare in 2025. She is a proud Spartan alumna and graduated with a BS in animal science in 2007. She also holds an MSc in animal and avian science from the University of Maryland, College Park (2009) and obtained her PhD with the University of British Columbia’s Animal Welfare Program (Canada) in 2015. She has held previous faculty roles at the University of Minnesota and University of Lincoln, United Kingdom.
Dr. Ventura’s research bridges the animal and human dimensions of animal welfare, with a special interest in dairy cattle and goat welfare. Her research focuses on how different groups understand and communicate about welfare challenges to identify barriers to achieving real-world solutions. She also works within applied ethology to investigate topics like pain management, enrichment and animal cognition.
Dr. Ventura has served on the International Society for Applied Ethology ethics committee, is an associate editor for the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, and co-founded the Animal Welfare Education Community of Practice, which serves over 190 academics from over 60 institutions across the world to build capacity in animal ethology, welfare and ethics teaching in higher education.
