Dr. Aaron Johnson – IVMA President-Elect
Dr. Aaron Johnson (PU’05) is a clinical research scientist at Elanco Animal Health in Greenfield, IN. He was born and raised in southeastern Connecticut before moving to Indiana to attend Purdue University. He completed his Bachelor of Science degree in animal science (’99) and a Master of Science degree in beef cattle reproductive physiology (‘01) at Purdue before graduating with his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in 2005.Upon graduation from Purdue, Dr. Johnson worked as a small animal practitioner in Fishers and Westfield for 6 ½ years. Following his transition to industry, Dr. Johnson took a role in U.S. Regulatory Affairs at Elanco where he supported new drug development in R&D for both companion and food animal products. He was involved in interacting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine (FDA-CVM) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to advance projects in Elanco’s R&D pipeline, and was directly involved in the U.S. approval of two companion animal products and one swine product. He was also involved in numerous regulatory strategy initiatives,including FDA’s compounding of veterinary pharmaceuticals, FDA’s veterinary feed directive (VFD) modernization, and EPA’s reporting of adverse events for companion animal spot-on products.Currently Dr. Johnson works as a research scientist in Elanco’s R&D organization, where he is responsible for helping identify and advance new companion animal therapeutic molecules in Elanco’s early R&D pipeline.What Dr. Johnson loves most about this role at Elanco is the opportunity to potentially benefit thousands of veterinarians and millions of pets with new therapies he is helping to discover and develop. During his 9 years at Elanco, Dr. Johnson has also continued to practice as a weekend relief veterinarian in Indianapolis, which he says helps keep him apprised of the challenges and gaps that practitioners are currently facing.Dr.Johnson served on the Executive Board of the Central Indiana Veterinary Medical Association from 2009-2013, including two terms as President in 2010 and 2012. During that time, he was chosen as Indiana’s representative for the AVMA Emerging Leaders Program at the 2012 annual AVMA leadership meeting in Schaumburg, IL. Most recently, Dr. Johnson served on the IVMA Board of Directors from 2017-2020 as the District 11 (Central Indiana) representative.Dr. Johnson currently lives in Fishers with his wife Amber and two children. Their pets include one dog, two cats, two Guinea pigs, and a hermit crab.In his spare time, Dr. Johnson enjoys home brewing, golfing, camping, and men’s and high school ministry programs at his church.