Michael Cates
Director, Master of Public Health program
Professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology
Michael Cates, director of Kansas State University's Master of Public Health program
and professor in the department of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology at K-State's
College of Veterinary Medicine, has spent his 30-year career on work related to the
connections between animal and human health.
Cates joined K-State's interdisciplinary Master of Public Health program in 2008.
He is a retired U.S. Army brigadier general and former commanding general of the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine and chief of the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps. He was named the American Veterinary Medical Association's representative to the One Health Joint Steering Committee in 2009 and now serves as secretary and treasurer of the One Health Commission, a national group established to spotlight the connections between human, animal and environmental health.
Cates retired from the Army after 28 years. He began his military career as the lone veterinarian at Fort Bragg, N.C., one of the largest and busiest veterinary clinics in the U.S. He continued in various positions in Hawaii and New Jersey, went on to become the deputy commander of Army Veterinary Services in Korea, then in Europe. He went on to serve in several key senior veterinary leadership positions: commander of Tennessee Valley District Veterinary Command; director of Animal Medicine and Operations, U.S. Army Veterinary Command; commander of the Great Plains Regional Veterinary Command; and commander, Veterinary Services Europe. In 2004 he was selected by President Bush and the secretary of defense to serve as the senior Army officer responsible for veterinary medicine and public health.
Cates received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Texas A&M University in 1980, and was named an outstanding alumnus of the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine in 2005. He received his Master of Public Health from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston in 1987. He also is a distinguished Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine.
Cates can be reached at 785-532-2117 or cates@k-state.edu.