Joanna (Jo) Price is UCO’s Chair of the Board. She is an Emeritus Professor at the Royal Agricultural University (RAU), having served as Vice-Chancellor until 2021, the first woman to lead that small, specialist land-based institution since its foundation 175 years ago. She is also UCO’s first female Chair. Jo joined the RAU from the University of Bristol where she was Head of the Veterinary School, and prior to this was Head of the Department of Veterinary Basic Sciences at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), London, another small specialist institution.
After qualifying as a vet from Bristol University, Jo spent a number of years working in clinical practice (equine and small animal) before returning to academia. Jo spent a number of years as a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow (at the University of Sheffield, the RVC and University College London), before being appointed as a senior lecturer and then professor at the RVC. Her research addressed the mechanisms by which bone regenerates (as in deer antlers) and adapts to mechanical loading. The goal being to develop treatment and prevention strategies for human diseases affecting skeletal fragility such as osteoporosis. Alongside her basic biomedical research interests, Jo was involved in applied research on the prediction of musculoskeletal injury in horses using non-invasive methods, and on the evaluation of the effects of training on equine musculoskeletal adaptation and injury.
Current and previous external appointments reflect her interests in higher education, biomedical science, agriculture and animal health and welfare. These include; Council Member of BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Research Council); Member of Research Excellence Framework 2021 Panel for Agriculture, Food and Veterinary Sciences; Member of Council of the Dyson Institute for Engineering and Technology; Trustee of the Royal Agricultural Society of England; Director of Food and Farming Futures; Trustee of the Bristol Zoological Society; Member of the Animal Health and Welfare Strategy Framework Group for Wales; Council Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and Chair of Veterinary Schools Council Research Committee.