The Animal Care & Use Program is pleased to announce the 2025 winners of the Excellence in Research Animal Care & Use Award.
Established in 2019, this awards program celebrates staff excellence in the humane care and use of animals within the University of Michigan (U-M) research community.
Ashley Duval – 2025 Animal Care & Use Award Winner
Ashley Duval, a Quality Assurance Specialist in the Animal Care & Use Office, was named winner of the 2025 Animal Care & Use Program Excellence in Research Award for her outstanding contributions to outreach and education.
Ashley assists investigators with improving their compliance confidence, developing tailored trainings, and serving as an important educational resource about regulatory frameworks, compliance, and animal welfare for the entire Animal Care & Use Program.
Her deep knowledge of regulations, passion for education, and kindness led to her nomination. Ashley has prioritized the highest standards of animal welfare through her contributions to the standard operating procedure(s) for the cagewash program, helping to open and manage a new facility in 2008, and rolling out a new protocol template.
“It takes a rare individual to be able to work as a link in all of the various chains, combining knowledge, combing through peoples’ frustrations to get to the root cause of problems, and communicating with kindness in order to ensure that all of our animals are provided with exceptional welfare. Ashley Duval provides that service and, without her, the millions of small, missed connections between different researchers, IACUC members, and animal care staff that make the difference between ‘standard’ daily operations and excellent daily operations would be missed,” stated Travis Stein, Assistant Director of Husbandry Operations.
Thank you for your commitment to ensuring the highest standards of animal welfare, Ashley! We are thrilled to celebrate your hard work and dedication.
Juri Miyamae – 2025 Research Community Winner
Juri Miyamae, Research Technician Lead and postdoctoral researcher in the Evolution and Motion of Biology and Robotics (EMBiR) lab, was named winner of the 2025 Animal Care & Use Program Excellence in Research Award for her many efforts to enhance innovation and collaboration within her lab.
Juri is responsible for the daily care of jerboas – small, bipedal desert rodents – in the EMBiR lab, where she leads with compassion and a commitment to uphold the highest animal welfare standards while managing multiple research projects.
She continues to serve as a model for exceptional animal care through the creation of many protocols that are now standard best practices of care for jerboas in laboratory animal medicine at U-M. Juri’s work has made headway into a new subfield of biomedical research by identifying a novel structure of branched tendons.
“Juri’s official title is research lab technician lead. However, just calling her a lab technician or animal caretaker is a disservice to her outstanding commitment to the jerboas,” said fellow Ph.D. student Anvay Pradhan. “Since the day [the animals] arrived, Juri has managed everything for them, including daily health checks and feeding, communication with veterinarians, and routine facility inspections. As a result, Juri has become an expert on jerboa handling and care. It’s only because of her that we are one of two research labs in the world to have the incredible opportunity to work with, and learn from, this unique species.”
Congratulations, Juri! We are proud to recognize your exceptional care and commitment to these special animals.