Relationship Builder

He’s a veterinarian. An expert in embryo transfer. An assistant professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine. An accomplished practitioner.

But more than anything else, Dr. Tyler Dohlman is a relationship builder.

• As a vet student at Iowa State… “I was always trying to connect with a professor.”
• Speaking of the veterinary practice he joined after graduating from Iowa State… “I loved it. I loved being in private practice and my colleagues and clients became some of my best friends.”
• After his wife, Amelia, became a veterinary technician supervisor at the Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center, he joined Blood Dairy in State Center, Iowa… “I knew the Bloods and I was able to do surgery and repro work for them a number of years. It just worked out and I still occasionally do work for them.”
• Now as an assistant professor at Iowa State… “One of the joys I get out of my job is building those relationships with our clients.”
• Working with current students and colleagues… “We’re a pretty close knit team.”
• Also… “It’s great when the students call and ask me questions about theriogenology after they graduate.”
• Even his former classmates… “Some of us are pretty close, so close that I have had classmates Face Time me in the middle of a surgery to get my thoughts on a case.”

Dohlman’s ability to build relationships stems from his first job working for a Pioneer Seed dealer in high school.

“I learned a lot from him,” Dohlman said. “He was a good mentor, a good friend. My father died when I was young so I was always looking for father-like figures growing up.

“I need to find people I know I can count on.”

Today it is generally Dohlman is the person many of his former classmates, students, clients and others count on. While he can accept that role, he never thought it would occur as a faculty member in the College of Veterinary Medicine.

“There wasn’t a day that the thought of me returning here to teach crossed my mind,” he said. “I was going to do cow-calf work out west. But I guess, never say never, because you never know what you will wind up doing.”

Today instead of building relationships primarily with clients, he enjoys developing relationships with students. As the co-leader of Iowa State’s Theriogenology team and leader of the Embryo Transfer Service group, Dohlman has the advantage of having motivated students in his classes and rotations.

“I don’t really enjoy lecturing 160 students,” he said, “but the students in one of our therio classes are there because they want to be. They have a passion for the subject just like we as instructors do.”