Monthly Communication - October 2007 Edition

It is because of our students, staff and faculty that our School enjoys unprecedented success. While many factors play into the support of this reputation, we pause to recognize more than five hundred affiliate faculty members in particular who have been incredibly generous with their time and talents to help train our next generation of dental practitioners. Thank you for your service.

-Martha

CAMPUS COMMUNITY

University of Washington President Mark Emmert hosted members of UW faculty, staff and students for his annual address in Kane Hall on October 16. He included the Regional Initiatives in Dental Education (RIDE) in his remarks, as well as the Husky Promise and emphasized the University’s ongoing international focus, proudly announcing that we lead all other institutions in number of students serving in the Peace Corps. The exponential growth he described, from which we will all benefit, is remarkable.

DENTAL COMMUNITY CONTACTS

From October 3 through 8 I traveled to Japan for the “Second Hiroshima Conference on Education and Science in Dentistry”.  This year’s conference was remarkable for two reasons. First, attendees’ time was concentrated on both dental research and dental education-related lectures and presentations; and, second, because I learned a great deal about the breadth of dental education in Asia and the deans’ role in this arena.  The conference was memorable and provided me an opportunity to interact with a diverse group of dental school leaders on a variety of topics, such as the challenges and opportunities in research, education, outreach, workforce and access to care.

On October 12, I had the pleasure of meeting with newly-elected WSDA president Dexter Barnes (‘69), which provided each of us an opportunity to share news about our respective organizations.  I look forward to meeting with Dr. Barnes on a regular basis and to continuing to cultivate the relationship between the Association and the School in the year ahead.

I traveled to Toronto to participate in the U.S. Bone and Joint Decade Young Investigators workshop from October 26 through 30.  I’m grateful to be able to take part in this event, where faculty serve as mentors to “new” faculty from the U.S. and Canada to include physicians, dentists, physical therapists, nurses, PhDs, etc.  Discussions and presentations focused on grant writing, negotiating your package, mock student sections, building the team and work/life balance.  More information is available online:  www.usbjd.org

FACULTY

The School of Dentistry is pleased to extend a warm welcome to Ana Martinez, DDS.  Dr. Martinez joined the Department of Oral Medicine in June as a Visiting Assistant Professor and will serve as the acting co-director of the General Practice Residency (GPR) Program and a Faculty Attending in the Hospital Dental Clinic.  Dr. Martinez graduated from the Cayetano Heredia Peruvian University Dental School where she also did her Residency in Dentistry and Management for patients with special needs, then proceeded to Witten/Herdecke Private University Dental School in Germany where she had post-graduate education and work experience as faculty in management of patients with special needs.  She completed a Residency and Fellowship in the Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington.  She has proved to be an excellent fit to the philosophy of our school and the department and we are very excited to have her here.

The Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and UW School of Dentistry welcomes Mark Engelstad, DDS, MD as Clinical Associate Professor and Chief of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Dental Services at Harborview Medical Center.  Dr. Engelstad comes to us from the University of Minnesota, where he has served as an Clinical Assistant Professor and Head of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Hennepin County Medical Center, the region’s premier Level 1 trauma center, since 2001.  With his appointment, Dr. Engelstad will expand and advance the treatment of craniomaxillofacial trauma and uphold HMC’s commitment to serve the community and patients from all walks of life.

Following a year of service as Vice Chair, Tom Morton (‘75) has been elected Chair of the Faculty Council.  He will attend the semi-monthly Executive Committee meetings as the Council Representative.  Thank you, Tom, for your ongoing commitment to your fellow faculty members and service to our school.

Please join me in welcoming Pollene Speed-McIntyre (‘80) as the newest part-time faculty member in the Department of Restorative Dentistry.  Dr. Speed-McIntyre’s employment status with the School was increased to fifty percent in October.  This adjustment accounts for her service as Chair of the School of Dentistry Admissions Committee and expanded role as Acting Assistant professor.  Dr. Speed-McIntyre will work with the Office of  Educational Partnerships and research issues focused on oral health disparities as well as clinical teaching in restorative dentistry.  Thank you, Pollene, for your commitment to our School and the community.

It gives me great pride to recognize the newest faculty members of our Admissions Committee:  Sandy Phillips, Whasun Chung and Philippe Hujoel.  They join fellow members in their relentless pursuit to recruit and retain the best and brightest dental school applicants.  In addition, the community members of our newly-appointed committee are Dick McCoy, Art DiMarco, Rhonda Savage (’89) and Larry Lawton (’75).  Dr. DiMarco is also a faculty member at Eastern Washington University and Dr. Lawton is in private practice in Spokane.  Following orientation each fall, new members are initiated by participating in applicant interviews which take place each year at this time. Please join me in commending them for their participation in this critical process and for their service to our school.

STUDENTS

In October we received the final scores from the National Board.  I’m pleased to tell you that the Class of 2007 earned the second highest average score in the nation on the National Board Part II, with a 98.2% pass rate.  This achievement is the result of the collective hard work. Thank you, faculty and staff, and congratulations to our newest alumni!  

Please join me in congratulating class presidents Oleg Shvartsur (’11), Eric Cadwell (’10), Parker Haley (’09), Derick Hahn (’08) and Student Council President Garret Yamaguchi (’08) on their re-election.  Each quarter the Associate Deans and I meet with these student “ambassadors” to learn more about their classmates’ needs and interests, and what we can do as a School to enhance their experience.  Class presidents play a critical role in helping us shape the trajectory of their dental school education.  I look forward to hosting future conversations with these students on related topics.

REGIONAL INITIATIVES IN DENTAL EDUCATION (RIDE)

Community leaders, members of the Washington State Dental Association (WSDA) and faculty and staff from the UW, Eastern Washington University (EWU) and Washington State University (WSU) gathered in Spokane on October 10 for “Eastern Edge”, a quarterly presentation sponsored by EWU, the Spokane Teachers Credit Union and the Greater Spokane Inc.  This quarter’s focus was on the Regional Initiatives in Dental Education, or RIDE.  RIDE Program Director Wendy Mouradian and UW School of Dentistry RIDE team members Dick McCoy, Diane Daubert, Dave Pitts, Frank Roberts and Sara Kim joined keynote speakers Art DiMarco, DMD, interim dental director for the RIDE program at EWU and Jim Sledge (‘79), a Spokane dentist and the regional clinical director for the RIDE program to share ideas about the social and economic benefits of RIDE in eastern Washington.  More than forty guests were in attendance.  A maximum of eight students will be admitted to the RIDE program beginning in 2008 and will spend their first year of dental school at the Riverpoint Campus in Spokane.

PARTNERS IN DIVERSITY DINNER

On October 16 more than sixty stakeholders gathered at Ivar’s Salmon House in Seattle for the School’s first “Partners in Diversity” Dinner.  The dinner brought together alumni, students, faculty, staff and community leaders from eastern and western Washington.  The discussion focused on the growing disparity in oral healthcare among underrepresented communities in our region and how we can attract and retain students from underrepresented populations into dental professions.  Douglass Jackson’s keynote address highlighted the progress that has been made to-date and UW President Mark Emmert reported on the University’s efforts to ensure diversity while operating under constraints that prohibit use of affirmative action programs.

AWARDS and HONORS

The University of Washington School of Dentistry and Department of Prosthodontics are pleased to announce that Jennifer Emerson and Madelyn Fletcher Stark have been chosen as the 2007 David H. Wands Fellows in Graduate Prosthodontics. This year’s decision was unique because of the committee’s decision to bestow the award on two applicants, rather than choosing one over the other, as in previous years.  Dr. Wands, a 1972 graduate and former faculty member in the Department of Prosthodontics, established the David H. Wands Endowment Fellowship in Graduate Prosthodontics in appreciation of his prosthodontics alma mater. The intent of the $500,000 fellowship is to provide financial support for graduate students enrolled in the UW Graduate Program in Prosthodontics, leading to the award of a Certificate in Prosthodontics and/or a Master of Science in Dentistry. 

EVENTS AND CONFERNCES

On October 19 and 20 the Department of Orthodontics hosted Frank Spear (DDS ’79, MSD ’82 Periodontal Prosthodontics) at the Waterfront Activities Center (WAC) for a lecture, titled “Creating Excellent Esthetic Results: It's more than lumineers”. This annual event is typically open to graduate students of the program only. However, this year the invitation to attend Dr. Spear’s lecture included all school faculty, staff and students and was followed by a reception, which was also held at the WAC. As the founder and director of the Seattle Institute of Advanced Dental Education, Dr. Spear is universally-recognized as one of the premier educators in esthetic and restorative dentistry in the world today. Dr. Spear is an Affiliate Professor in the graduate prosthodontics program and maintains a private practice in Seattle limited to esthetics and fixed prosthodontics.

On September 20, the UW Institute on Aging co-sponsored the “Interdisciplinary Geriatric Research Forum” on the challenges of interdisciplinary research in geriatric health. The forum was co-sponsored by the UW Center for Interdisciplinary Geriatric Research and included a keynote lecture by Seth Landefeld, MD, from University of California San Francisco, who directs their Center on Aging and focuses his clinical and research on improving medication safety and reducing errors in geriatric medicine. Dean Emeritus Nancy Hooyman of the UW School of Social Work; Sanjay Asthana, head of Geriatrics and Gerontology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine; Heather Young, Director of the Hartford Center for Geriatric Nursing Excellence and the Rural Health Research program at Oregon Health & Science University, and Shelly Gray, Professor in the UW School of Pharmacy, discussed the importance of interdisciplinary research for advancing knowledge in all aspects of geriatrics and gerontology. Led by panel chair Asuman Kiyak, director of the UW Institute on Aging and Professor of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery in the School of Dentistry, the panel addressed the role of administrators and mentors in supporting and encouraging faculty to become involved in interdisciplinary teams that conduct innovative clinical and basic science research projects to improve the quality of life of diverse elders and the growing population of older Americans.

IN MEMORIAM

We are deeply saddened by the death of Dr. Alton Moore who passed away on October 23. He was an original member of the UW School of Dentistry faculty and served as Associate Professor and Chairman of the Department of Orthodontics from 1948 until 1966; as Associate Dean from 1966 to 1977, and Dean of the School of Dentistry from 1977 until his retirement in 1980. The family hosted a remembrance at the University Club on the UW campus on November 11. It was attended by Dr. Moore's many friends and colleagues. His son, John, who is an orthodontist and longtime faculty member in the Department of Orthodontics spoke about his personal relations with his dad. Others who spoke remembered the early years of the development of the School of Dentistry and the significant role that Dr. Moore played in recruiting new faculty and setting the school on its ultimate path as one of the premier dental schools in the U.S. Members of the faculty of the Department of Orthodontics, including Bill McNeil, Don Joondeph, and Bob Little spoke about Dr. Moore's significance as a leader in orthodontics, his skill as a teacher and his vision for orthodontic education, much of which is still in place and has been emulated by other departments around the world.

Dr. Bruce Brownfield Smith passed away on October 28 following an illness. He will be fondly remembered and missed by his numerous colleagues and students. A second generation dentist, Dr. Smith was one of the original faculty members at the new University of Washington School of Dentistry, teaching Operative Dentistry, Crown and Bridge and Ceramics part-time. Among his many accomplishments, Dr. Smith was a founder and first President of the American Academy of Gold Foil Operators (1952 and 1953) and was the recipient of the 1998-99 Seattle King County Dental Society Service Award in honor of his 57 years of dental practice. Most notably, he was the first in the United States to organize a closed circuit T.V. presentation of chair dental operations for the Washington State dental meeting in Seattle.

 

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