ADEAGies Foundation Announces Winners of Inaugural William J. Gies Awards for Vision, Innovation, Achievement

WASHINGTON, Jan 15, 2008 (ASCRIBE NEWS via COMTEX) -- OPHM | news | PowerRating | PR Charts -- The ADEAGies Foundation is pleased to announce the winners of the inaugural William J. Gies Awards for Vision, Innovation, and Achievement. Named after William J. Gies, a pioneer in dental education, "The Gies Awards" recognize contributions to and support of global oral health and education initiatives. The Gies Awards will be presented at a black-tie celebration on March 29, 2008, in conjunction with the 85th ADEA Annual Session at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas. OraPharma, Inc., is a premier sponsor of the awards ceremony in recognition of its sponsorship of the Foundation's curriculum change initiatives.

The 2008 honorees were selected by a distinguished panel of judges consisting of the ADEAGies Foundation Board of Trustees. The winners in alphabetical order are:

Michael C. Alfano, D.M.D., Ph.D., New York University: Outstanding Vision-Dental Educator

University of Maryland Baltimore College of Dental Surgery: Outstanding Vision-Academic Dental Institution

Marcia A. Boyd, D.D.S., M.A.: Outstanding Achievement-Dental Educator

Charles J. Goodacre, D.D.S., M.S.D., Loma Linda School of Dentistry: Outstanding Innovation-Dental Educator

Harvard School of Dental Medicine: Outstanding Vision-Academic Dental Institution

Louisiana State University School of Dentistry: Outstanding Innovation-Academic Dental Institution

National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research: Outstanding Vision-Public/Private Partner

David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., National Center for Primary Care: Oustanding Achievement-Public/Private Partner

University of Iowa College of Dentistry: Outstanding Achievement-Academic Dental Institution

"It's a privilege to recognize these award winners, each of whom took on a challenge in global oral health and education and pursued it tirelessly," said Richard W. Valachovic, D.M.D., M.P.H., President of the ADEAGies Foundation and Executive Director of the American Dental Education Association (ADEA). "All of them will inspire continued achievement in our field, just as William J. Gies has."

The Gies Awards are presented by the ADEAGies Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the American Dental Education Association. For more than 50 years, the ADEAGies Foundation has enhanced the oral health of the public through programs that support dental education, research, leadership, and recognition.

Tickets for the celebration are $85 and can be purchased online at http://www.adea.org . Sponsored tables are available. For more information, please contact Erin Mote at 703-506-3260.

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ABOUT THE WILLIAM J. GIES FOUNDATION: The William J. Gies (pronounced guys) Foundation was established in 1950 by colleagues and admirers of Dr. Gies with seed funds raised by the American College of Dentists. It was a private foundation and the first U.S. foundation to support dental education and scholarship. In 2002, it joined with the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) to form ADEAGies Foundation, a public foundation.

ABOUT WILLIAM J. GIES AND THE GIES REPORT: William Gies was a Columbia University biochemistry professor and founder of the College of Dental Medicine at Columbia University where he was interested in dental education, science, and clinical applications. In 1926, as part of a series of studies on U.S. professional education funded by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Dr. Gies published a landmark report that established the importance of dentistry as a healing science and an essential component of higher education in the health professions. The Gies Report, Dental Education in the United States and Canada, took five years to research and write. It consists of 250 pages of text and more than 400 pages of appendices, including lengthy descriptions and evaluations of the existing dental schools, each of which Dr. Gies visited. Since the Gies Report, there have been many other reports on dental education in the context of health professions education. However, Dental Education in the United States and Canada remains to this day the most relevant survey of dental education and critical issues within the field.

About ADEA: The American Dental Education Association (ADEA) is the leading national organization for dental education. Its members include all U.S. and Canadian dental schools and many advanced dental education programs, allied dental education programs, corporations, faculty, and students. The mission of ADEA is to lead individuals and institutions of the dental education community to address contemporary issues influencing education, research, and the delivery of oral health care for the health of the public. ADEA's activities encompass a wide range of research, advocacy, faculty development, meetings, and communications like the esteemed Journal of Dental Education, as well as the dental school admissions services AADSAS and PASS.

ON THE WEB: HTTP://www.adeagiesfoundation.org

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