Gies Awards Celebration to be held March 19, 2012, in Orlando, Florida
WASHINGTON, D.C. - August 3, 2011 (Globe Newswire) — Nominations will be accepted through November 1, 2011, for the 2012 William J. Gies Awards for Vision, Innovation, and Achievement (the Gies Awards). Presented by the ADEAGies Foundation, the Gies Awards recognize exceptional contributions to and support of oral health and dental education around the world. They will be presented at a highly anticipated celebration on March 19 in conjunction with the 2012 ADEA Annual Session & Exhibition, which will be held March 17-21 in Orlando, Florida.
The Gies Awards, named after dental education pioneer William J. Gies, Ph.D., have honored individuals and organizations that exemplify dedication to the highest standards of vision, innovation, and achievement in global oral health and dental education, research, and leadership since 2008.
"It is exciting that for the fifth year, we will recognize those who live Dr. Gies’ legacy of vision, innovation, and achievement," says Richard W. Valachovic, D.M.D., M.P.H., President of the ADEAGies Foundation and Executive Director of the American Dental Education Association (ADEA). "The ADEAGies Foundation is honored to have established a program that demonstrates how personal dedication and commitment can significantly advance global oral health."
The honorees will be selected by a distinguished panel of judges consisting of the ADEAGies Board of Trustees. The Gies Awards offer significant visibility both within and outside the dental education community, drawing much-needed attention to the essential role of dental education and educators in enhancing global oral health.
The 2011 Gies Awards honorees were (in alphabetical order): American College of Dentists; California Dental Association; Center for Women's Health at Trover Health Systems; Caswell A. Evans, Jr., D.D.S., M.P.H.; Michelle M. Henshaw, D.D.S., M.P.H.; J. Bernard Machen, D.D.S., M.S., Ph.D.; Diarmuid B. Shanley, B.D.S., M.A., M.Sc.D.; Tufts University School of Dental Medicine; and University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry.
The nominations deadline is November 1, 2011. Download a copy of the Gies Awards Call for Nominations.
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About The William J. Gies Foundation: The William J. Gies (pronounced guys) Foundation was established in 1950 by colleagues 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 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 voice of dental education. Its members include all U.S. and Canadian dental schools and many allied and postdoctoral 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, PASS, and CAAPID.
