New York University College of Dentistry’s (NYUCD) Stuart Hirsch, D.D.S, vice dean for initiatives and development, and a professor of cariology and comprehensive care, has been announced as the winner of the William J. Gies Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Dental Educator, part of the William J. Gies Awards for Vision, Innovation, and Achievement sponsored by the American Dental Education Association (ADEA).
The Gies Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Dental Educator recognizes Vice Dean Hirsch for his leadership of NYUCD’s global outreach program, which brings dental care to populations in great need, while ensuring student opportunities for service, teaching, and research at the global level.
“Vice Dean Hirsch began 15 years ago to build a program that has become the largest voluntary, university-based, dental outreach program in the world,” said Charles N. Bertolami, the Herman Robert Fox Dean of the College of Dentistry. “From the start, his model has emphasized sustainability, both in terms of ongoing patient care and financial stability. It has also transformed the perspectives of participating students, sensitizing them to the largest dental problem in both the U.S. and the world -- access to care – and coloring the way NYU dental graduates practice professionally.”
The Gies Awards, named after dental education pioneer William J. Gies, Ph.D., debuted in 2008 to honor individuals and organizations that exemplify the highest standards in oral health and dental education, research, and leadership.
For more than 50 years as the philanthropic arm of ADEA, the ADEAGies Foundation has enhanced the oral health of the public through programs that support the development of individuals and innovative practices in the dental professions. The Gies Awards will be presented on March 9, 2015, in conjunction with the 2015 ADEA Annual Session & Exhibition in Boston, MA. The Procter & Gamble Company is the premier sponsor of the awards.
“The Gies Awards are our chance to honor the women and men who have dedicated their careers to educating students, and to celebrate our partners working to create a new health care norm where oral health is inextricably linked to overall health,” says Richard W. Valachovic, D.M.D., M.P.H., President of the ADEAGies Foundation and President and CEO of ADEA. “The dental health professions are forever changed by the work and commitment of the 2015 award recipients, and we are so pleased to recognize them in Dr. Gies’ name.”
ADEA Contact: Kellie Bove | bovek@adea.org | 202-289-7201
About New York University College of Dentistry--New York University College of Dentistry (NYUCD) is the third oldest and the largest dental school in the US, educating more than 8 percent of all dentists. NYUCD has a significant global reach and provides a level of national and international diversity among its students that is unmatched by any other dental school. http://www.nyu.edu/dental/
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, The William J. Gies Foundation 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, which took five years to research and write, 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 advanced dental education programs, corporations, deans, program directors, administrators, faculty, and students, residents and fellows. 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 ADEA AADSAS, ADEA PASS, ADEA DHCAS and ADEA CAAPID. For more information about ADEA, visit adea.org.