Dental educator receives ADEA's Distinguished Service Award
At the 82nd ADEA Annual Session held March 5-9, 2005, in Baltimore, Dr. Frank Catalanotto, 2004-05 President, presented the ADEA Distinguished Service Award to Dominick P. DePaola, DDS, PhD, a renowned dental educator who is now President and CEO of The Forsyth Institute in Boston.
This award is not granted every year, but is reserved for those times and those individuals whose contributions to education, to research, and to ADEA are so significant that an extraordinary form of recognition is needed.
In presenting the award, President Catalanotto reflected on both Dr. DePaola's outstanding professional accomplishments and the two men's long friendship, dating to the late 1960s when Dr. DePaola was a doctoral student at MIT and President Catalanotto was a research fellow and resident at Harvard.
"Dom has been on the faculty of five dental schools including serving as Dean of three," said President Catalanotto. "In each, he worked with faculty to implement a restructuring of the basic nature of those institutions to implement a more biologically based didactic and clinical curriculum and the pursuit of a very strong research mission. Just as importantly, he clearly made the case for the pursuit of strategic partnerships in furthering the excellence of the institutions with which he has been associated. In his present position at The Forsyth Institute, he has done the same thing: radically changing the focus and mission of the institution and reshaping a vigorous research mission."
Dr. DePaola is currently President of the American Association of Dental Research and was President of the American Association of Dental Schools (now the American Dental Education Association) in 1990-91-the only individual elected to both positions.
While President of AADS/ADEA, Dr. DePaola chaired a Task Force on Licensure Reform and played a lead role in accreditation reform during his tenure on CODA and the ADA Council on Dental Education. These reforms led to the use of standards based upon competencies.
Since January 1998, Dr. DePaola has headed The Forsyth Institute, a broad-based research and educational institution founded in 1910. Previously, he was Dean of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Dental School, Dean of the New Jersey Dental School at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and Dean of the Baylor College of Dentistry.
A prolific author and lecturer, Dr. DePaola has published over 65 scholarly articles and textbook chapters, in addition to editing two texts. He has served on the Pew Health Professions Commission Dental Advisory Panel, the Board of the American Fund for Dental Health, and the National Advisory Dental Research Council of the National Institutes of Health; he was elected board chairman of Oral Health America. He has also been active in nutrition-related organizations and is the only dentist elected to Honorary Membership in the American Dietetic Association.
"Through all his educational and professional accomplishments, Dr. DePaola has clearly shown himself to be a scholar, an agent of positive change, and a good citizen," said President Catalanotto. "His impact on dental education and research will be longstanding."
