Indiana University Honors Dr. Karen Yoder for Excellence in Service
Learning (March 3, 2008)
Indiana University’s celebration of Founders Day 2008 will include
recognition for IU School of Dentistry faculty member Dr. Karen Yoder, who will
receive the Thomas Ehrlich Award for Excellence in Service Learning.
Yoder, an associate professor of preventive and community dentistry, will be
honored along with other award recipients at a luncheon preceding the Founders
Day ceremonies, which are scheduled from 2 to 4:30 pm. on March 30 at Assembly
Hall on the IU Bloomington campus.
Yoder joined the IUSD part-time faculty in 1988 and accepted a full-time
position as director of the school’s newly established Division of Community
Dentistry in 2000.
Under her direction, the division has greatly enriched IUSD’s educational
programs with diverse service-learning opportunities for students, and has
worked in tandem with many of the dental school’s faculty, staff, and students
to dramatically raise IUSD’s profile as an important healthcare resource for
persons in need throughout the state of Indiana.
The centerpiece of the dental school’s service-learning program is SEAL
INDIANA, a mobile dental service in which students and faculty travel throughout
the state to community schools and Head Start programs to assess the dental
needs of thousands of children from low-income families and to provide
age-appropriate youngsters with dental sealants and other preventive care.
Yoder holds four degrees from IU, including a PhD in Dental Science (1997),
master’s in Public Health (1983), bachelor’s in Public Health Administration
(1963), and associate degree in Dental Hygiene (1962). She has been a longtime
consultant to the Indiana Department of Health, adviser to the Matthew 25 Health
and Dental Clinic in Fort Wayne, and a leader of Indiana Donated Dental
Services. She taught part time in Dental Education on the Indiana
University-Purdue University Fort Wayne campus for more than two decades.