Five members of the IU School of Dentistry faculty and staff were recently
honored for their contributions to dentistry, and two staff members received
scholarships in support of their pursuit of university degrees. The awards and
scholarships were presented in October at the faculty conference, held at Brown
County State Park, and at the staff conference, held at the IU dental school.
Lorinda Coan, clinical assistant professor of dental hygiene, received
the Indiana Dental Association’s “Outstanding Teacher of the Year” award in
recognition of her achievements during the 2008-2009 academic year. In addition
to managing numerous teaching assignments and other duties in the Dental Hygiene
Division of Periodontics and Allied Dental Programs, Coan has worked tirelessly
with others on the faculty and staff this past year to build upon the school’s
new Tobacco Cessation and Biobehavioral Center (TCBC), one of the IUPUI campus’s
Signature Centers. In 2008 she undertook studies at the Mayo Clinic Nicotine
Dependence Center, which enabled her to become certified as a Tobacco Treatment
Specialist. Working in recent years with members of the Oral Biology faculty,
Coan developed a tobacco education program that has been successfully integrated
into the IU dental school’s
dental hygiene curriculum. For the past year, Coan,
a trustee of the Indiana Dental Hygienists’ Association (IDHA), has participated
in a collaboration between the IDHA and TCBC that offers training in team-based
tobacco cessation to dental providers around the Hoosier state.
Dr. Michael Cochran, a professor emeritus of operative dentistry who
retired from the full-time faculty this past summer, received the Indiana Dental
Association’s “Outstanding Faculty of the Year” award in recognition of his body
of work since joining the IU faculty in 1978. He continues to teach at the
school part time as a member of the volunteer faculty. Cochran chaired the
former Department of Operative Dentistry from 1988 to 1993, and was named
director of Graduate Operative Dentistry when the department became part
of the new Restorative Dentistry department. As a national leader in his field, Cochran
brought honor and prestige to the IU School of Dentistry in 1999 by accepting
the editorship of Operative Dentistry, an international peer-reviewed journal.
Over his career he has worked closely with both predoctoral and graduate
students of dentistry, and he has been cited for clinical excellence by the
American Academy of Gold Foil Operators. He has published more than 100
abstracts and scientific articles and presented more than 200 continuing
education courses nationally and internationally in the field of restorative
dentistry.
Donald W. Johnson Community Service Awards were bestowed on full-time
periodontics professor Dr. Steven Blanchard, part-time dental hygiene
Prof.
Jane Blanchard, and part-time staff member Ms. Vickie Newkirk
of the Student Affairs office.
The Blanchards were honored principally for their outstanding work together as
longtime volunteers at the Trinity Clinic, which provides free care to
impoverished families in Hamilton County. Both Steven and Jane have also been
committed to and deeply involved in the annual Give Kids a Smile program. They
were cited for developing an American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry “Healthy
Smiles” program at Trinity, which involves quarterly fluoride varnish
applications for needy children, and for being excellent models of service in
general to both students and fellow faculty. In her role as a dedicated
volunteer, Jane Blanchard has also created and managed a bi-weekly clinical
outreach experience for the dental hygiene students at Trinity.
Vickie Newkirk, a student credentials analyst in Student Affairs, was honored
for her work with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, a charitable organization dear
to her heart because her grandson battles the disease. Decades ago, the life
expectancy for persons with cystic fibrosis was just 16 years, says Newkirk’s
daughter, Jennifer Spaulding, who presented the award. “Now, because of
fundraising and support from people like my mom, cystic fibrosis patients are
living well into their 30s, with that number rising.” Newkirk has raised money
over the years by organizing jeans days for the IU dental school. She has also
recruited students, staff, and faculty to join the Great Strides walking team or
to organize a team of their own. “Over the past few
years, the IU dental school,
because of Vickie, has raised thousands of dollars to find a cure for cystic
fibrosis,” says Spaulding.
Also during the staff conference, two employees learned that they are the newest
recipients of the IUSD Staff Council’s scholarships, which are awarded to staff
members who are juggling their careers with college studies: D. Shane
Hatchett, assistant to the chair in Orthodontics and Oral Facial
Development, and Keli D’Albano, a services representative in the Library.
A former student on the IU Bloomington campus, Shane Hatchett is now
complementing his full-time role at the dental school with his studies in Public
Management at IUPUI through the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
“It
is a broad program that focuses on public and nonprofit organizations and the
unique challenges they face in terms of behavior, administration, and policy,”
Hatchett stated in his scholarship application. His most recent course choices
have been geared toward subject matter that will help him in his work at the
dental school and aid him in the further development of his professional skills.
He finds a helpful connection between his work life and student life. “I
consider myself lucky to be in an environment where professional development and
personal education is not only permitted, but encouraged,” he wrote.
Keli D’Albano has been taking classes both at IUPUI and Ivy Tech with the
ultimate goal of earning a master’s degree in Library Science. When she
graduated from high school 12 years ago, she found an excellent fit for herself
in the workplace right away when she accepted a job at her local public library.
She’s enjoyed working at a variety of libraries ever since, but a few years ago
she realized she would need the MLS degree to help her advance in the field. In
2007, she enrolled in Ivy Tech’s Library Technical Assistant associate’s degree
program, whose courses transfer to a bachelor’s degree in General Studies at
IUPUI. “The library science courses at Ivy Tech complement the work I do at the
IUSD Library, and being engaged in learning and involved in an educational
environment again has been good for my personal development,” D’Albano stated in
her scholarship application.
November 4, 2009