An Indiana University School of Dentistry alumnus with a long history of distinguished service to the school’s part-time faculty has accepted a full-time appointment as chair of the Department of Endodontics.
Dr. Kenneth J. Spolnik, a 1975 IU dental graduate, of Zionsville, Ind., will assume the post on July 1, 2009, pending approval of the IU Board of Trustees. He will also direct IU’s advanced education program in endodontics.
Spolnik has served on IUSD’s part-time faculty since 1978, directing graduate endodontics courses and also serving as a guest lecturer in other areas. He has directed the graduate endodontic surgery course since 1994.
“He has been a constant and dedicated mentor to our graduate students, having served on the graduate and thesis committees of 46 students over the years,” Dean Lawrence I. Goldblatt said when he announced the appointment last February.
His firm commitment to dental education extends far beyond the IU dental school’s graduate program. Spolnik has been a frequent guest lecturer for IU’s predoctoral students and a longtime contributor to a variety of continuing education initiatives in Indiana and elsewhere. For more than three decades, he has belonged to the Westside Dental Study Club and the Harry J. Healey Study Club, and is a past president of both groups.
After earning his dental degree, Spolnik completed a General Practice Residency at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Indianapolis in 1976, and then earned IU’s Master of Science in Dentistry degree in endodontics in 1978.
Spolnik is a diplomate of the American Board of Endodontics and has held several key leadership positions within the American Association of Endodontists.
“In addition to his broad academic background and record, Dr. Spolnik brings to this important position a unique background of 31 years of experience in the full-time private practice of endodontics,” said Goldblatt.
Spolnik succeeds Dr. Cecil E. Brown, Jr., who led IU’s Division of Endodontics from 1993 to 2000 and subsequently the Department of Endodontics until his retirement from the IU School of Dentistry at the close of 2008. During the first half of 2009 the department was led by Acting Chair Mychel M. Vail (DDS’95, M’04 Endo), who has served on the full-time endodontics faculty since 2002.
“We are most grateful and excited that Dr. Spolnik will be joining us full time this summer, adding his remarkable experience, insight, and leadership to our school,” Goldblatt said.
May 5, 2009