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PFA Gold Medal

This year’s PFA Gold Medal recipient has been selected and approved by the Board to be presented to Dr. Dushanka V. Kleinman, Deputy Director of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research.

Dr. Dushanka V. Kleinman

Dr. Kleinman is the newly named Assistant Director for Roadmap Coordination in the Office of the Director of NIH. She is the Deputy Director of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) at the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services; and the Chief Dental Officer of the United States Public Health Service. She graduated with her B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1969 and earned her D.D.S. degree from the University of Illinois College of Dentistry in 1973. Upon completing her dental degree, Dr. Kleinman did a Rotating Internship at the University of Chicago Hospitals and Clinics in 1974. She then went on to receive her Master’s Degree in the Science of Dentistry in Dental Public Health from the Boston University Henry Goldman School of Dental Medicine in 1976.

Dr. Kleinman has served as an Assistant Professor for two years at the University of Maryland at the Baltimore School of Dentistry before receiving her commission in the United States Public Health Service in June of 1978. Her first assignment was with the Division of Dentistry in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare’s Health Resources Administration as a dental surgeon participating in preventative dentistry and expanded duty dental auxiliary activities.

PFA Distinguished Service Award

This year’s PFA Distinguished Service Award will be presented to Dr. Jeremiah J. Lowney, Jr. of Norwich, Connecticut. Dr. Lowney is a graduate of Tufts University for his B.S. degree and Temple University School of Dental Medicine for his professional degree.

Dr. Jeremiah Lowney, Jr.

He also holds an M.S. degree in growth and development, a Certificate of Proficiency in Orthodontics from SUNY in Buffalo and another Masters degree in Public Health from the University of Connecticut (1966). He was honored by being awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters degree (honorary) from the University of Bridgeport (1989), and another from Quinnipiac University (1995).

Dr. Lowney served as Lt. Commander in the U.S. Navy. As a Rotarian, he earned the 1984 Paul Harris Fellow for Rotary District #7980. He is also a former member and chairman of the City of Norwich Personnel and Pension Board, and he served a six-year term on the Board of Finance for the town of Lebanon. He currently sits on the Board of St. Joseph Living Center, the Eastern Connecticut A.H.E.C., and the Ray & Pauline Sullivan Foundation. He has served past Directorships for the Norwich Saving Society, Norwich Quinnebaug Unit of the American Cancer Society (with two terms as their President), and of the Norwich YMCA.

He has served as Trustee for the University of Connecticut (six years), the John Dempsey Hospital (as Board Chairman), and was a member of the State of Connecticut Board of Governors for Higher Education (15 years with four as Chairman). He currently serves on the Board of the Peoples Bank since 1997.

Professionally, Dr. Lowney is a clinical assistant professor at the University of Connecticut Department of Community Medicine. He is a Fellow in ICD and ACD, a member of the American Association of Orthodontists, and served two terms as President of the Connecticut State Society of Orthodontists.

Dr. Lowney was the founding President (1982) of the Haitian Health Foundation, which provides humanitarian and health care for 200,000 poor people of Haiti. This outreach now serves 105 rural villages with 175 employees and a budget of $2.5 million.

Pope John Paul II awarded him a Papal knighthood in 1988–Knight of St. Gregory. Dr. Lowney is also a Knight of Malta, and a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre.

Dr. Lowney’s list of honors and awards is long and varied. Among them are the Connecticut Jefferson Award, the Congressional Certificate of Merit, the New London County Bar Association Liberty Bell Award, the Humanitarian Award from the New York Academy of Dentistry, ACD’s Distinguished Service Award, the Connecticut State FONES Award, the University of Connecticut’s Distinguished Alumni Award, and the 1990 Eastern Connecticut Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year Award.

Jeremiah and his wife Virginia have four children and 10 grandchildren.

PFA International Fellowship

The Awards Committee and the PFA board have approved of this International Fellowship be presented to Dr. Malvin Ring.

Dr. Malvin Ring

He was nominated by past PFA President and current Foundation Executive Director Fred Halik for this honor.

Dr. Ring graduated with a B.A. from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York in 1939. He then served in WWII before receiving his dental degree from St. Louis University School of Dentistry in 1946. He then served in the Korean Conflict and started a dental practice in Batavia, New York, before he went on to obtain a Masters of Library science in 1970.

His academic affiliations include the School of Dental Medicine, SUNY at Buffalo (1965 on); Associate Professor-emeritus in Dental History and Literature at SUNY-Buffalo, and Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Librarianship (1971-1975) at the State University College at Genesco.

Dr. Ring was the Editor of the Journal of the History of Dentistry. He is the author of Dentistry–an Illustrated History.This work has been published in six languages. It is the only book in dentistry to have been reviewed in the New York Times.

Dr. Ring has appeared on the Larry King Show, the Today Show, NOVA, PBS’ Morning Edition, and Canadian TV’s Lifetime. He has spoken on 18 radio talk shows and delivered more than 60 professional papers before various dental groups in six different countries. He is a Fellow in ACD, earned the Hayden-Harris Award from the American Academy of History of Dentistry, the “Visionary Dentist of the Millennium” Award from the American Students Dental Association (1999), and is listed in Who’s Who in the East, in the International Biographical Dictionary, and in the Dictionary of Educators.

He started life in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1919. Dr. Ring and his wife Hilde have been married for 29 years and have two children.

Dental Trade & Industry Award

The annual Dental Trade & Industry Award of Recognition has been approved for the G. C. Corporation, whose President and CEO is Makoto Nakao of Tokyo. The company was nominated for this high honor by International Trustee Mamoru Sakuda of Japan.

Makoto Nakao, G. C. Corporation

Mr. Nakao is a diligent gentleman who has made many various contributions to the development of modern dentistry worldwide. His company received the 2004 Japan Quality Medal for the recognized excellence of his products. This is not an easy award to earn. His company must demonstrate total quality management-focused activity for at least three years after winning the Deming Prize. Since 1970, only 18 companies in Japan have achieved this award.

Born in 1948, Makoto Nakao finished his doctorate in the Department of Studies of Science and Technology at the Graduate School of Waseda University in 1976. In 1974, he had joined G. C. Dental Industrial Corporation, rising to become President and CEO of the now G. C. Corporation in 1983.

He has served as President of the International Dental Manufacturers (IDM) from 1994 to 1996. In 1997 until 2001, he was President of the Japan Dental Industry Council. Before that, he had been an officer on the Japan Research Council on Dental Products (1984–present), Director for the Japanese Society for Dental Materials and Devices (1985–present), President of the Japan Dental materials Manufacturers Association (1992), was awarded honorary membership in the ADA (1996), made the List of Honor for the Asia Pacific Dental Federation (2000) and Honorary Member of ICD–USA Section in 2000.

Makoto Nakao was honored in 1995 with Commander of the Order of the Crown of Belgium, awarded the Japanese Society for Dental materials and Devices Prize in 2002, and was certified as a Person of Merit for Japanese Pharmaceutical Affairs by the Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

His company, under his leadership, has adopted the policy of providing environmentally safe dental products, made with earth-friendly processes that are people friendly and fill the needs of the dental practitioner. G. C. Corporation was established in 1921 based on three management principles—contributing to the environment and society by improving oral hygiene, improving the corporate quality to meet the customers’ expectations, and forming a team of associates striving to improve respect for their fellow man.

From the Office of Congressman Charlie Norwood…

I now know for certain that Georgia’s 9th Congressional District and the 12th Congressional District have been lumped together. This puts me into a probable race against incumbent liberal Democrat John Barrow.

In order to continue to be dentistry’s representative on the floor of the House, I will need your support. You sent me to Washington to fight for you and to be your voice in Congress. You know I have been there for our profession each and every time. And I am still fighting.

In the next few weeks, I will reintroduce the CLEAR Act, which would enlist our State and local law enforcement in the fight to combat criminal illegal aliens. Rather than put illegal aliens in prison at taxpayers’ expense, my bill would deport them immediately.