West Virginia Meeting and Induction

Posted May 26, 2022 West Virginia PFA

The West Virginia Section of the Pierre Fauchard Academy held its annual awards ceremony and dinner on Wednesday May 11, 2022 at the beautiful Erickson Alumni Center on the campus of West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. The program began at 5:30 p.m. with a reception followed by the awards program and a great dinner.

We were especially excited as a West Virginia Section to have our Executive Director, Bob Cattoi, and our Trustee, Dr. Ghabi Kaspo, as our special guests. This is the first time in the history of the West Virginia Section that we were visited by both the Executive Director and Trustee from Region 4.

It was a memorable time for the West Virginia Section as five new fellows, Dr. Tammy Chipps, Dr. Michael Bagby, Dr. Arif Salman, Dr. Stephen Pachuta, and Dr. Lauren Godwin were inducted into the Academy. This was the largest number of new fellows that were inducted in the recent history of the WV Section. All five of the new fellows are faculty members at the WVU School of Dentistry. Dr. Pachuta is the Dean at the WVU School of Dentistry, Dr. Bagby is the Academic Dean, Dr. Chipps is the Clinical Dean, Dr. Godwin is the Chair of the Department of Restorative Dentistry, and Dr. Salman is the Chair of Periodontics.

The West Virginia Section presented the Senior Dental Student Certificate of Merit to Dr. Jay Solensky who served as the President of the WVU Dental Class of 2022 for all four years of dental school.

The last award that was presented that evening was the Distinguished Dentist Award. Dr. Eleisha Nickoles was the recipient of the award and she served as the 2021 President of the West Virginia Dental Association. Dr. Nickoles is only the second woman in the history of the WVDA to serve as president.

The final ceremony of the evening was the installation of our new Chairman, Dr. Mark Byron, by our Trustee, Dr. Ghabi Kaspo. Dr. Byron is the Director of the Endodontics Resident program at the WVU School of Dentistry and is also a Fellow in the American College of Dentists.

We had a great attendance at the ceremony and all were treated to a great dinner.

Respectfully submitted,

Robert L. Wanker, DDS

Past Chairman of the West Virginia Section of the PFA

 

 

Ghabi Kaspo and Robert Cattoi

Mark Byron, Bob Cattoi, Jay Solensky, Ghabi Kaspo, Bob Wanker

Bob Cattoi, Mark Byron, Eleisha Nickoles, Ghabi Kaspo, Bob Wanker

Lauren Godwin, Mike Bagby, Tammy Chipps, Stephen Pachuta, Arif Salman, Mark Byron

Mark Byron and Ghabi Kaspo