Metropolitan State University and Normandale Community College’s dental hygiene programs, along with the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Board of Dentistry, received a prestigious 2015 ADEA Gies Award, which honors outstanding dental education programs.
They received the Gies Award for Outstanding Vision by a Public or Private Partner, according to the American Dental Education Association/Gies Foundation’s website.
Watch this video to learn more about the award:
According to the ADEA Gies Foundation:
The Gies Awards program is a way for the ADEA Gies Foundation to honor deserving people and entities that carry forward Dr. Gies’ legacy of vision, innovation, and achievement. The Gies Awards draw attention to the essential role of dental education and educators in enhancing global oral health.
In 1926, Dr. William J. Gies transformed dental education with the publication of his Report on Dental Education in the United States and Canada, sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation. Dr. Gies advocated that incoming dental students have at least two years of university-level education. While such education was required of medical students at that time, it was not for dental students. Dr. Gies wanted dental schools to receive recognition and support from universities much like medical schools had.
Dental education was Dr. Gies’ life. His passion for dental research and education began in 1909 when he joined the New York Institute of Oral Pathology in biochemical research related to dentistry; ten years later he founded the Journal of Dental Research, in part from his own money. He helped found both the International Association for Dental Research in 1920 and the American Association of Dental Schools (now known as the American Dental Education Association) in 1923. Before his death in 1956, Dr. Gies published more than 600 papers, pamphlets, and books. Through his groundbreaking report in 1926, accreditation standards and stricter admission requirements to dental schools were established, raising the quality and caliber of dental education and its students and bringing new respect to the dental profession. In 2007, the ADEA Gies Foundation announced “The Gies Awards,” a preeminent recognition of contributions to and support of global oral health and education initiatives, to be presented annually in a public celebration.
Congratulations to out dental hygiene program and all MNSCU dental education programs.