Page 12 - Dentistry Magazine 2021

12 DENTISTRY 2021
PEOPLE
The School of Dentistry community is great because of our people: the faculty, staff and students who work their hardest and produce excellent work. We would like to honor some of the people in our midst who achieved great things this year.
Faculty and staff showed their commitment to research, community service and excel- lence in care.
Donald Nixdorf, DDS, MS, director of the Division of Temporomandibular Disorders and Oro- facial Pain, became vice president of the Internation-
al Network of
Orofacial Pain and Related Disorders Methodology in July 2021.
Nixdorf and colleagues have been involved with INfORM since its early days, including the development of the DC/TMD. In the role, Nixdorf hopes to build on those accom- plishments, building a better understanding of the methodology of pain research. “The people that came before me have devel- oped a great organization which I am proud to be a member of,” he said. “I am excited to continue that good work and see the ways it continues to impact lives.”
Sheila Riggs, DDS, DMS, DMSc, received the 2021 President’s Award for Outstanding Service in April. Established in 1997, the award recognizes faculty and staff who have
provided exceptional service to the uni- versity, its schools, colleges, departments and service units that goes well beyond the regular duties of the faculty or staff member and demonstrates unusual commitment to the community. Riggs received the award for her tireless efforts to combat discrep- ancies in oral health care. In addition to chairing the Department of Primary Dental Care and overseeing the school’s Division
of Outreach, Riggs participates on health care committees and recently formed a groundbreaking coalition of dental providers to transform the way Minnesota sees oral health care. Upon finding out she received the award, “what mattered most to me
was that my colleagues on these initiatives
valued my contributions,” Riggs said. “One of my mantras is ‘nothing just happens.’ Change happens when a coalition of the willing comes together and does the hard work to reach consensus, and then takes collective action for the benefit of the community.”
Stephen Shuman, DDS, MS, director of the Oral Health Services for Older Adults Program, authored a publica- tion on oral health in older adults for the Gerontological Society of America.
“Pandemic-Driven Disruptions in Oral Health: 10 Transformative Trends in Care for Older Adults” is a toolkit meant to ensure that
oral health care remains a key focus for overall health in older adults, exploring ten ways long-term care was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and how providers can ensure lasting care.
Dentistry for outreach experiences. “During the pandemic, Eastside worked with the School of Dentistry to follow COVID protocol, going above and beyond,” Buck-Wischmeier said. “They were flexible, accepting additional students and adjusting rotation lengths to help us accommodate the need for students to have external rotations.”
Students excelled in and out of the classroom this year, and they won the awards to prove it.
Andrew Glover, DDS ’21, received the President’s Award for Service and Leadership, giv- en by the University of Minnesota to 92 students this year. Recipients of the award have gone
above and beyond in their accomplishments and contributions as leaders within the university and their communities. Glover led throughout his time in dental school, serving as president of his class for four years, playing a part in committees, interacting with school leadership and organizing class events. Glover feels his receipt of the award is a community effort. “I did not win this award alone,” he said. “I was blessed to have amazing people around me. There are so many students in my class who also took
up leadership roles throughout our time at school and positively impacted our class, school and community.” After graduation, Glover began a residency in graduate periodontics at the School of Dentistry.
Beth Groenke, DDS, MS, graduate student in the Division of TMD and Orofacial Pain, re- ceived the INfORM Samuel F. Dworkin Predoctoral Award for her research into the use of MRIs in
oral health diagnoses. Groenke works with Donald Nixdorf, DDS, MS, to explore the
Minnesota Community Care, a full health- care clinic organization that houses the East- side Family Dental Clinic, received a 2020 Clinical Training Site of Excellence desig- nation from the University of Minnesota’s Office of Academic Clinical Affairs. Nominat- ed by Susan Buck-Wischmeier, director of the Division of Outreach, Eastside is one of fifteen sites that partner with the School of