Dr. Judith A. Jones Receives the William J. Gies Award for Innovation Presented by the ADEAGies Foundation

Dr. Judith A. Jones Receives the William J. Gies Award for Innovation Presented by the ADEAGies Foundation

(Boston) – The ADEAGies Foundation will honor Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine Professor and Chair of the Department of General Dentistry Dr. Judith A. Jones for her outstanding innovation in support of global oral health and oral health education at the Gies Awards celebration to be held on March 14, 2009, in Phoenix, Arizona, in conjunction with the 86th ADEA Annual Session. The William J. Gies Awards for Vision, Innovation, and Achievement recognize contributions to and support of global oral health and education initiatives. For a complete listing of Gies Award winners, visit www.adeagiesfoundation.org.

Dr. Jones was nominated for the award for her work over the past seven years as the inaugural Chair of the Department of General Dentistry. She led a large and diverse faculty, gathered from different specialty departments, into a cohesive force with common goals. Through small focus groups, large departmental meetings and an Outward Bound team-building experience, Dr.

Jones led the development of a Departmental Strategic Plan, guided by the missions of the School, and focused on the educational program and the comprehensive care of patients as students attained competency. This vision led to innovations in the curriculum and course content and a change in culture for the teaching faculty, including the following.

• Culture shift: Formative teaching and summative evaluation became the standard tools by which all faculty members developed their courses.

• Mentoring and Advising Program: Dr. Jones supported the idea from faculty who felt strongly that we had to extend our current mentoring to include students throughout dental school. This has been established.

• Case Presentations and Grand Rounds: With Dr. Jones’ explicit advice and support, the Director of the Extramural Program required that students return from their 10-week rotation with a documented patient case for treatment planning purposes; the best cases from each rotation are invited to present Grand Rounds to the faculty and student body.

• Evidence-based Dentistry (EBD): Dentistry is constantly changing; an essential concept the School teaches its students is how to continue to learn when they graduate. An enthusiastic and active proponent of the concept of evidence-based care, Dr. Jones works with all of the course directors to make sure that their courses contain EBD exercises.

• Clinical Oral Diagnosis and Treatment Planning was totally restructured for content and student participation. As part of their comprehensive care, students write cogent analyses for all their patients. Students also attend small group seminars where they bring study models and the patients’ charts and discuss their patient and their proposed treatment. These seminars allow students to see more patients than they would otherwise and therefore learn from their classmates’ experiences as well as their own.

• Focus on Ethics and Professionalism: Dr. Jones worked with faculty to clarify expectations with students in small group advising sessions, develop a system for recording behavior, and institutionalize the process. These positive and negative reports are available to Mentors, Advisors, and Program Directors, and are used in the assessment of clinical grades and competency.

“Dr. Jones embodies the leadership and commitment to excellence and innovation that we value strongly at the Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine,” said Dean Jeffrey Hutter. “Dr. Jones is an advisor to both her students and faculty members, a lecturer and clinical instructor to our students and a mentor to faculty members seeking to broaden their horizons.

The recipient of both an NIDCR K24 Award for patient-oriented research and mentoring and the International Association for Dental Research’s Distinguished Scientist in Geriatric Oral Research, she mentors students and faculty in cutting edge oral health services research.” Dean Hutter continued, “She is an innovative educator, and much respected by her students and colleagues. She truly embodies the concept of this William J.

Gies Award for Innovation.”

For comment, please contact Judith A. Jones at judjones@bu.edu.

About Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine: The mission of Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine is to provide excellent education to dental professionals throughout their careers; to shape the future of dental medicine and dental education through research; to offer excellent health care services to the community; to participate in community activities; and to foster a respectful and supportive environment.

About The William J. Gies Foundation: The William J. Gies (pronounced guys) Foundation was established in 1950 by colleagues and admirers of Dr. Gies with seed funds raised by the American College of Dentists. It was a private foundation and the first U.S. foundation to support dental education and scholarship. In 2002, it joined with the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) to form ADEAGies Foundation, a public foundation.

About William J. Gies and the Gies Report: William Gies was a Columbia University biochemistry professor interested in dental education, science, and clinical applications. In 1926, as part of a series of studies on U.S.

professional education funded by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Dr. Gies published a landmark report that established the importance of dentistry as a healing science and an essential component of higher education in the health professions. The Gies Report, Dental Education in the United States and Canada, took five years to research and write. It consists of 250 pages of text and more than 400 pages of appendices, including lengthy descriptions and evaluations of the existing dental schools, each of which Dr. Gies visited. Since the Gies Report, there have been many other reports on dental education in the context of health professions education. However, Dental Education in the United States and Canada remains to this day the most relevant survey of dental education and critical issues within the field.

About ADEA: The American Dental Education Association (ADEA) is the leading national organization for dental education. Its members include all U.S. and Canadian dental schools and many advanced dental education programs, allied dental education programs, corporations, faculty, and students. The mission of ADEA is to lead individuals and institutions of the dental education community to address contemporary issues influencing education, research, and the delivery of oral health care for the health of the public. ADEA’s activities encompass a wide range of research, advocacy, faculty development, meetings, and communications like the esteemed Journal of Dental Education, as well as the dental school admissions services AADSAS and PASS.