Dimensions Board Member Receives Prestigious Gies Award

Pamela Zarkowski, BSDH, MPH, JD, is the recipient of the 2017 Gies Award for Achievement—Dental Educator. Zarkowski, a member of Dimensions of Dental Hygiene‘s Editorial Advisory Board, is provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Detroit Mercy, where she serves as the university’s chief academic officer and is responsible for the administration of all academic departments and programs. A faculty member in Detroit Mercy’s School of Dentistry since 1978, Zarkowski became a professor in 1994. She continues to teach community dentistry and legal and ethical concepts to predoctoral, dental hygiene, and graduate students.

Zarkowski tells Dimensions of Dental Hygiene, “I am both honored and humbled to be selected as a Gies Award winner. I am being recognized for something I am passionate about: teaching, and working with exceptional colleagues to help prepare dental hygiene, dental, and graduate students to be outstanding professionals.”

Zarkowski is a former president of the American Dental Education Association (ADEA), and during her tenure she helped create the ADEAGies Foundation, which focuses on improving the oral health of the public through programs that support dental education, research, leadership, and recognition. The Gies Awards, named after dental education pioneer William J. Gies, PhD, debuted in 2008 and are the profession’s preeminent recognition for individuals and organizations that exemplify the highest standards in oral health and dental education, research, and leadership.

The 2017 Gies Awards will be presented on March 20 in conjunction with the 2017 ADEA Annual Session in Long Beach, California. A panel of Gies Award judges comprising ADEAGies Foundation Board of Trustees members selects winners of this prestigious honor.

From Dimensions of Dental Hygiene. December 2016;14(12):10.