Eastman Dental Board Chair is ADA President-Elect

William R. Calnon, DDS, Eastman Dental Center Foundation Board chairman and local dentist, has been named president-elect of the American Dental Association. He will serve as president-elect for one year and will assume the office of ADA president in October 2011.

Some of the major issues concerning the dental profession include a growing faculty shortage, collaboration between the dental and medical communities, access to care, and improving oral health literacy and prevention strategies.

“There are no easy solutions to these very complex issues,” Calnon said. “I will work closely with our constituents to promote sustainable, long-term solutions to national and state-level concerns. The ADA must be the major resource and advisor for the states to address their internal issues.”

“As chair of the Eastman Dental Center Foundation, Bill has had a first-hand view of the many challenges dental academic centers face,” said Cyril Meyerowitz, DDS, director of Eastman Institute for Oral Health, part of the University of Rochester Medical Center. “This understanding will serve him well as he addresses dental education issues during his presidency.”

Calnon, of Spencerport, has served on the ADA’s Board of Trustees since 2006, its Council on Dental Practice, and the President’s Committee on Licensure Issues. He is past president of the New York State Dental Association, the Seventh District Dental Society and the Monroe County Dental Society. He is a general dentist and received his dental degree in 1978 from the State University of New York at Buffalo.