Thanks to everyone who attended the Awards and Recognition event on November 20. This event was all about recognizing the contributions our people make to the school. Your show of support was appreciated, and your attendance demonstrated to many that we truly are a team. Congratulations once again to Dr. Bill Preshing for receiving this year's Bulyea Cup, to Dr. Monica Gibson for receiving the W.W. Wood award, to Dr. Doris Lunardon for receiving the Excellence in Leadership award, and to Drs. Trudy Aucoin and Bernie Linke for receiving the Gibb Award. We also recognized the PEAK Performance support staff awards which went to the Comprehensive Care treatment coordinators - Coby Kwasney, Janice Dominguez, Shelley Bissell, Sharon Maier, and Carol Legassick, and to Comprehensive Care admin assistant, Kari Rarick. Congratulations to everyone!
And last, but certainly not least, we recognized our faculty members who have retired: Drs. Ed Peters, Michael Eggert, Dwight Harley, John Valentine, and Dental Hygiene Professor Barbara Gitzel. We also have Dr. Nadine Milos retiring at the end of December. She has been at the School of Dentistry since 1990. She was appointed as acting chair and associate dean of the Department of Dentistry in 2003 and 2007, and played a critical role in helping the school get through some critical times. More on this later in December.
As for what's coming up, accreditation is the next big priority for the School of Dentistry, and it will require the efforts of everyone who works here. It is, as I'm sure you know, an important and somewhat tedious process.
To remain accredited, we must submit detailed information about our educational programs, following the Commission on Dental Accreditation of Canada's (CDAC) required format. CDAC then reviews our educational programs and dental services through structured on-site visits. During site visits, an accreditation survey team will conduct interviews with faculty and students. These interviews are meant to verify the documentation we put forward and to provide additional information if required.
It is now time to go through this process again. Here are the timelines for accreditation:
Nov/Dec 2019-Jan 2020: Documents and information are gathered from a variety of sources
January 2020: Documents are edited and assembled, and a first draft is produced
February 2013: First draft is vetted and revised
May/June 2020: Mock external review to audit progress and documentation
August/September 2020: Repeat process - refine, refine, refine
December 2020: Submit required documentation
March/April 2021: Official site visit
Ortho and Dental Hygiene will go through accreditation as well following the same timelines.
You may be called upon to participate so we would appreciate your attention to all communications that come out on this topic. Our strategy will be to follow this: PLAN, PREPARE, PRACTICE AND PRESENT. We hope you will help!