New Faculty Joining Department

Two new full-time faculty are joining the department this summer:

Dr. Rosemary Sheats comes to us from the Mayo Clinic, where she was the director of the orthodontic residency program and a faculty member at the Mayo Medical School. Dr. Sheats is a native of Alabama, went to dental school at Harvard, taught in restorative dentistry at the Medical College of Virginia, did a Masters degree in epidemiology at Johns Hopkins and spent five years in genetics / epidemiology research at the National Institute of Dental Research before completing her orthodontic training at the University of Florida in 1993. She was an orthodontic faculty member at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the Medical College of Virginia before moving to the Mayo Clinic in 1997. In 2004 she was selected as the outstanding faculty member in the Dental Specialties are at Mayo. She is a diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics, and at UNC will take major responsibility for the graduate clinical program.

Dr. Ching Ko comes to us from the University of Minnesota, where he was a faculty member in the Department of Oral Science and a graduate faculty member in the Biophysics Program 1997-2006. He is a native of Taiwan, obtained his dental degree from Kaohsiung Medical College and a Master's degree at National Yang-Ming University, then completed a PhD in Bioengineering and Biomaterials at the University of Michigan before joining the faculty at Minnesota. His increasing interest in orthodontic materials and biomechanics led him into an orthodontic residency at Minnesota that he completed this year. He will continue his NIH-funded research in biomaterials at UNC, while also participating in the orthodontic clinical programs.

Dr. Kusy Retires

Dr. Robert Kusy joined the UNC Dental Research Center with an appointment in the Dept. of Orthodontics in 1972, maintained a joint appointment in orthodontics and the medical school's biomedical engineering program for most of the succeeding years, and made major contributions to orthodontic biomechanics during his distinguished career. He entered the university's phased retirement program in 2003, and is moving to full retirement as of July 2006 but plans to stay in Chapel Hill.

Part-Time Clinical Faculty Changes

Dr. L'Tanya Bailey moved from full-time to part-time as of July 2005, but continues to serve as a clinical attending and mentor within the Dentofacial Program. She recently has been participating in our distance-learning research project, managing the Dentofacial Pre-Conference via computer and telephone links.

Dr. Larry Moray retired from the part-time faculty as of July 2006, after enthusiastic work with predoctoral students for over a decade. The personal attention he gave dental students will be hard to replace and is much appreciated.

Dr. J. Richard (Rick) Steedle has joined the part-time faculty as an attending on Wednesday and as a consultant to gain greater efficiency in our clinical treatment. Rick practiced in Winston-Salem after completing his residency at UNC in the late 1970's, now has retired and is at UNC for more than the usual time for clinical faculty.

Other notable recent changes include the return of Dr. David Hall to the part-time faculty (after his retirement from practice in Cary), and the appointment of Dr. Steve Dickens this year after his completion of the orthodontic residency, to help with the predoctoral ortho program.

Faculty Recognition

At this year's Las Vegas meeting, Dr. Lucia Cevidanes received the AAO's Dewel Award for the best paper in AJODO in 2005. She has been awarded a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health to facilitate her continuing research in three-dimensional imaging.

Dr. Sylvia Frazier-Bowers, also the recipient of a Career Development Award, was recognized this year as the outstanding trainee for NIH's General Clinical Research Centers and received that award at their national meeting in March.

Publications and Activities

The orthodontic departments at UNC and Louvain (Belgium) are collaborating in research related to temporary skeletal anchorage, and the first joint paper from this work now has been submitted for publication.

The 4th edition of Contemporary Orthodontics now is in press, with publication scheduled for early December. The new book will also have an E-dition, which provides a dedicated web site for the book, electronic search capability and regular updates.

In collaboration with the Dr. Hannum of UNC School of Education and the orthodontic departments at Louisville and Ohio State, the department has been leading a series of experiments in the use of high-speed Internet to allow interactive seminars at a distance. The project is funded by AAO (the first time the organization has directly funded research of any type), and the data will be used to help in the development of AAO's planned program of support of orthodontic education in this era of decreasing faculty resources.

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