The American Dental Education Association will honor longtime Brooklyn dentist and NYU Langone faculty member Neal A. Demby, DMD, MPH, with its 2020 William J. Gies Award for Vision at the foundation’s annual awards ceremony on March 16, 2020, during the ADEA Annual Session and Exhibition in National Harbor, MD.
"Dr. William Gies is an inspiration to all dental educators, and I am truly humbled by this extraordinary recognition by the ADEA Gies Foundation,” said Dr. Demby, past senior vice president for dental medicine and current senior advisor of the dental program at the Family Health Centers at NYU Langone. “We have built one of the largest dental residency programs in the world, with a level of care and commitment to a high educational standard that would make Dr. Gies proud.”
A pioneer in dental residency education, Dr. Demby has devoted his 50-year career at the Family Health Centers at NYU Langone to improving the oral health of vulnerable populations. After five years as a dental practitioner at the Sunset Park, Brooklyn, health center, the fledgling dental program took on its first general dentistry resident in 1974. NYU Langone Dental Medicine’s postdoctoral residency program is now the largest of its kind in the United States, with about 400 dental residents serving an estimated 1 million people at sites in 26 states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Trinidad and Tobago.
“Dr. Demby’s visionary leadership has always focused on how to use dental education as a way to grow tomorrow’s workforce while increasing access to high-quality care to people who need it the most,” said Larry K. McReynolds, executive director, Family Health Centers at NYU Langone. “I cannot think of someone more deserving of this exceptional and prestigious honor.”
Dr. Demby is a renowned leader in dental education, receiving numerous grants and awards for his work in promoting residency training, faculty development, video and remote learning, school health dentistry, HIV/AIDS services, quality assurance, early detection of oral cancer, and integrative health practices. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology and art history from Rutgers University, a Doctor of Medicine in Dentistry degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, and a Master of Public Health degree from Columbia University. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Special Care Dentistry.
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