CHICAGO, October 17, 2024 — The American Dental Association (ADA) will recognize Theresa S. Gonzales, D.M.D., as the recipient of the ADA Distinguished Service Award at SmileCon™ in New Orleans, La., on Oct. 18 during the Changemakers Celebration. The Distinguished Service Award is the highest honor given by the ADA Board of Trustees.
Dr. Gonzales is a current professor at the Medical University of South Carolina and has been an educator for nearly 35 years. A retired U.S. Army colonel, she grew up in a military family and has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to leadership, education, military readiness, veterans and serving the underserved.
“She brings her real-world experiences as an oral and maxillofacial pathologist to the classroom, along with her perspectives on the importance of interprofessional collaboration for optimal patient care,” said Dr. Linda J. Edgar, President of the ADA for the 2023-2024 term. “Amid all of these roles, she also advocates for improved dental care for veterans in her service on the board of the ADA Foundation. I am so happy that she is being recognized for her many years of service to her patients, to the next generation of dentists, and to our country.”
Dr. Gonzales sat as the chair of the department of advanced specialty sciences and director of the Ryan White Dental Clinic at the Medical University of South Carolina’s James B. Edwards College of Dental Medicine. In 2013 she retired from the military to focus on establishing a pain management portal for the diagnosis and treatment of chronic orofacial pain. As a result, she helped develop the Chronic Orofacial Pain Management Service, the first service of its kind at the college of dental medicine.
Dr. Gonzales graduated from the College of Charleston in 1980 and earned her D.M.D. at the Medical University of South Carolina in 1984. That same year, she began her military service with a general practice residency at Moncreif Army Hospital in Columbia, S.C.
Over the years, she served as a peacekeeper with the Multinational Force and Observers posted to El Gorah, Egypt, at the Walter Reed Army Regional Medical Center and as director of strategic communications with the Office of the Surgeon General, which she concluded in 2013 when she joined her alma mater as a professor of oral pathology and director of orofacial pain management. Dr. Gonzales also spends her time at the Roper Ryan White Clinic, a multidisciplinary health care facility devoted to providing HIV/AIDS care by an interprofessional team of experts in infectious disease.
“We must reimagine a healthier America – one that makes good on access and equity,” stated Dr. Gonzales. “…the health of all of us depends on the health of each of us.”
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