Over the coming weeks, CDA Oasis is delighted to bring you the 2023-24 CDA Honours and Awards Program recipients. The CDA Awards recognize individuals across the country who have demonstrated unwavering passion and support for the dental profession in Canada and exhibited consistent commitment to the oral health of Canadians.
This year’s awards were presented on April 12 in Toronto, Ontario.
Award of Merit
The Award of Merit recognizes individuals who have served in an outstanding capacity in service to the Canadian Dental Association or in service to the dental profession, the dental community, or the oral health of Canadians and/or society at large.
2023-24 Award of Merit Recipients
Dr. Izchack Barzilay
Dr. Izchack Barzilay has spent decades in service to our profession and to his prosthodontic specialty. He is currently the chair of the Royal College of Dentists of Canada, as well as President of the Academy of Prosthodontics. He is a past president of both the Association of Prosthodontists of Canada and the American Prosthodontic Society. He has worked on many committees at the national, North American and international levels. He is involved in a variety of charities and outreach programs, and he is CEO of the Build Your Smile Dental Foundation which brings dental care as a basic human right through programs in Toronto, Uganda and Mexico. He has spoken at countless conferences and meetings worldwide, has published extensively, and has received numerous awards.
To quote his nominator: “What sets him apart is his selfless dedication to the profession, his focus on problem solving and keeping harmony among his peers in order to achieve stated goals as efficiently as possible. He often puts his own personal needs aside to make decisions that are in the best interests of the profession and his specialty.”
Dr. Greg Chang
Dr. Greg Chang is creative, energetic and passionate about the importance of children’s oral and overall health. This passion led to the creation of an award-winning program called Super Chefs, which uses food to connect the dots between oral health and overall wellness. Full of ideas to educate children in a fun environment using experts from Sesame Street, Yale, Harvard, NASA and The Whitehouse, the SuperChefs Cookery Society for Kids was created in 2009. The popularity of this program continues to grow. Greg and his team have coordinated free Super Chef camps and events for hundreds of kids every summer for the past 15 years and provides full time employment to Canadian University students to run the camps, and mentors them to be health minded, inclusive community leaders. Over the past 10 years, Westin and Marriott Hotels have a global brand standard Kids Eat Well menu created by SuperChefs for their over 200 hotels worldwide, enabling this program to expand internationally. To remain inclusive, a special SuperChefs program was created for kids with intellectual and physical challenges. Events have been held in partnership with Universities including UBC, University of Toronto, Bishops, Arizona School of Dentistry and Columbia University in New York, and with the International Association of Culinary Professionals in various cities. Greg was part of the American Dental Association’s largest Give Kids a Smile experience. He has been invited to various White House sponsored events in Washington DC and New York by Michelle Obama’s pastry chef to teach kids about cooking and nutritional skills. In Canada, Greg and his team were invited to meet with Prime Minister Trudeau to discuss SuperChefs initiatives and received patronage from Governor General Michaëlle Jean.
Through his passion, creativity and leadership Greg has made a difference in the lives of thousands of children and youth.
Dr. Peter Kearney
For over 40 years, Dr. Peter Kearney has worked tirelessly for the betterment of his colleagues and the enhancement of the dental profession. Peter has held many long-standing volunteer positions throughout his career. Among those, he was President of the Vancouver and District Dental Society and a council member of the College of Dental Surgeons of BC. In addition, he taught at the University of British Columbia for many years and has been a mentor to students through the UBC General Practice Residency Training Program (GPR) in northern BC. He has also been a clinical instructor at the UBC Tucker Cast Gold elective for many years.
Peter is also one of the longest serving members of the Pacific Dental Conference Organizing Committee. He brings a keen desire to raise the awareness of the profession of new techniques and procedures and works tirelessly as a scout to bring excellent speakers to the PDC. He is also a long-standing member of the BCDA Economics Committee, sharing information that he receives from numerous sources and prompting engaging debates on new techniques and issues related to the economics of dental practice.
Nationally, he was a member of the CDA / CDHA / CDAA Healthy Workplace Working Group and remains very active as an invigilator, evaluator, and exam supervisor for the NDEB.
Dr. LouAnn Visconti
Passionate, driven, focused, and detailed in all that she does, Dr. LouAnn Visconti has, and continues to be, an exemplary member of the dental profession and a leader in her community.
After graduating from her orthodontic program, she established a practice in Timmins Ontario, which at the time was the only specialty practice in an area that stretched from Sudbury to south of James Bay, and from the Quebec border to Thunder Bay. She soon joined the Timmins and District Dental Society and served in all of its executive roles, and then went on to serve on a number of Committees for the Ontario Dental Association. In 2012 she was appointed to the ODA Board and in 2017 became ODA President.
In 2020 she was elected to the CDA Board of Directors and her contributions to CDA were significant. In addition to serving on the Board, she served on many CDA committees such as the Lifelong Learning Task Force, Executive Search Committee and CDA’s Governance and Nominating Committee. While at CDA, LouAnn brought a detailed and thoughtful perspective to all that she did. She challenged our thinking and perspective on the issues before us, which resulted in better decision making.
LouAnn has been an active community leader in Timmins serving on the Timmins High and Vocation School Council and the Northern College of Applied Arts and Technology Executive. She was also involved in fundraising for the Timmins and District Child and Family Services and in planning Timmins 100th Anniversary event. In her spare time she is an accomplished musician who plays with the Timmins Symphony Orchestra.
Please click on the videos below to watch recipient acceptance speeches and tune in next week to hear from more CDA Award recipients!
