Missouri’s newest dental program takes step forward

ATSU announces vice dean

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – At a press conference today on ATSU’s Kirksville campus, ATSU President Jack Magruder announced the appointment of Wayne Cottam, D.M.D., M.S., as vice dean of the Missouri dental program. Dr. Cottam will lead the implementation of the new dental program.

“I am delighted that Dr. Cottam has accepted this key leadership position,” said President Magruder. “He is singularly qualified to head up our new and innovative dental program in Kirksville and Missouri, and I am completely confident that he can pull together the many different pieces to make it a success.”

Added Dr. Jack Dillenberg, dean of ATSU’s Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health (ASDOH), “The appointment of Dr. Cottam as vice dean is a major step forward in developing the Missouri dental program. Together with me, he has been working on this initiative for several months, and I know he is absolutely the right person for this project.” Dr. Cottam, who will live in Kirksville, will report directly to Dean Dillenberg, who is on ATSU’s Mesa, Ariz., campus.

“I am very pleased to be a part of the Missouri dental initiative, and I look forward to working with the talented professionals here in Kirksville and around the state to the meet the challenges and opportunities that this exciting new program presents,” said Dr. Cottam, who will begin his new duties immediately.

Officially, the new dental program will be a “distant site” of ATSU-ASDOH and will be called ASDOH-Missouri. This terminology is required by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA). Students will spend the first two years of the program on campus in Kirksville and then split up to rotate to four community health centers in Missouri, including one in Kirksville run by the Northeast Missouri Health Council, in their third and fourth years, where they will receive clinical training under the supervision of ASDOH-Missouri faculty.

President Magruder reminded everyone that capital requests must be approved by the ATSU Board of Trustees and that the program must achieve accreditation from CODA and from the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association. These steps will be taken as Dr. Cottam continues to move the project forward.

President Magruder also thanked the residents of Kirksville and the region for their support through the independent group Community Friends for ATSU Dental, which raised $1.1 million to help ATSU start the program in Kirksville, as well as ATSU’s faculty and staff, who gave generously in support of the new program. He also acknowledged the Missouri Foundation for Health, which has awarded an initial grant of $500,000 for 2011 to begin ASDOH-Missouri. (A philanthropic organization whose vision is to improve the health of the people in the communities it services, MFH was established in 2000 and is the largest nongovernmental funder of community health activities in Missouri.)

If capital requests are approved by the ATSU Board in order to proceed with construction of a building on the ATSU Kirksville campus, and if the program receives accreditation, the first group of students will enter the program in fall 2013 and graduate in May 2017. It is anticipated that the size of the first class will be between 40 or 45 students, with the possibility of future expansion. It is also anticipated that the new dental program, when fully operational, will have an economic impact in the Kirksville area of more than $40 million.

About Vice Dean Cottam
Dr. Cottam earned a Doctor of Dental Medicine (D.M.D.) degree from Oregon Health Sciences University, graduating with honors. He completed an Advanced Education Residency program in General Dentistry at University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City and also earned a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Medical Biology from the University of Utah. Prior to assuming his new position as vice dean, he served as ASDOH’s associate dean for community partnerships since 2005. He has held other posts at ASDOH, including director of integrated human sciences, in addition to teaching Gross Anatomy at the University of Utah Medical School. He also has experience as an associate dentist in a private practice in Midvale, Utah, and as dental director at the Urban Indian Health Care Clinic in Salt Lake City.

Dr. Cottam has received many acknowledgments for his accomplishments, including the National Health Service Corps Dentist of the Year Award, the Clinical Excellence Award from the National Network for Oral Health Access, the Access and Recognition Award from the American Dental Association, and the American Society of Dentistry for Children Award.