Tony Volpe Award

The Tony Volpe Award will be given annually to two established dental professionals, offering them a place on our prestigious Senior Dental Leaders Programme (SDL). The award covers all tuition, travel and accommodation costs.

Tony Volpe is the Vice President of Colgate’s Clinical Research and Scientific Development department. Having qualified as a dentist from New Jersey Dental School in 1960, he has practiced dentistry within the state of New Jersey, and served in an advisory technical capacity with a host of medical organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), and as president of the American Dental Association (ADA) Foundation from 1997 to 2003. In 2004 he was presented with the ADA’s Distinguished Service Award. Also that year Tony was further honoured to receive the American Association of Public Health Dentistry's Special Merit Award and the Hadassah Special Award from the Hebrew University, Israel.

The Senior Dental Leaders Programme

Hosted by Harvard School of Dental Medicine and King's College London Dental Institute, on behalf of the Global Child Dental Fund, the SDL programme is attended by the most senior dental policy makers, NGO figures, and dental-health academic faculty, from across the globe.

SDL is aimed at honing individual’s skill-sets for the most senior roles in dental policy making. The programme offers senior dental figures the chance to further their understanding of strategic change, dental health policy, and dental economics.

Critically, SDL strives to strengthen each attendee’s ability to deal with regional crisis, and anticipate and plan for future demands.

For more information about SDL 6 in March 2012, click here.  For SDL Alumni please click here.

Who Should Apply

This an opportunity for aspiring dentists in the early and middle stages of their careers to train alongside some of the most influential figures in the formulation of world dental policy. To that end, applicants must meet specific criteria to be eligible:

1. Applicants must be a qualified member of the wider dental team.

2. Applicants must either:

• Be an aspiring Dean of a dental school or the head of department, OR
• Have experience and a proven track record of operating successfully in a senior policy or other leadership role

3. Have a clear personal commitment to further learning and to improving child dental health

4. Have the support of their Ministry of Health, Dental Association, Academic Institution, or employer

5. Endorsement from one of the Senior Dental Leader Alumni is also encouraged. A list of alumni names and contact details can be found here.

How To Apply

We ask all applicants to write a maximum of four hundred words outlining in brief the following:

• who they are and any relevant positions and personal achievements
• why they wish to attend SDL
• to what purpose they would best utilize their SDL training programme and alumni network

The deadline for applying to be considered for the Tony Volpe Award to attend SDL-6 in March 2012 is 1st December 2011.

All applications should be sent directly to Global Child Dental Fund care of Megan Odell – awards@gcdfund.org. For further details please contact Megan Odell..

All decisions are final and we regret that we are unable to provide individual feedback to unsuccessful applicants.