The Mirror, December 2018 The Mirror, December 2018 | Page 15

GETTING TO BETTER KNOW THE MEMBERS OF THE ACADEMY DR. PAUL ANDREWS CAPD/ACDP IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT As the Immediate Past President of CAPD/ACDP, please talk about the changes that were implemented during your tenure and how they will impact the Academy in the future. My desire to join the Executive was based on several areas of interest. 1. To improve the administration of the organisation which was achieved by rewriting the Constitution and Bylaws to better reflect the activities of the organisation and by helping to convince Dr. Ross Anderson to be our Executive Director. 2. To encourage membership in the organisation from all levels of membership. Students were encouraged to join by eliminating financial barriers and encouraging student research presentations. Active members were encouraged by communicating and improving ‘member value’ . Most recently we have created a new member category to encourage general dentists to join in order to access our educational opportunities. Finally by creating a standing membership committee and reporting our membership status to the members and encouraging them to get non-member Paediatric Dentists to join CAPD/ACDP. 3. To improve the CAPD/ACDP brand. To achieve this we have been very active on numerous committees with CDA, CDSA, Government of Canada and the IAPD. These changes will help to ensure a stronger organization better prepared to represent the needs of member Paediatric Dentists moving forward. Why did you choose to specialize in Pediatric Dentistry? My interest in Paediatric Dentistry stemmed from an interest in helping children, in particular, special needs children, from the age of 12 when my mother signed me up as a volunteer to help neuromuscular patterning of a developmentally delayed infant. This was solidified by the time I finished third year undergraduate dental training after having the opportunity to interact with great mentors like Drs. Norm Levine, Keith Titley, Julian Geller and Mike Sigal. The overriding motivation was to just help kids. Where did you do your training? I am a true blue boy! All of my training was done at University of Toronto: BSc, DDS, Dip Paedo, MSc, Fellow in Special Needs Dentistry Delivering the President’s Report at the AGM in Banff.