AAOMS announces 2017-18 officers, board

ROSEMONT, Ill. – Brett L. Ferguson, DDS, FACS, began his term as the 100th president of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) during the 2017 AAOMS Annual Meeting in San Francisco last month.

Along with other officers and the Board of Trustees, Ferguson assumes leadership for 2017-18 of the professional organization representing more than 9,000 oral and maxillofacial surgeons.

Ferguson, of Kansas City, Mo., is director of the University of Missouri-Kansas City Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Graduate Training Program, chair of hospital dentistry and oral and maxillofacial surgery at the university’s School of Dentistry and Medicine, and chair of oral and maxillofacial surgery at Truman Medical Center.

“As we celebrate the Association’s centennial in 2018, I am honored to serve our membership during this year of reflection, celebration and progress,” Ferguson said. “I thank my colleagues for their continued confidence and support. I look forward to working to advance oral and maxillofacial surgery during this monumental time in AAOMS’s history.”

Ferguson served as AAOMS President-Elect in 2017, Vice President in 2016 and was the Association’s Treasurer for four years. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and a past president of the Greater Kansas City Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. He was inducted into the American College of Surgeons in 2016.

Ferguson succeeds Douglas W. Fain, DDS, M.D., FACS, who becomes the Association’s Immediate Past President.

Other 2017-18 officers elected by the AAOMS House of Delegates include: A. Thomas Indresano, DMD, FACS, as President-Elect; Victor L. Nannini, DDS, FACS, as Vice President; J. David Johnson Jr., DDS, as Treasurer; and Steven R. Nelson, DDS, M.S., as Speaker of the House of Delegates. David M. Shafer, DMD, was elected to the Board of Trustees and will serve District I’s northeastern states.

Indresano, of Naperville, Ill., served as Vice President this past year. He recently retired as endowed professor and chair of oral and maxillofacial surgery at the University of Pacific’s Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry. He previously was a professor at the University of Illinois, University of Chicago, Case Western Reserve University and the Medical College of Wisconsin. For four years, he represented OMSs from nine states as the District VI trustee on the AAOMS Board of Trustees. He will become AAOMS President in 2018-19.

Nannini, of Westbury, N.Y., was District I Trustee for the past four years. After more than 30 years in private practice, he recently became full-time faculty as the Associate Program Director at the Nassau University Medical Center Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery residency program. He previously was chair of the New York OMS Political Action Committee for eight years and was president of the New York State Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. 

Johnson, of Oak Ridge, Tenn., was re-elected as Treasurer, a post he has held since 2015. Previously, he was the District III Trustee from 2011 to 2014. Johnson is an associate professor at the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine and practices in his hometown at Oral and Maxillofacial Surgical Specialists, P.C.  He is a past president of both the Tennessee and Southeast Societies of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.  

Nelson, of Greenwood Village, Colo., was ­­­­­elected to his 16th term as Speaker of the House of Delegates. He is a member of the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Center and practices at Nelson, Rollert and Wells Associates in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery in Denver. He is president of the Colorado Dental Lifeline Network and chair of the Small Donor Committee of the Colorado Dental Political Action Committee.

Shafer, of West Simsbury, Conn., ­­­­has been a member of the AAOMS House of Delegates for seven years. He is Associate Professor, Chair and Residency Program Director of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Division at the University of Connecticut’s School of Dental Medicine. He is the Chief of the Department of Dentistry and the Associate Chief of Staff of the University of Connecticut’s John Dempsey Hospital. He previously was president of the Connecticut Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. In 2017, he completed a three-year term on the Board of Directors of the American Dental Education Association.

Other members of the 2017-2018 AAOMS Board of Trustees include:

  • District II Trustee – Paul J. Schwartz, DMD, of Dunkirk, Md.
  • District III Trustee – Robert S. Clark, DMD, of Lexington, Ky.
  • District IV Trustee – J. David Morrison Jr., DMD, of Loveland, Ohio
  • District V Trustee – B.D. Tiner, DDS, M.D., FACS, of San Antonio, Texas
  • District VI Trustee – Mark A. Egbert, DDS, FACS, of Kenmore, Wash.