Dr. Cheryl Goldasich, PFA Member, welcomes new fellows

May 16, 2026

Co-Chairs Drs. Norman Nagel and RK Chetty welcomed the Southern California PFA fellows to the 52nd Annual Meeting, held in conjunction with the California Dental Association in Anaheim, CA. Over 31 fellows and guests heard Dr. Cheryl Goldasich discuss the importance of becoming a fellow in the Academy, and the meaning of being a fellow. Thank you, Cheryl, for a wonderful presentation. The eleven new fellows included Dr. Anjali, Dr Joseph Minda Atalla, Dr. Stewart R. Balikov, Dr. Anand Purushottam Bhalodi, Dr. Hubert Chan, Dr. Casey Chen, Dr. Marc Richard Hayashi, Dr. Shivani Karre, Dr. Akshay Ashok Katara, Dr. Mark Mintline, Dr. Ashish Shrestha.

The four dental schools in the area chose four senior dental students for the PFA Dental Student Awards. One student, Arash Alirezaei, was present with his dental school dean, Dr. Elizabeth Andrews and other Western School of Health Sciences faculty members. The other student awardees included Dr. Helen Park, from USC; Caitlin Mispagel, UCLA; and Dr. Alexey Gurin, Loma Linda University. They were not able to be present for the meeting.

During the closing comments, Drs. Nagel and Chetty expressed their thanks to the fellowship. They have both decided to step down as co-chairs of the Southern California Section after four years of leadership. They felt it was time to “pass the torch” to the next generation of leadership.

We look forward to the 2027 PFA Southern California Section meeting, once again held in conjunction with the CDA Annual Session.