The West Virginia Section of the Pierre Fauchard Academy held its annual awards ceremony and dinner on Wednesday May 10, 2023 at the beautiful Erickson Alumni Center on the campus of West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. The program began at 5:30 p.m. with a reception followed by the awards program and a great dinner.

It was a memorable time for the West Virginia Section as two new fellows, Dr. Jon Abraham and Dr. Elizabeth Kao were inducted into the Academy.  Both are faculty members in the Department of Restorative Dentistry and have contributed in countless ways to the school and WV Dental Association.

The West Virginia Section presents two student awards each year.   The Senior Dental Student Certificate of Merit was presented to Dr. Hunter Palmer.  He is the President of the Dental Class of 2023 at the WVU School of Dentistry and you can see from the picture below that he is the tallest student ever at the WVU School of Dentistry (7 feet).

The PFA 3^rd year dental award and scholarship was presented to Brooke King who is the President of Delta Sigma Delta and Secretary of the Student Professionalism and Ethics Association.

The West Virginia Section also presents a Special Appreciation Award which is given to a faculty member at the school who has made extraordinary contributions to the Dental Profession and the School. This year the award was presented to Dr. Bill Oscanyan.  The WV Section also presents a Distinguished Dentist Award for a dentist who has shown outstanding leadership and service to the state on a national level.  This year it was presented to the President of the WV Dental Association, Dr. Dan Carrier.

The last segment of the program was to honor Dr. Jerry Bouquot, longtime fellow in the PFA and faculty member at the WVU School of Dentistry.  Dr. Bryan Whitaker, Chair of the Department of Diagnostic Sciences started a scholarship and poster program to honor Dr. Bouquot which was presented for the first time this year.