Gallagher Wins Top ADEA Teaching Honors

The nation’s premier dental education organization has named Dr. George Gallagher, professor and program director of the Advanced Dental Education Program in Oral Pathology, among the best dental educators in the country.

The American Dental Education Association (ADEA) last Thursday granted Gallagher the ADEA/GlaxoSmithKline Sensodyne® Excellence in Teaching Award. Presented annually, the award honors dental school faculty who show creativity, motivate and mentor students, and are regarded by faculty peers as excellent educators.

"The credit for this award should be shared by my colleagues in oral pathology who provide me with daily advice and encouragement, and with the many people in the school who make BU a supportive environment for students and faculty for dental education," says Gallagher.

Gallagher’s dental career, spanning nearly 35 years, is broad in scope and rich in experience as a student, practitioner, and educator. He has worked across a spectrum of oral health disciplines, directing eight separate courses and developing curricula for two. He also developed the websites for BUSDM’s Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology courses, a rigorous process in which he tailored each site to meet predoctoral and postdoctoral students’ needs.

“Dr. Gallagher’s individualized approach to teaching helps students identify their strengths and weaknesses,” says Dean Spencer N. Frankl. “He realizes that learning a profession is a matter of guiding, motivating, and engaging a student rather than simply inculcating knowledge.”

This award is Gallagher’s eleventh teaching accolade. He will receive $2,500, which he plans to use for digital projection equipment for his department to make more teaching cases available for presentation to students.