Nine School of Dentistry alumni nominated for TAGD’s 2023 Texas Academy Awards

Nine UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry alumni are among the nominees for the Texas Academy of General Dentistry’s 2023 Texas Academy Awards, with five nominated for Texas Dentist of the Year™ and four others nominated for Texas New Dentist of the Year.

TAGD will present the awards during the Texas Academy Awards dinner on Friday, Sept. 22, in the Sheraton Austin Georgetown Hotel and Conference Center in Georgetown, Texas.

Nominees for each award are chosen throughout the state by local dental societies and components of the Texas Dental Association and TAGD. Each component or society may nominate only one candidate for each award. Previous winners are not eligible.

Since 1976, the academy selects one dentist to honor as the Texas Dentist of the Year™, the highest honor a Texas dentist can receive. Nominees may be from any specialty and do not have to be members of the Academy of General Dentistry.

School of Dentistry nominees for the 2023 Texas Dentist of the Year™ include:

• Nancy Andree, DDS ’77 (Central Texas Dental Society)
• Rita M. Cammarata, DDS ’96 (Greater Houston Dental Society)
• Anne Lyon, DDS ’86 (Capital Area Dental Society)
• Karen A. Walters, DDS ’78 (Houston Academy of General Dentistry)
• Scott Williams, DDS ’86 (Dallas Academy of General Dentistry)

The Texas New Dentist of the Year Award began in 2009 and recognizes emerging leaders in the field of dentistry. Nominees must be general dentists who graduated from dental school within the last seven years and been an AGD member for the last two years.

Alumni nominated for the 2023 Texas New Dentist of the Year include:

• Gilberto Garcia, Jr., DDS ’19 (Ninth District Dental Society)
• Glennis M. Katzmark, DDS ’17 (Houston Academy of General Dentistry)
• Tanya Sue Maestas, DDS ’18 (El Paso Academy of General Dentistry & El Paso District Dental Society)
• Trey H. Miller, DDS ’18 (Panhandle District Dental Society)

School of Dentistry alumni have been the recipients of both awards in recent years. The 2022 Texas New Dentist of the Year was Lindsey Wendt, DDS ’15, of Houston. Richard C. Black, DDS ’76, MS ’78, of El Paso was the 2021 Texas Dentist of the Year™, and faculty member Thomas C. “Tommy” Harrison, DDS, was the 2022 honoree.