Lasting Impressions | Winter 2014

NSU’s Health Professions Divi- sion has developed into a multi- disciplinary academic health center of international stature. It is composed of the Colleges of Dental Medicine, Osteopathic Medicine, Pharmacy, Optometry, Health Care Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Nursing. NSU’s dental students take classes and interact with other health professional students in both educational and community service activities. The College of Dental Medi- cine (CDM) began with the same “can do” spirit as the foundation set forth by the educational pioneers who began NSU. When the CDM admitted its initial class of 75 students in August 1997, it was the first private den- tal college established in the state of Florida, and the first to open in the United States, since 1975. (The University of Florida, a public institution, operated the state’s only dental school at the time.) The accessibility has allowed the fostering of many interdisci- plinary opportunities and dual degrees, including the D.O./ D.M.D. degree with the College of Osteopathic Medicine, and a newly established D.M.D./Master of Public Health degree. The College of Dental Medi- cine is known as the nation’s “most applied to” dental school and is highly competitive, regu- larly attracting 2,800 applications for 130 spots. “We have a really robust pool of applicants who have an average grade point aver- age of 3.7,” said Linda C. Niessen, D.M.D., M.P.H., M.P.P., who, in October 2013, became the CDM’s third dean. THE BEGINNINGS In many ways, the story of the College of Dental Medicine begins with a retired endodontist, Seymour Oliet, D.D.S., from Philadelphia, who had moved to Pompano Beach, and Arnold Mel- nick, former Health Professions Division provost and executive vice chancellor. “I met Dr. Melnick when he was an associate chan- cellor in the Health Professions Division,” said Oliet. “He told me there was a desire to create a den- tal school, and he somehow extracted a promise from me that I would help when this dream became a reality. “One day, Melnick called me and said the Health Professions Division was taking me up on my promise,” said Oliet, who served as founding dean of the dental college from 1996 to 2001. “Not having planned it, I started a sec- ond career.” Now, Oliet, the dean emeritus, is an NSU professor of endodontics, working with resi- dent candidates who will become endodontic specialists. Many detractors believed opening the dental school was a daunting task and doomed for failure. In a 1997 story in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel , the LEFT: The College of Dental Medicine admitted its first class of 75 students in August 1997, becoming the first private dental college established in the state of Florida. Today, the competitive college attracts 2,800 applications for 130 placements annually. BELOW: Sigmund Stahl, D.D.S., an internationally recognized periodontist, was among the college’s first faculty members. 12 x LASTING IMPRESSIONS