Executive Committee

Dr. Andres Pinto, President

Dr. Pinto is founding Chair and Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial  Medicine in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences at Case Western Reserve University, School of Dental Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. In addition, he is an attending staff in the Department of Surgery, Divisions of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Pediatric Dentistry at University Hospitals Case Medical Center and Rainbow Babies and Children’s  Hospital, and the director of the Oral Medicine Fellowship program and the MScD in Oral Medicine graduate program. He received his DMD, MPH, MSCE, certificate in Clinical Research, and certificate in Oral Medicine, from the University of Pennsylvania, School of Dental Medicine and School of Medicine. Dr. Pinto is a diplomate of the American Board of Oral Medicine and the European Association of Oral Medicine, and holds a FDS from the Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburgh). He was a member of the faculty and director of Oral Medicine Services at the University of Pennsylvania for 13 years, and during 2011–2013 he was the Chief of the Division of Community Oral Health at Penn. He has published extensively and is a coauthor of several major texts in Oral Medicine, like Burket’s Oral Medicine, Dental Clinical Advisor, and Curbside Consultation in Pediatrics. He is co-editor of Risk Assessment and Oral Diagnostics in Clinical Dentistry, a popular reference book for dental students and residents in General Practice and Oral Medicine training. He maintains a busy referral practice in Oral Medicine and Orofacial Pain at UH Case Medical Center. His clinical interests are the management of oral mucosal disease, oral oncology, pediatric oral medicine, and orofacial pain. He has been funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, HRSA, and is a co-investigator in several NIH and industry funded trials.

Dr. Nathaniel Treister, President-Elect

Dr. Treister is Chief of the Divisions of Oral Medicine and Dentistry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Treister earned his DMD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine and subsequently completed his Oral Medicine certificate and Oral Biology doctoral training at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, where he is an Assistant Professor of Oral Medicine in the Department of Oral Medicine, Infection and Immunity. He is board certified in Oral Medicine and practices at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute with special interest in oral mucosal diseases, salivary gland diseases, and oral complications in cancer patients. He has published extensively in the field of oral medicine with an emphasis on oral complications of hematopoietic cell transplantation and chronic graft-versus-host disease. He currently serves as Study Chair for Children’s Oncology Group study ACCL1031 entitled “A Randomized Double Blinded Trial of Topical Caphosol to Prevent Oral Mucositis in Children Undergoing Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation”, and as site Principal Investigator for ORARAD, an NIDCR sponsored study investigating the late effects of head and neck radiation therapy on oral health outcomes.

Dr. Vidya Sankar, Vice President

Dr. Sankar is an associate surgeon at the Division of Oral Medicine Clinic and Dentistry at Brigham and Women's Hospital. She is a diplomate of the American Board of Oral Medicine. She received her DMD from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, earned her Certificate in Oral Medicine from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/ National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), Bethesda, Maryland, received her Masters in Health Science degree from Duke University and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Dr. Jaisri Thoppay, Secretary

Dr. Thoppay is the President at the Center for Integrative Oral Health Inc, Chief Operating Officer at Nenotics LLC [Healthcare and Business consulting], and an Affiliate with Advent Health Orlando Fl. Dr. Thoppay obtained her dental degree and MBA from India, Master of Oral Biology from Augusta University, Augusta, GA. She completed her Oral Medicine residency and Interdisciplinary Geriatric fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, Interprofessional Geriatric Fellowship at the Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA. She had served as a faculty member and Director of Oral Medicine, Orofacial Pain and Geriatric clinic at the School of Dentistry at the Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA from 2015–2019.

Dr. Thoppay has a full-time private practice dedicated to Oral Medicine, Orofacial pain and management of medically complex patients, Geriatric oral healthcare. She serves as Oral Medicine Section Associate Editor of Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol journal. Apart from her clinical and research projects, she provides consultation services for dental education course redesign from traditional to online/ hybrid format for didactic courses. She volunteers as a test constructor for Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations. She volunteers for Oral Medicine clinical outreach, oral diseases, oral cancer awareness advocacy, and patient focus groups online and in-person. She provides program management consultation to integrate clinical domain and program management skillsets in New Product Introduction/New Product Design, Project & workflow analytics, Operations and Process management in the healthcare industry, Clinical application knowledge in Lean, Six Sigma, Agile, Systems and Business Process Re-engineering, application and user level on Big data analytic tools.

Dr. Kentaro Ikeda, Treasurer

Dr. Ikeda is an associate surgeon in the Division of Oral Medicine and Dentistry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and serves as the clinical director of the Division. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Oral Medicine. He received his DDS from Tokyo Dental College, his Certificate in Pediatric Dentistry from the Kanagawa Children’s Medical Center, his Certificates in GPR and Oral Medicine from the Carolinas Medical Center, and his Master of Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Ikeda is a diplomat of the American Board of Oral Medicine and holds Fellowship in the Royal College of Surgeons at Edinburgh. He maintains an Oral Medicine practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His clinical and research interests are the management of oral mucosal diseases, orofacial pain, pediatric Oral Medicine, oral manifestations of systemic diseases, drug-induced oral complications, and oral care for oncology patients.

Dr. Sunday Akintoye, Assistant Treasurer

Dr. Akintoye is a clinician-scientist with interest in basic and translational research related to alleviating orofacial complications of cancer therapy. His research is focused on orofacial bone mesenchymal stem cells, site-specific characteristics and therapeutic applications as donor graft to bridge osseous defects in the maxillofacial region. His laboratory reported that human orofacial mesenchymal stem cells within the jaw bone are unique and different from those in non-oral skeletal sites in terms of their growth, lifespan, and bone regenerative properties. He is studying the modulatory roles of orofacial bone mesenchymal stem cells in the pathogenesis of jaw osteonecrosis and how their unique properties can be harnessed for oral bone healing.

Dr. Akintoye is also interested in dental manifestations of metabolic bone diseases. He has focused on fibrous dysplasia and described the dental features of maxillo-mandibular fibrous dysplasia associated with McCune-Albright syndrome. Dr. Akintoye’s research has received funding support from the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, and National Institute of Aging. He has also been funded by American Cancer Society, University of Pennsylvania Research Foundation, Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders, Penn Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and Private Foundations. Dr. Akintoye’s research was featured in the 2014 “Grantee Spotlight” of the National Cancer Institute/Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities and in the December 2015 e-Newsletter of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research/National Institutes of Health. Dr. Akintoye teaches in the Oral Medicine Clinic and in the graduate programs of the Division of Advanced Dental Education. He was a Fulbright Scholar to University of Lagos in 2015/2016.

Dr. Allessandro Villa, Assistant Secretary

Dr. Villa is the chief of the Sol Silverman Oral Medicine Clinic at UCSF and the Director of Oral Oncology. Dr. Villa obtained his dental degree and PhD from Italy and his Master of Public Health from AT Still University, MO. He then completed his oral medicine residency training at Harvard University/Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Villa's research interests include the pathobiology of oral complications from cancer treatment therapeutic strategies for oral leukoplakia. In addition, Dr. Villa is working to reduce the burden of HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancers. He serves on the editorial board of several oral medicine journals, including Oral Diseases.

Dr. Lauren Patton, Immediate Past-President

Dr. Patton is Professor in the new Division of Craniofacial and Surgical Services and former Chair of the Department of Dental Ecology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) Adams School of Dentistry and Director of the General Practice Residency (GPR) program. She is a Fellow of the American Association of Hospital Dentistry and Diplomate of the American Board of Special Care Dentistry. She is a Diplomate and past President of the American Board of Oral Medicine. She earned her DDS at the University of North Carolina, attended the 2-year GPR at UNC, followed by a 2-year Clinical Dental Staff Fellowship with Oral Medicine/Research training at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) in Bethesda, MD.

During her 29 years on UNC faculty, she has conducted industry and federal government-funded clinical and health services research; participated in teaching at dental hygiene, dental, and post-doctoral levels; published over 140 papers, monographs and book chapters; and lectured internationally on oral manifestations and management of patients with medical complexities, such as HIV/AIDS and oral cancer. In 2013, she received the AAOM’s Samuel Charles Miller Award for Significant Contributions to the Science, Literature, and Patient Care in the Field of Oral Medicine. She serves as a member of the American Dental Association (ADA) Council on Scientific Affairs and is editor of The ADA Practical Guide to Patients with Medical Conditions. She also serves as the Oral Medicine Section Editor of Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol. She is the UNC site Principal Investigator of the NIDCR-funded Clinical Registry of Dental Outcomes in Head and Neck Cancer Patients (OraRad).

Dr. Eric Stoopler, Past-President 

Dr. Stoopler is a Professor of Oral Medicine and Director of Oral Medicine Education at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. He completed his undergraduate studies at S.U.N.Y Binghamton and earned his dental degree from Penn Dental Medicine. Dr. Stoopler completed a General Practice Residency at the Brooklyn V.A.M.C. and a Fellowship in Oral Medicine at Penn Dental Medicine. Dr. Stoopler holds Fellowship in The American Association of Hospital Dentists, The International College of Dentists, The Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburgh, England), The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (Glasgow), and is a Diplomate of The American Board of Oral Medicine and The American Board of Special Care Dentistry. He maintains an active oral medicine practice at the University of Pennsylvania Health System and is a Consultant to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Stoopler received the University of Pennsylvania's Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching and is a member of Penn Medicine's Academy of Master Clinicians. He is a contributing author to Burket's Oral Medicine, the American Dental Association Guide to Dental Therapeutics and has served as Editor of the Medical and Dental Clinics of North America.