Executive Committee

Dr. Lauren Patton, 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, Immediate 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.

Dr. Miriam Robbins, Past-President 

Miriam R. Robbins, DDS, MS is the Chair of the Department of Dental Medicine at NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, NY. She is a clinical associate professor in the Department of Oral-Maxillofacial Pathology, Radiology and Medicine at NYU College of Dentistry, where she was previously the Associate Chair of that department as well as the Director of Special Needs Dental Clinic. She received her dental degree from SUNY at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine and her MS in Management and Health Policy from the Robert Wagner School of Public Policy at NYU. She completed her residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and an American Cancer fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, both in New York City. She is a Diplomat of the American Board of Special Care Dentistry and holds Fellowships in the American College of Dentists, American Academy of Oral Medicine and the American Association of Hospital Dentists. She is the immediate past president of the Special Care Dentistry Association as well as a Past-President of the American Academy of Oral Medicine. She lectures nationally and internationally as well as contributing to the dental and medical literature on the dental management of special needs and medically complex patients, managing the oral manifestation of systemic disease, HIV/AIDS, oral cancer and other oral medicine related topics. 

Dr. Andres Pinto, President-Elect

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 diplomat 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, Vice President

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, Secretary

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. Kentaro Ikeda, Treasurer

Dr. Ikeda is an assistant professor at the Department of Diagnostic and Biological Sciences at the University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine and at the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. 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 University of Colorado. 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.