Current Award Recipients

Corinne M. Van Osdel, DDS '19

Dr. Corinne Van Osdel is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Dentistry and Director of Adult Dentistry at the Munroe-Meyer Institute. In these roles, she is deeply engaged in clinical education, mentorship, and patient care. She earned her Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) degree from UNMC in 2019 and completed her General Practice Residency at UNMC in 2020. Her research interests include interdisciplinary care, interprofessional education, and clinical simulation. 

As the Director of Adult Dentistry at MMI, Dr. Van Osdel has expanded opportunities for patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities to receive comprehensive oral healthcare. Her efforts have strengthened partnerships across disciplines, improved patient access to specialized services, and enhanced training opportunities for future healthcare providers. 

Dr. Van Osdel mentors residents in both the Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) and General Practice Residency (GPR) programs at affiliated hospitals. She also teaches and supervises undergraduate dental and dental hygiene students, guiding the next generation of oral health professionals in delivering high-quality care. Her contributions to the field have been recognized with her fellowship in the International College of Dentists, which was awarded in 2024. 

In addition to her clinical and teaching responsibilities, Dr. Van Osdel is also an emerging leader within organized dentistry. She serves as the District 10 representative on the American Dental Association’s New Dentist Committee, where she advocates for early-career dentists and contributes to national initiatives focused on professional development, leadership engagement, and the future of the dental profession. Through this role, she helps ensure that the perspectives of new dentists are represented in discussions shaping organized dentistry at the national level. 

James Free, DDS '74

Jim Free, DDS graduated from the UNMC College of Dentistry in 1974.  Dr. Free and Byron Tullis, DDS, opened the dental clinic at the Peoples City Misson Free Clinic in August 2009.  Dr. Free has faithfully volunteered his services one day per week at this clinic ever since the day it opened.  Since that time, he has provided free dental services to over 6,000 patients at the clinic.  He also volunteers at Clinic With A Heart and supervises UNMC dental students when they are providing extractions at both clinics, all on a volunteer basis. He enjoyed 47 years of private practice. A highlight of Dr. Free’s career was serving part-time at UNMC College of Dentistry for 16 years. 
 
He currently does emergency extractions two times per week at Peoples City Mission. Dr. Free’s nominator stated, “Without Dr. Free’s dedicated service, the Peoples City Mission dental clinic would no longer exist, leaving the underserved without a dental home.” To which, Dr. Free humbly states, “I think the clinic would go on without me.  I would like to acknowledge all the volunteers who provide their support, particularly Mr. Pat Hup, who filled every role necessary to operate the clinic for the last ten years.”

Mark Beatty, DDS, MSE, MS, MSD

Mark Beatty’s service to the College has spanned teaching, research, clinical care and fundraising. He has taught Dental Materials to dental, dental hygiene, graduate students, and operative dentistry to dental students, having received teaching awards over the course of his career. As Director of the Biomaterials Research Laboratory, he has advised faculty and students in conducting research, with several students having won awards at national meetings. He has served in officer positions in the Dental Materials Group of the American Association for Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research, as well as Omicron Kappa Upsilon and ASM International. Currently he is on editorial boards of three scientific journals.  From 2003 to 2022, he held a dual appointment with the Department of Veterans Affairs, where he treated veterans in Omaha and Lincoln for dental clinics and secured research funding. His primary research focus was related to improving the appearance, feel, and durability of facial prosthetic materials, such as those used in artificial eyes, noses, and ears. Several invention disclosures and numerous publications resulted from this work. In the 1990s, Dr. Beatty was involved with fundraising activities that later led to the construction of new research facilities within the College. He has served as a volunteer for Scouting BSA for the past 21 years. 

Kim Theesen

In the summer of 1980, I was working as a media assistant at Central Technical Community College in Hastings. I heard about and applied for the job of illustrator at the College of Dentistry, and within a few weeks, I went from my hometown to Lincoln. Back in those days, everything was analog, crafted by hand. My illustrations became slides for lectures and slide-tape presentations, along with charts and graphs for publications. We also created brochures for patient education and public relations, along with poster presentations for research conferences. After the PC revolution, many things got easier to produce, which meant I could spend more time on design and not as much in actual physical production.   

During my tenure, I worked closely with the Alumni Association every year on several projects. Learning Resources, the COD’s media section, would help with promotion of the fall football reunion. We’d help with print and, later, online promotion, along with displays honoring the classes in their appropriate reunion anniversaries. A presentation featuring graduates’ portraits ran during the banquets.   

Creating the featured show at the spring graduation was challenging and fun. It started in 1989 with collecting photos from students of their time at school, comprised of classroom, clinic, and social gatherings. A synchronized, multi-projector slide show was the evening’s highlight. This later morphed into a digital presentation and ended with digital-video production in the early 2000s. These shows featured a soundtrack of contemporary music and hopefully cultivated fond memories of the graduates’ time at the college.  

Another benefit of my employment was taking college classes at UNL. For about half of my over-40 years of employment, I was taking a class at night or using comp time for a day class. What started with classes of general interest, ended with a focus on English, and I eventually earned my Bachelor of Arts degree.  

Lastly, no one is successful on his or her own efforts alone; it takes a team. I need to acknowledge my wife Anita Jackson, who was with me through most of my employment; Jeanette DeVilbiss, our instructional developer who hired me; and two influential photographers: Larry Sheffield and Peggy Cain. And finally, there’s the staff and faculty. These people would challenge and inspire me every day to create visuals, which hopefully facilitated the learning process and produced dental professionals.