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Scott and Gail Werner-Robertson |
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Lawrence Tabak, D.D.S., Ph.D. |
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Jessica Meeske, D.D.S. |
Gail Werner-Robertson and Scott Robertson, both of Omaha, will be awarded the UNMC Chancellor’s Distinguished Service Award. Werner-Robertson is founder and CEO of GWR Wealth Management LLC. Scott Robertson is president of UltraAir, a private aircraft charter service.
The Robertsons are strong advocates for autistic children, co-founding the GWR Sunshine Autism Foundation. This foundation is credited with sponsoring numerous annual fund raisers to benefit autism programs and education in Nebraska. A major recipient of its incredible success has been the Munroe-Meyer Institute’s Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders at UNMC.
The UNMC Chancellor’s Distinguished Service Award is given to individuals or organizations that have demonstrated outstanding support for the medical center by way of personal service, private contributions or other meritorious advocacy for the campus mission. The chancellor, in consultation with other UNMC leaders, selects the recipient.
Lawrence Tabak, D.D.S., Ph.D., is being honored with Honorary Doctor of Science Degree, in recognition of his outstanding research and administrative career in dentistry.
Dr. Tabak, who lives in Bethesda, Md., was appointed the seventh director of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) at the National Institutes of Health in September 2000. As director, he leads the world’s largest oral health research enterprise, including a team of some 500 scientists, administrators and support staff with an annual budget of nearly $390 million.
Under Dr. Tabak’s leadership, the NIDCR is helping to lay the foundation for a future of molecular-based dentistry and medicine that will vastly improve patient care in the 21st century. This includes building the needed research tools to fully develop saliva-based diagnostic tests and pursue promising leads in oral immunology, tissue engineering, oral biofilm, head and neck cancer, pain management and craniofacial development.
Dr. Tabak also has overseen an expansion of NIDCR’s clinical research portfolio and led institute initiatives to reduce dental disparities in America.
Dr. Tabak has served actively as co-chair of the Research Teams of the Future component of the NIH Roadmap that emphasizes new ways of doing team science to generate additional multi- and interdisciplinary research. He is currently leading an NIH-wide initiative to enhance peer review.
Jessica Meeske, D.D.S., of Hastings, will receive the J.G. Elliott Award for improving dental health services for Nebraskans. An adjunct professor in the department of pediatric dentistry in the UNMC College of Dentistry, Dr. Meeske is a leader in the dental health needs of underserved populations, both as a clinician in south-central Nebraska and as a public health policy advocate statewide.
Dr. Meeske founded and is clinical director of the Sonrisa Dental Project, which provides basic dental services for underserved children. The program incorporates local dentists, senior dental students from UNMC, dental hygiene students from Central Community College and local health agencies in serving the dental needs of nearly 100 youths annually, at no cost to the children or their families.
Dr. Meeske is a dentist at Lockwood & Meeske Pediatric Dentistry, which has locations in Hastings and Grand Island. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Hastings College, her doctor of dental surgery from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and her certificate in pediatric dentistry from the University of Iowa. She also holds a master’s degree in dental public health from the University of Iowa.
The J.G. Elliott Award is given annually in memory of Elliott, a former Scottsbluff resident who served on the University of Nebraska Board of Regents for 20 years until his death in 1974.