American Student Dental Association Elects 2015-16 Executive Committee and Speaker of the House of Delegates

Chicago, IL, March 04, 2015 --(PR.com)-- During its Annual Session in Boston on Feb. 21, the American Student Dental Association House of Delegates elected its 2015-16 national president, vice presidents and speaker of the House of Delegates.

Christian Piers, University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine ’16, was elected president. Piers previously served as ASDA’s 2014-15 editor-in-chief and ex-officio member of ASDA’s Board of Trustees, and also as Colorado ASDA chapter president. He is an ASDA liaison to the American Dental Association Council on Communications and member of its Subcommittee on Social and Digital Media. He is the sole student member of the Colorado Dental Association Board of Trustees, where he represents Colorado dental students’ perspectives on midlevel provider legislation, licensure reform and statewide expansion of Medicaid. Prior to dental school, Piers earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in fiction from Warren Wilson College. During his undergraduate career, he was president and founder of Greek Men Take a Stand, a group of 120 fraternity men working against sexual harassment and violence against women. Past recognition includes: Greek Man of the Year, Distinguished Artist Award for Creative Writing and the Brubaker Award for Promising Literary Achievement.

“We’re at an important crossroads for dentistry,” said Piers. “We look forward to partnering with leaders across the country to advocate for students, patients and the future of our profession.”

Also elected were ASDA’s Vice Presidents Adrien Lewis, University of Texas School of Dentistry at Houston ’16, and Niveditha Rajagopalan, Midwestern University, College of Dental Medicine-Illinois ’16.

Lewis joined ASDA in 2012, where she served as president of the Baylor University Predental Club. As associate and then chair of ASDA’s Council on Membership, she helped launch the first annual National Predental Week. She is a member of the American Association of Dental Research, Texas Association of Women Dentists and Psi Omega Dental Fraternity, and serves as Community Service Chairman for both the Pediatric Education Dental Society and Alpha Omega International Dental Fraternity. Lewis’ research earned her a third place award at the Greater Houston Dental Society 2015 Star of the South Dental Meeting Table Clinics – Dental Student Category.

Rajagopalan served as ASDA’s 2014-15 Speaker of the House of Delegates, member of the Governance Work Group and secretary to the ASDA Delegation at the ADA Annual Session. She is the ASDA liaison to the ADA Council on Ethics, Bylaws and Judicial Affairs. Rajagopalan presented "The 5 W's of ASDA Policy Making" at ASDA’s 2014 National Leadership Conference. She was also a member of her undergraduate university’s competitive speech and debate team and has won three consecutive state championships.

Paula Cohen, University of Florida College of Dentistry ’17, was elected speaker of the House of Delegates. She is the ASDA District 5 legislative chair and serves as her chapter’s vice president elect, Professionalism Committee chair and legislative and advocacy liaison. Cohen is the President of the Dental College Council and a member of the University of Florida Student Affairs Committee.