AOS MEMBERSHIP NEWS Gratitude for Mentors; Paying It Forward None of us rises alone. We do so with the encour-agement, faith and support of others who believe in us. From my first orthodontic instructors, Dr. and Mrs. Gerety, who allowed me to ask a thousand questions, to Dr. Jackson, who motivated me to pursue creden-tialing, to Dr. Schmidbauer as he graded my Fellow cases, to Dr. Baker, who mentored me in starting as a lecturer, to Dr. Balvich who took an enormous leap of faith and added me as a speaker at our Annual Meet-ing when he was president, having never heard me as a lecturer. That takes guts! Drs. White and Wyatt allowed me to pellet them with another thousand questions and still smiled and pushed me upward. I later added Dr. Gonzalez and Dr. Carapezza to my long list of mentors who have taught and nurtured my pursuit of knowledge. A special recognition to Dr. Cannizzo, our Journal editor, who discovered me at one of our table clinic presentations many years ago and has not let me put down my pen since! He pushes me to share our knowl-edge with all our Journal readers. Thanks Greg for giving my message a voice. Also, I must never forget my classmates with whom I sat for so many hours, discussed our problems and cases over meals, and shared pearls of knowledge as we grew together in our orthodontic education. Many of them have mentored me and taught me how to become a better administrator in my position as board member Juan C. Echeverri, DDS and AOS president. Always under the AOS banner with an incredible AOS President positive and friendly attitude, together we became members of this amazing organiza-tion. I also want to thank our fantastic administrative team in Dallas, led by Tom Chapman. How many times we have called with questions and have been helped by Tom, Barb, Porter and other members of this team! Personally, I could not be where I am in the AOS without the support of all of my extended family of colleagues and mentors. Remember, these skilled and dedicated professionals are here for you to use, as well. And, it is my hope that you will use them and this Society to be the best dentist you can be. I will endeavor to be the best president possible for all of our members in this coming year and hope to stand with each and all of our members in our Society’s continuing mission to improve our orthodontic educa-tion for our patients, our families, and ourselves. Juan C. Echeverri, DDS Dr. Juan Echeverri with the exceptional group of doctors who attended his recent TADs course in Dallas, TX this past November. www.orthodontics.com Winter 2016 43
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society Winter 2016: Page 43
