NC Dental Society Awards

Celebrating excellence in dentistry

Your colleagues. Your mentors. Your friends. They make a lasting impact on dentistry in North Carolina—so let’s celebrate them.

Thank you for your 2026 NC Dental Society Award nominations, recognizing those who elevate our profession through service, leadership, innovation, and community impact. We look forward to recognizing our winners during the NCDS Statewide Leadership Summit.

Award Categories

  • Distinguished Service Scroll – Our most prestigious honor, recognizing a lifetime of outstanding service and leadership. Nominees may be dentists, auxiliary, or lay people.
  • Meritorious Achievement Award – Recognizes significant lifetime contributions across multiple areas, including leadership, academics, research, health care delivery, professionalism, and service to organized dentistry.
  • Mid-Career Dentist Award (new!) – For mid-career dentists who show promise, initiative, and commitment to the missions of the NCDS, ADA, or other dental organizations.
  • Outstanding Early Career Dentist Award – For dentists in their early career with 10 or fewer years in practice who demonstrate exceptional leadership, involvement, and service.
  • Citizenship Award – Honors outstanding service to humanity through civic, community, cultural, humanitarian, or religious activities.
  • Special Recognition Award – For extraordinary achievements or specific accomplishments, whether or not related to dentistry. Nominees may be non-dentists.
  • Student Leaders in Organized Dentistry Award – Selected by each dental school to honor fourth-year students who have shown exceptional leadership and engagement in organized dentistry.

Last year, we honored an outstanding group of dental professionals whose leadership, service, and innovation are shaping the future of dentistry in North Carolina.

Congratulations to our 2025 honorees:

  • Dr. Markus Mosley (Greenville)
  • Dr. Adriana Zelaya (Chapel Hill)
  • Dr. Davia Nickelson (Hillsborough)
  • Dr. Lance Hutchens (Wilmington)
  • Dr. Ron Key (Newton)
  • Dr. Shelley Olson (Oxford)
  • Dr. Mark Pabst (Greenville)
  • Dr. Jeff Thomas (New Bern)

Meet our 2025 winners

Explore past honorees (since 1990)