New Members to MDS Board of Trustees (May 2010 - May 2011)

At May’s House of Delegates, a total of 10 dentists were sworn in for the first time to serve on the MDS Board. Scroll down to learn a little bit more about the newest members of the MDS’s governing body. 

Officers New to the Board

Officers of the MDS are nominated by the Council on Nominations and elected by the House of Delegates. 

Paula K. Friedman, DDS, Vice President

A member of the MDS since 1978, Dr. Paula Friedman previously served on the MDS Women’s Leadership Task Force, completed the MDS Leadership Institute, was a Guest Board Member, and was Chair of the MDS Council on Public Affairs. Dr. Friedman also volunteers for the Yankee Dental Congress, and was a 2005 recipient of the American Association of Women Dentists’ Lucy Hobbs Taylor Award, its highest recognition. She is also a past recipient of the William McKenna Volunteer Hero recognition from the Journal of the Massachusetts Dental Society.

Dr. Friedman received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, her dental degree from Columbia University College of Dental Medicine, and completed a General Practice Residency at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York and a special rotation in Oral Pathology at the University of Maryland Dental School.

Dr. Friedman is currently Associate Dean at Boston University's Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine, where she also teaches gerontology and directs the Geriatric Dentistry Fellowship Program. She can be reached at (617) 638-4741.
 

New Trustees

Each of the 13 district dental societies in the MDS elects one Trustee to the MDS Board for a three-year term that can be renewed once. 

David P. Lustbader, DMD, Trustee, South Shore District  

Quincy Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon Dr. David Lustbader has been a member of the MDS since 1990. He is former President and Chief Medical Officer of Carney Hospital in Boston. He also served as Registration Chair of Yankee Dental Congress 35. 

Dr. Lustbader received his undergraduate and dental degrees from Boston University and is board-certified by the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.  

He maintains offices at South Shore Oral Surgical Associates at 270 Quincy Avenue in Quincy, the Carney Hospital in Boston, and also teaches at Boston University’s Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. Dr. Lustbader can be reached in his Quincy office at (617) 773-9500. 

Richard D. Marchand, DMD, Trustee, Cape Cod District 

General Dentist Dr. Richard Marchand has been a member of the MDS since 1977. Dr. Marchand is a volunteer at the Yankee Dental Congress and is active within the Cape Cod District Dental Society. He has also served as a member of the MDS Council on Access, Prevention, and Interprofessional Relations (CAPIR). Dr. Marchand was recognized by the Journal of the Massachusetts Dental Society as a 2009 William McKenna Volunteer Hero. 

Dr. Marchand graduated from Tufts University with a degree in biology, and received his dental degree from the Tufts University School of Dental Medicine.  

Dr. Marchand practices at 477 Main Street Route 6A in Yarmouth Port and his office phone is (508) 362-4361.

John C. Owen, DMD, Trustee, Metropolitan 
Dr. John Chris Owen is a general dentist and has been a member of the MDS since 2001. He has served on the Council on Nominations and as a volunteer with the Yankee Dental Congress. Dr. Owen has also served as chair of the Metropolitan District Dental Society and represented the District as a delegate at the MDS House of Delegates.

Dr. Owen received his dental degree from Boston University's Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine.

Dr. Owen practices at practice 111 Lincoln St in Needham, and his office phone is (781) 444-0223.

Tofigh Raayai, DMD Trustee, East Middlesex  

A member of the MDS since 1982, Dr. Tofigh Raayai is a current member of the MDS Council on Membership and is active with the Yankee Dental Congress. She has served as Chair of the East Middlesex District Dental Society, President of the American Association of Women Dentists, President of the American Academy of Dental Science, and as a Board member on Tufts University Dental Alumni Executive Council. She has also served as program director and vice president of the Everett Dental Study Club for the past 11 years.

Dr. Raayai received her dental degree and Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study in Orthodontics from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, and earned her Master of Science in Dentistry from Boston University’s Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine.

Dr. Raayai maintains an orthodontic practice at 551 Broadway in Everett and can be reached at (617) 389-3434.

Thomas A. Trowbridge, DDS, MD, Trustee, Merrimack Valley District 

Dr. Thomas Trowbridge, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon, has been a member of the MDS since 1996. He is currently President of the Massachusetts Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, Chair of the North Andover Board of Health, and served as General Chair of Yankee Dental Congress 35.

Dr. Trowbridge graduated from Northwestern University Dental School in 1989 and received his MD from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1993.  

Dr. Trowbridge maintains offices at Lowell Oral Surgery Associates at 33 Bartlett Street #405 in Lowell, and Nashua Oral Surgery Associates in Nashua, NH. He can be reached in Lowell at (978) 458-1264. 

Guest Board Members

The Guest Board Member Program was launched in February 2006 as a means to encourage the expansion of the diversity and multicultural demographics of the MDS Board of Trustees to better reflect the membership of the Society and to encourage involvement in the MDS and organized dentistry. Each governing year, four MDS members are selected to attend Board of Trustees meetings and participate in discussions in a nonvoting capacity. It is hoped that the Guest Board Member Program will result in new leadership candidates for other positions within the MDS and its 13 districts. 

Todd Belfbecker, DMD, Guest Board Member

Revere General Dentist Dr. Todd Belfbecker has been a member of the MDS since 2005. He is the current Chair of the MDS Council on Access, Prevention, and Interprofessional Relations (CAPIR), and has just completed a two-year term as Chair of the North Metropolitan District Dental Society.

Dr. Belfbecker received his DMD from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine.

Dr. Belfbecker practices at 34 Shirley Avenue in Revere, and his office phone is (781) 286-3700.

Debbie S. Eisen, DMD, Guest Board Member  

Dr. Debbie Eisen, a general dentist, has been a member of the MDS since 1998. She completed the MDS Leadership Institute Program and has served on a number of positions with the MDS and the North Metropolitan District Dental Society. Dr. Eisen is a Fellow of the International College of Dentists, and is also a volunteer at the annual Yankee Dental Congress. 

Dr. Eisen received her DMD from Boston University's Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine.  

She is currently Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Prosthodontics and Operative Dentistry at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, and she also maintains a private practice at 440 Humphrey Street in Swampscott. Her office phone is (781) 598-0040. 

Geraldine Garcia-Rogers, DMD, Guest Board Member 

Pediatric Dentist Dr. Geraldine Garcia-Rogers has been a member of the MDS since 1996. She is the current Chair of the Middlesex District Dental Society, a diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry, a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, and a Fellow of the International College of Dentists.

She received her DMD from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine and a Master of Science degree in pediatric dentistry from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry. 

Dr. Garcia-Rogers is a partner at Pediatric Dental Associates of Winchester and Reading, LLC, and can be reached at (781) 729-1900. 

Abol Massih Tehrani, DMD, Guest Board Member 

Dr. Abol Massih Tehrani is a prosthodontist based in Haverhill. He has been a member of the MDS since 2003 and completed the MDS Leadership Institute Program. He is also a faculty member in the Department of Infection and Immunity and Oral Medicine at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine.  

Dr. Tehrani received his dental degree from the National University of Iran and his DMD and specialty certificate in restorative dentistry from Boston University’s Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. He is Past President of the Haverhill Dental Association and was previously the Scientific Co-Chair of the Merrimack Valley District Dental Society.   

Dr. Tehrani practices at 121 Merrimack Street in Haverhill and can be reached at (978) 372-5011. 

MDS Board of Trustees

The MDS Board of Trustees is comprised of the Officers (President, President Elect, Vice President, Secretary, Assistant Secretary, Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer, Speaker of the House, and Immediate Past President) and one Trustee from each of the 13 District Dental Societies.