Nomination Guidelines

The prestigious CDA Foundation Humanitarian Award recognizes California dentists who have distinguished themselves by outstanding, unselfish leadership and contributions to fellow human beings in the field of dentistry, through the dedication of extraordinary time and professional skills, to improve the oral health of underserved populations in California, the United States, or abroad.

Nominee Eligibility
Nominee must hold a California dental license (active or retired).

Who May Nominate
The nominator must be either a CDA member or a component dental society executive director. A nominator is limited to one nomination per award cycle.

Criteria
The award recognizes individual volunteer commitment and leadership that has had a broad impact on oral health and the improvement of the human condition, or marked by actions that have enabled the dental profession to respond more fully to the individual needs of people at the local, state, national, or international level.

Nominee must exemplify the following humanitarian ideals and attributes:

  • Contributing significantly to alleviate human suffering and improving the quality of life and oral health of those served;
  • Demonstrating significant leadership and outstanding humanitarian volunteer accomplishments that bring honor to the profession;
  • Serving as in inspiration to the dental profession;
  • Showing, through the scope of work undertaken, a commitment to humanity and selflessness in regard to direct personal or organizational gain or profit;
  • Establishing a legacy that is of ongoing value and benefit to others;
  • Demonstrating the highest level of compassion, respect, integrity and professionalism in the care of patients and families, while recognizing sensitivity to their religious, cultural and ethnic differences;
  • Creative interventions and awareness of the impact that illness has on the physical, emotional, social and spiritual lives of patients and their families; and
  • Teamwork.

Award
Recipients are only eligible to receive this award once. A $2,500 contribution will be given by the CDA Foundation to the nonprofit of the recipient’s choice. Recipients of this award will be recognized at an appropriate CDA event, presented with a humanitarian award, and be recognized in CDA and CDA Foundation publications.

Award Application Process
Nominators must submit the following items with the online application (scan documents into appropriate file format, PDF preferred, for uploading) no later than June 1 annually:

  • A Curriculum Vitae/resume highlighting the nominee’s humanitarian contributions (maximum 3 pages);
  • Two letters of support (maximum 2 pages) from individuals other than the nominator (one from an official, leader, representative, etc. of the community(ies) where the nominee's humanitarian efforts are undertaken, well-acquainted to the nominee and who is not affiliated with the nominee's activities, and one from a colleague who works with or is in support of the nominee's humanitarian efforts); and
  • One letter of support (maximum 1 page) from a recipient of nominee's efforts.
  • Other supporting documentation (maximum 3 pages) to substantiate and fully present the character and achievement of the nominee at the discretion of the nominator (testimonials, narrative, photographs, brochures, news articles, etc.).

Selection Process
The CDA Foundation Grant Selection Committee will recommend the award recipient to the CDA Foundation Board of Directors after reviewing the nominees.