The University of Iowa Dental Alumni Association and the College of Dentistry have named Kathryn Kell their Alumna of the Year and Jerry Dean Walker their Educator of the Year.
A native of Davenport, Iowa, Kell was drawn to dentistry by an interest in science and the inspiration of her uncle and cousin, both dentists. She received her bachelor of arts degree in 1974 and her doctor of dental surgery (D.D.S.) degree in 1979, both from the UI, and in 1999 earned a master’s degree in health care administration from St. Ambrose University. After graduation, she joined R.C. Wienert’s private practice in Davenport. When Wienert retired, she joined the practice of her good friend and mentor, C.F. “Larry” Barrett. Since 1995, Kell has had her own private practice.
Kell chairs the American Dental Association (ADA) Committee on International Programs and Development and was a member of the ADA’s officer delegation to Beijing in September. From 2008-2011, she chaired the ADA Monitoring Committee for the Commission on Dental Accreditation and served on the ADA Board of Trustees from 2004-2008.
She is a member of the American College of Dentists, the International College of Dentists, the Academy of Dentistry International, the American Association of Health Care Executives, Delta Mu Delta Honorary Society, and the Pierre Fauchaud Academy. She is a past president of both the Iowa Dental Association and the American Association of Women Dentists. In 2007, she received the Lucy Hobbs Taylor Women Dentist of the Year Award.
During his elementary and secondary schooling, Walker lived in Burlington, Iowa, and then Marion. When he graduated from high school in 1954, he briefly considered pre-law but decided to pursue dentistry. After completing two years of pre-dental requirements at Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 1957, he entered dental school at Iowa. He married his sweetheart, Judy, in 1959 and graduated with his D.D.S. in 1962.
He spent two years in the Army where he was stationed in the former West Berlin. As a pedodontist, he treated American soldiers and their families, German children, and—for one year—three German war criminals at Spandau Prison: Rudolph Hess, who was Adolf Hitler’s deputy in the Nazi Party; Albert Speer, who was minister of armaments and war party production for the Third Reich; and Baldur von Schirach, who was the head of the Hitler Youth.
After returning from Germany, Walker and his wife moved to Webster Groves, Mo., where he worked temporarily in the dental practice of a seriously ill pedodontist, provided dental education to the University City school district, and worked one half day per week in the St. Louis University dental clinic. Walker and his family eventually returned to Iowa City, where he pursued a master’s degree in educational psychology. In the 1980s, he developed a relationship with UI athletes and athletic trainers and provided mouth guards to the athletes.
He has authored many articles and book chapters and served as director of the Johnson County Dental Services for Indigent Children, a United Way Agency (now named Dental Care for Kids). Since retirement, he has been a volunteer coach at Iowa cross-country and track meets. He has also officiated at state high school track meets and is a member of the Iowa High School Track Officials Hall of Fame.
Read more at www.dentistry.uiowa.edu/about_us/news.shtml.