New dentist shows commitment to community and profession.

Abstract

In 2005, Dr. Jose Peralez won the ADA's Golden Apple Award for New Dentist Leadership. He is a second-career native of the Rio Grande Valley who returned after his 1995 graduation from dental school to serve the community he grew up in. Dr. Peralez helped to purchase, manage, and staff a mobile clinic, create a voucher program administered through school nurses, and engage legislators in issues of oral health care for the underserved. He believes that "habits of involvement" are cross generational and contagious.