What better way of encouraging the continued development of our specialty than to promote international collaborative training experiences for our younger members? The Dr. Ramon L. Ruiz Traveling Scholars Award, sponsored by AACMFS, has already provided an opportunity to Dr. Karen Carver, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Faculty and now Residency Program Director at the University of Michigan, to expand her horizon in Craniomaxillofacial Surgery by helping to fund a visit to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Dr. Carver has already presented a summary of her experience at last year’s annual meeting in Halifax.
As past President, Dr. Sean Edwards, mentioned in his letter to the membership, these traveling scholars’ experiences are life changing and enhance the professional growth and development of the recipient of these awards and our specialty. A major purpose of AACMFS is to promote education and as Dr. Carver will attest, this experience has given her a broad perspective of craniomaxillofacial surgery specific to her professional goals.
What better way is there to memorialize an icon of American craniomaxillofacial surgery, Dr. Ramon L. Ruiz, than to name this program in his honor? Dr. Ruiz was a founding member and tenth president of this organization. He was one of the first formally trained craniomaxillofacial surgeons in our specialty and was passionate about the benefits of fellowship training followed by a period of traveling to other centers for the broadening experience. Because of Dr. Ruiz’s persistence and passion for pediatric craniomaxillofacial surgeons, the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery now recognizes craniomaxillofacial surgery as a specialty within our scope of practice. Dr. Ruiz’s efforts lead to the development of the fellowship MATCH program that is sponsored by AACMFS. During his short career, he developed a Center of Excellence in Pediatric Craniomaxillofacial Surgery at the Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital in Orlando, Florida, trained more than a dozen pediatric craniomaxillofacial surgery fellows and influenced the careers of countless professional colleagues, oral and maxillofacial surgery residents, dental students, and medical students.
My predecessor as President of AACMFS Foundation, Dr. Eric Derks, who was enormously successful in establishing the Foundation, used quotes from the wise American statesman, Benjamin Franklin, in his letters to the membership defining the needs of the Foundation. Continuing in this tradition, I offer these words of Franklin “A penny saved is a penny earned,” to stress the importance of funding a foundation and to utilize the principle of compounding interest to preserve the fund balance. The goal of the Foundation is to make the Dr. Ramon L. Ruiz Traveling Scholars Program self-sustaining through continuous contributions and the compounding of interest. Currently our Foundation requires $10,000 annually to fund a single Traveling Scholars Award. To be self-sustaining for this award, the Foundation requires $250,000 in principal. Currently our balance is $180,000, meaning that we still must raise $70,000 to meet the goal of self-sustainability.
Mrs. Laura C. Ruiz will be attending the annual meeting in Baltimore to present the Dr. Ramon L. Ruiz Traveling Scholars Award to the recipient of this year’s award. To date, there are 6 applicants for this award which demonstrates eagerness amongst our young members and a need for the award. Please consider a donation to this worthy cause. All gifts are completely tax free, and the cause is worthy.
Timothy A. Turvey, DDS, FACS
Chair, AACMFS Foundation