Dr. Frank Serio receives 2015 ADA Humanitarian Award

Dr. Francis “Frank” G. Serio, adjunct faculty member and former associate dean for clinical affairs at the ECU School of Dental Medicine, received the 2015 American Dental Association (ADA) Humanitarian Award in November.

The ADA honored Dr. Serio with its highest honor for his more than three decades of service and outreach, including founding the Dominican Dental Mission Project (DDMP), which has provided more than $15 million worth of needed dental care and dental and medical supplies to more than 60,000 people in the Dominican Republic.

Dr. Maxine Feinberg, president of the ADA, presented Dr. Serio with the award at the Opening General Session of ADA 2015 – America’s Dental Meeting held in Washington, D.C.  Along with the honor, Serio received $10,000 to be donated to the continuing work of the DDMP.

Serio received a President’s Volunteer Action Award for his work with the DDMP from President George H.W. Bush in 1991 and a Daily Points of Light Award from President George W. Bush in 2001.

Besides serving on the ECU dental school faculty, Serio has served on the dental faculty at the University of Maryland and at the University of Mississippi. He has authored over 90 abstracts, textbook chapters, books, and other publications and currently lectures on the continuing education circuit on periodontics and global volunteerism.

He now serves as a dentist at the J.D. Berstein Community Center in Greenville, where he continues his passion for working with the underserved.