The 2024 Denobi Awards Honor Outstanding Contributors to the Dental Industry

With a red-carpet gala celebration in Dallas, Texas, the 2024 Denobi Awards honored 10 individuals and and 2 dental teams for their contributions to dentistry.

Hosted by newlyweds Katrina Sanders, RDH, and Dale Stewart, the event ceremony featured short presentations about their accomplishments before the winners heard their names announced, and as they did not know if they were going to be honored before the event, the responses from the winners were genuine and heartfelt.

"Denobi Shortlisters and Winners have gone on to do amazing things around the world! For some, it's been instrumental in advancing their careers. For others, it's helped them launch organizations, kickstart initiatives, receive funding, and work toward legislative and industry change,” says Denobi Awards co-founder Melissa Turner, BASDH, RDHEP, EFDA.

In what he describes as an absolute surprise, the event culminated with Dental Products Report (DPR) Editorial Director Noah Levine, receiving the program's highest honor, the Dr. Lou Shuman Denobi Pinnacle Achievement Award.

"It's truly humbling to be recognized with an award such as this," says Levine. "I work with so many talented clinicians, experts, and team members at DPR and our parent company MJH Life Sciences, and they deserve as much of the credit for anything I'm being honored for as I do.

"I consider myself lucky to be in a position where I can help highlight innovations and efforts to expand access to and quality of dental care for patients everywhere. It's equally meaningful that I'm able to work at helping dental professionals make their careers more fulfilling and rewarding.

"I want to thank The Denobi Awards for this truly amazing honor, and I hope to live up to the spirit behind this award throughout my career."

Allison Norris, Founder & CEO of Dentele Group received the inaugural Speaking Consulting Network Rising Star Award during the ceremony and the 2 team awards were presented to Children’s Volunteer Health Network based in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, and Smile America Partners based in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

The other individual recipients of the 2024 Denobi Awards are Amy Wood, HCISPP, CEO of Copper Penny Consulting; Brian Colao, Member & director of the Dental Service Organizations Industry Group at Dykema; Christy Jo Fogarty, BSDH, MSOHP, LHD, ADT, Founder of Fogarty Dental Services; Dana Watson, BSE, FAADOM, practice manager at Midtown Smiles in Nashville, Tennessee; Jonathan Bonanno, PhD Candidate, Founder of Chief Psycho and CTO of Clinical Excel Computech; Noel Paschke MS, RDH, founder and president, of Ultrasonics Plus; Shavonne R. Healy, MSDH, RDH, founder and CEO of A Higher Learning; and Whitney Dietz, DDS, and Julie Bostwick, CDT who practice at Aspen Dental in Owensboro, Kentucky.

The award recipients were selected from among a shortlist of 75 nominees selected from the hundreds of nominations the Denobi Awards received from October through December 2023. The gala event was sponsored by John Stamper Media.

"Winning a Denobi Award is unlike anything else in dentistry as winners join an elite group of leaders at the forefront of change and innovation. We're proud this is not a popularity contest, “ says Denobi Awards co-founder Sonya Dunbar, RDH, MPH, in a press release. “Instead, the program is focused on giving honor where honor is due and bringing awareness to the outstanding initiatives the nominees are taking part in."