Alumni Weekend

Welcome to the 2023 Alumni Weekend! September 29-30, 2023

Dentistry Alumni Weekend, September 29-30, 2023

Alumni Weekend Schedule

Please join us back on campus for a weekend of connecting with classmates, faculty, staff and students.

Friday, September 29
12:00 - Gophers Hiring Gophers Event (Interested in hiring a DDS graduate? Sign up here)
5:00 – Distinguished Alumni Awards Recognition (McNamara Alumni Center)

Dr. Gary Anderson, DDS 1980
Ms. Katrina Sanders, DH 2007

5:30 – All Alumni Reception
*Individual Reunions taking place

Saturday, September 30
9:30 - Breakfast
10:00 – CE program - Featuring alumna Katrina Sanders, "Getting them to A.S.K. for Treatment"
11:00 – Tours of Dental School

If your class year ends with 3 and 8 it is your reunion year!

Hotel options:
The Graduate Hotel
Hilton Garden Inn
Football Tickets for Saturday, September 30: Available in July

Can't attend this year? Learn how you can make a gift to the School in honor of your class.

Thank you to all who attended the 2022 Alumni Weekend!

School of Dentistry Alumni Society board members

School of Dentistry students given an alumni member a tour

A School of Dentistry alumna takes a tour of Moos Tower

Women in Dentistry event at Alumni Weekend

Alumni Weekend brings community together for celebration and reminiscence

The School of Dentistry celebrated its second in-person Alumni Weekend, the first since the COVID-19 pandemic, on September 16 and 17, 2022. Alumni returned to campus to connect with one another and with faculty, staff and students.

Alumni Weekend returns to campus

Alumni Award Winners

Expand all

2021 Alumni Award Winners

Distinguished Dental Alumni Award
Deborah Lien, DDS '83, MS

Deborah Lien, DDS ’83, MS, is the owner of Lien Orthodontics in Blooming Prairie, MN. After graduating summa cum laude with high distinction with her Doctor of Dental Surgery in 1983, she attended the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine to pursue her Masters of Science in Orthodontics. She practiced in Rochester, Owatonna and most recently opened her practice in Blooming Prairie, MN in 2000. Lien also does locum tenens for her colleagues needing medical, disability or maternity leave. A fierce advocate for rural communities like the ones in which she grew up, Lien has made whole-body wellness for patients in outstate and rural Minnesota a priority. Lien received the American Association of Periodontists Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement and the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Award for Outstanding Achievements in Undergraduate Study and Clinical Training during her time at the School of Dentistry. After her graduation, she was inducted into Omicron Kappa Upsilon, and was recently inducted into the American College of Dentists. Lien received the Roger Fredsall Distinguished Service Award for Outstanding Service from the Minnesota Association of Orthodontists in 2013 and the Midwestern Society of Orthodontics Earl E. Shepard Distinguished Service Award in 2021. She is an active member of the Minnesota Association of Orthodontics, the Midwest Society of Orthodontics and the American Association of Orthodontics and is a 2022 inductee to the International College of Dentists.

Distinguished Dental Hygiene Alumni Award
Judy Danielson, GDH '77, BSDH '80, MSDH '13

Judy Danielson, GDH ’77, BSDH ’80, MSDH ’13, is a dental hygienist and clinical professor in the Division of Periodontology at the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry, where she has taught in various positions since 1999. She has also taught at the University of Colorado and Normandale Community College. Danielson is a member of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association, the American Dental Education association, the Minnesota Dental Hygienists’ Association, the Minnesota Dental Hygiene Educators’ Association and the Omicron Kappa Upsilon Dental Honor Society. Danielson is a dedicated educator whom students and colleagues trust to be a mentor and a confidant. She currently co-directs the Periodontology Technique course at the School of Dentistry with Elham Akhlaghi, DDS. In addition to her excellence in teaching and mentoring, Danielson makes it a point to engage her students in active learning, ensuring no one is left behind or disengaged. She has worked clinically and has advanced the field in research, including her involvement in a 2021 research study at the School of Dentistry to explore aerosol mitigation during ultrasonic instrumentation. She also has been recognized for her excellence in practice and education with the Ione Jackson Scholarship Award in 2009, the AkerNewell Scholarship Award in 2012 and the Thank a Teacher Project Award in 2018.

2020 Alumni Award Winners

2019 Alumni Award Winners

Distinguished Dental Alumni Award
John Kanyusik, DDS '70, MSD '72

"Thank you so much for this high honor. This is a bit uncomfortable, for when I think of the previous recipients I am humbled. In particular Bob Isaacson, Jim Gjerset, Steve Litton, Arnie Hill, and Brent Larson are individuals who have all had a positive influence on my professional life. I am proud of the quality education that the U of M provided me, it was a solid base to build from. I am proud of and thankful for my classmates from the class of 1970, 54 years ago we for the most part were strangers and we formed delightful friendships over our 4 years together, I also am thankful for their encouragement to learn to tie a tie and to finally ditch my two clip-on ties in order to comply with AB Hall’s freshman dress requirements. I am proud of the orthodontic residents that I have worked with through the years, and I am grateful for their infectious enthusiasm and all that I have learned from them. Most importantly I am so proud and thankful for my wife Carolyn, our four children, and three grandchildren. I treasure the blessing that they are in my life." -- John Kanyusik, DDS '70, MSD '72.

Alumni Weekend Schedule

Thank you to all who attended the 2022 Alumni Weekend!

Alumni Weekend brings community together for celebration and reminiscence