Five Penn Dental Medicine students will be serving in national leadership roles in the American Student Dental Association (ASDA) for the 2019-2020 academic year, including the group’s top post. This is the second year in a row for a Penn Dental Medicine student to be chosen to lead this national organization—the first time since 1979-1980 that there have been back-to-back ASDA presidents from the same school. Second-year student Craig McKenzie (D’21) succeeds Roopali Kulkarni (D’19) as president, who will also continue to serve on the ASDA Board of Trustees. In addition, Leslie Tay (D’20) was appointed to Council on Communications Chair; Nasim Levin (D’20) was appointed Advanced Standing/International Dental Student Advisory Committee Member; and Julia Cheung (D’21) was elected District 3 Trustee.

The nation’s largest dental student organization, ASDA aims to protect and advance the rights, interests, and welfare of dental students and represents 24,000 members nationwide.