2023 hUMANITARIAN aWARD

The 2023 Humanitarian Award recipients are COL/Dr. Peter Tan, DDS, MSHS & COL/Dr. Julia Plevnia, DDS, FACS, FACD.

COL/Dr. Peter Tan, DDS, MSHS is an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon who received his American Dental Society of Anesthesiology (ADSA) Fellowship in General Anesthesia in 1990, eventually becoming President of the Maryland Dental Society of Anesthesiology in 1996. He is a past president of ADSA and was appointed as one of the national faculty for the American Dental Association’s “Recognition and Management of Complications during Minimal and Moderate Sedation” course. He is a partner/owner of Mid-Maryland Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, P.A.

Colonel Tan retired after 36 years of Active and Reserve Duty in the Army in 2018. He served as one of the five Army Reserve Regional Commanders in the United States Army Dental Corps, commanding the Pacific and Europe Regional dental commands. He was the ranking reservist in the Army Dental Corps at the Office of the Surgeon General and the Pentagon. Dr. Tan has been awarded the “A” Proficiency Designator in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery by the Surgeon General and is a member of the Order of Military Medical Merit.

Dr. Tan served as an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, a visiting lecturer at Howard University, a past president and trustee of the Frederick County Dental Society, the founding president of the Francis Scott Key Study Club in Maryland, a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society. He also served as a former section chief, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Frederick Memorial Hospital.

COL/Dr. Julia Plevnia, DDS, FACS, FACD has had a remarkable career in the military and private practice. Her most recent accomplishment is being inducted into the International Society of Professional Women of 2022. She was also awarded the Dental Corp Award of Excellence (April 2021) by Brigadier General Shawn Bagby. She also was awarded the Order of Military Medical Merit (June 18th, 2020), given for significant contributions to the AMEDD (US Army Medical Department) by Brigadier General Robert Enzenauer, that stated this is one of the highest honors for a medical officer in the military. Her latest accolades include being appointed to the Joint State Surgeon position for the Colorado National Guard (during the CoVid Pandemic overseeing the Army and Air National Guard) as well as the Colorado Army State Surgeon.  She is the first female, first Dental Corp Officer and first Oral Maxillofacial Surgeon to hold that distinction. She was one of 37 Oral Maxillofacial Trauma Surgeons selected and inducted as a Fellow into the American College of Surgeons in 2017 and the American College of Dentist in 2019.  She is one of the first female Oral Maxillofacial Surgeon inducted in the nationally acclaimed “Trademark Women of Distinction Award” in 2017. She was also selected by her peers as one of the Top Oral Maxillofacial Surgeons within the Greater Denver Metro area 8 years in a row and selected as the “Best of the Best” continuing education lecturer by the Rocky Mountain Study Clubs and guest faculty at Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic in Parker, Colorado. She has been a member of the Facial Trauma Panel of TESS (Trauma Emergency Specialty Surgery) for 13 years that covers all the Centura Adventist Hospitals in Colorado and all their urgent care centers. She is also an owner and partner of Dry Creek Oral Surgery private practice in Parker and Denver Tech Center, Colorado that has clinical surgeries and an independent surgery center.