School of Dentistry faculty member receives national achievement award

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Ann Arbor, Mich., Oct. 16, 2025 – The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) has presented one of its top awards to Dr. Brent Ward, a faculty member at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry.

AAOMS presented Ward with its Presidential Achievement Award, which recognizes the organization’s fellows and members for important long-standing contributions to the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery specialty through clinical, academic, research or public service activities. Ward was honored for his long-standing contributions through clinical practice, research and education.

The award was presented at the AAOMS annual meeting held in Washington, D.C., last month.

Ward is the Chalmers J. Lyons Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in the dental school’s Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery/Hospital Dentistry (OMFS/HD).

Ward’s research spans basic, translational and clinical science, with work in areas such as oral and head and neck cancer surgery, drug delivery and efficacy, nanotechnology and cancer diagnostics.  He has served as an investigator on multiple projects supported by the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Foundation, and Osteo Science Foundation. Drawing on this experience, he co-developed the AAOMS Clinical Trials Methods Course to strengthen clinical research capacity within the specialty.  

Ward currently chairs the AAOMS Committee on Oral, Head and Neck Oncologic and Reconstructive Surgery and the Special Committee on Student Recruitment and Residency Program Strategies.  He previously chaired the AAOMS Committee on Education and Training and the OMS Faculty Section, and served as a section editor for the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.  He is the Chair of the OMS Foundation Research Committee and is the OMS Commissioner for the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA). He served as President of the Chalmers J. Lyons Academy and the American Academy of Craniomaxillofacial Surgeons and was section chair of the American Board of OMS.

As chair of the dental school’s OMFS/HD department from 2015 to 2024, Ward has made significant contributions in service to the school. In the clinic, he is credited with enhancing access by advancing the faculty and care team model of the department as well as its teaching mission. Under his guidance as chair, the department added trainees in hospital dentistry, created a CODA-accredited orofacial pain residency and established a fellowship in temporomandibular joint surgery.  

A graduate of the School of Dentistry at the University of Southern California, he went on to earn his medical degree and complete postgraduate training, including residency and a fellowship, at the University of Michigan before joining the dental school faculty in  2003.  He is a member of the multidisciplinary Head and Neck Oncology Program at Michigan Medicine and served as Program Director of the Oral/Head and Neck Oncology and Microvascular Reconstructive Surgery Fellowship for 22 years within the Section of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.

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The University of Michigan School of Dentistry is one of the nation’s leading dental schools engaged in oral healthcare education, research, patient care and community service.  General dental care clinics and specialty clinics providing advanced treatment enable the school to offer dental services and programs to patients throughout Michigan.  Classroom and clinic instruction prepare future dentists, dental specialists and dental hygienists for practice in private offices, hospitals, academia and public agencies.  Research seeks to discover and apply new knowledge that can help patients worldwide.  For more information about the School of Dentistry, visit us on the Web at: www.dent.umich.edu.  Email: dentistry.communications@umich.edu, or (734) 615-1971.