Allan Formicola

The past 50 years have flown by!  After completing my pre-dental education at Penn State University, I went to Georgetown University, where I earned my D.D.S. degree and then completed specialty training in the field of Periodontics.  The start of my academic career in dentistry began at Georgetown University and private practice in Silver Springs, Maryland.  In the same year, I married my wife, Jo, now of almost forty years.  Washington, D. C. was a great place to begin married life and my full time career, but academia has a way of moving one around.  The University of Alabama in Birmingham recruited me to a research and teaching position in 1970, and two years later, I was offered the position of Chairman of the Department of Periodontics at the New Jersey Dental School.   Over the next 8 years, I rose through the ranks, serving as Acting Dean until I was again recruited to be the Dean of the Columbia University, College of Dental Medicine.  Columbia is filled with academic excellence attracting the best and the brightest faculty and students, so it is no surprise that it was my pleasure to serve as the longest sitting dean in Columbia’s history, 23 years!  During that time, Jo and I were blessed with two wonderful children; Matthew now married, a father and an architect, and Allison living in New York, and working in an executive position in the advertising world.  My wife is a noted scholar and Professor of Political Science at Seton Hall University.  The birth of our first grandchild just over one year ago began another chapter in our lives as grandparents!  But, we are not ready to follow many of our friends into retirement.  I began a new center at the Columbia University Medical Center, five years ago after my deanship ended.   The Center for Community Health Partnerships deals with the problem of improving the health care system for the under-served at the national and local levels, particularly in Harlem and Washington Heights.  When I look back, I have been very fortunate in life.