IU Dental School Faculty Member to Be Installed as IDAA President

IU School of Dentistry dental assisting faculty member Patricia A. Capps will be installed as president of the Indiana Dental Assistants Association (IDAA) during the organization's annual session this month.

Capps is a clinical associate professor and former director of IUSD's Dental Assisting program. She has served on the IU faculty since 1997.

During her tenure at IU, Capps has led efforts to create innovative programming for the dental school's Dental Assisting division with the goal of increasing the one-year certificate program's accessibility for non-traditional students seeking dental assisting careers in Indiana. The division is part of the Department of Periodontics and Allied Dental Programs.

In 2002, Capps and her colleagues launched the school's first half-time dental assisting program, which was geared toward students who must balance their education with full-time work and family responsibilities. The program was replaced in the fall of 2007 with a full-time distance-learning program, one of only a few in the country.

Capps is a former licensed practical nurse and a dental hygiene graduate of the University of Missouri. She also studied public health at Sangamon State University (now Illinois State University at Springfield) and earned a master's degree in health science from Ball State University.

Capps will be installed as IDAA president on April 26 during ceremonies at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown hotel. She is a past president of the Indianapolis Dental Assisting Society.

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