Awards

Caswell A. Evans, Jr., D.D.S., M.P.H.

Myron Allukian Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions in Community Dental Programs 2021 Recipient

Throughout his long career, Caswell A. Evans has focused on community health. After earning a D.D.S. degree from Columbia University’s School of Dentistry and an M.P.H. degree from the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, Dr. Evans served as chief of dental services on the leadership team developing a health center in rural North Carolina. He moved on to become dental director for the Seattle-King County Public Health Department. After restructuring the department’s oral health programs, he developed uniform policies and service objectives and opened new dental clinics. He became director of the newly created county division (King County) within the Seattle-King County Department of Health, assuming responsibility for the administration of its public health services.

After 5 years in that role, Dr. Evans was selected as director of Public Health Programs and Services, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. He led the effort that resulted in fluoridation of the City of Los Angeles water supply and of the water supply for adjacent municipalities. He guided public health actions in the aftermath of the Northridge Earthquake, the Rodney King riots, the Malibu wildfires, food product recalls, and other major events.

After 13 years with the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, Dr. Evans was recruited to the Washington, DC, area to serve as project director and executive editor for Oral Health in America: A Report of the U.S. Surgeon General issued by Surgeon General David Satcher in 2000. Later Dr. Evans led the public-private partnership effort that produced the National Call to Action to Promote Oral Health issued by Surgeon General Richard Carmona in 2003.

In 2004, Dr. Evans became Associate Dean for Prevention and Public Health Sciences, University of Illinois (UIC) at Chicago, College of Dentistry, and was also appointed to the faculty of the UIC School of Public Health. He instituted a requisite, for-credit and graded course for fourth-year dental students that included 16 weeks of community-based service learning at over 20 health centers throughout Illinois, including sites in Colorado and Wisconsin and three international sites in China, Guatemala, and Tanzania. After 15 years in that role, Dr. Evans became a UIC professor emeritus in 2019.