Drake Appointed President-Elect of National Craniofacial Association
Dr. Amelia F. Drake has been named president-elect of the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association (ACPA), effective January 2017. Drake is the director of the UNC Craniofacial Center (UNC CFC), which is housed in the UNC School of Dentistry, and also holds the appointments as the Newton D. Fischer Distinguished Professor of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery and executive associate dean of academic programs at the UNC School of Medicine, and as professor in the Department of Dental Ecology at the UNC School of Dentistry.
“I am honored to become president-elect of ACPA,” said Drake. “I look forward to continuing my work with the organization in this capacity.”
As president-elect, Drake will assume office immediately upon the close of the tenure of the president, in January 2018, the year that the organization celebrates its 75th year. The president-elect shall appoint committees and task forces as defined in the Bylaws or determined by the Board of Directors. She has worked closely with ACPA for many years as director of the UNC CFC.
As director of the UNC CFC, Drake oversees the interdisciplinary diagnostic and treatment center. The UNC CFC was one of the nation’s first craniofacial centers to approach craniofacial abnormalities through a team care approach and has done so for more than 50 years. A model center, the UNC CFC provides diagnostic clinics, outpatient dental services, care coordination team meetings, and conducts research in all facets of craniofacial care and speech-language therapy. Patients are treated by a team of specialists that includes general dentistry, nursing, otolaryngology, oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthodontics, pediatric dentistry, plastic surgery, psychology, speech-language pathology, and other specialties as needed on a consultation basis.
Drake is a graduate of the UNC School of Medicine, where she earned her MD. She completed a residency program at the University of Michigan Medical Center at Ann Arbor, and then was a fellow in pediatric otolaryngology at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, before joining the faculty at UNC. In 2006, she received the Gabriel F. Tucker Award for significant contributions to the field of pediatric laryngology, from the American Laryngological Association.
