Reflection on 35 Years with the Journal

ODA EDITORIAL

REFLECTIONS ON 35 YEARS WITH THE JOURNAL

Dr. Miranda has announced his resignation as Associate Editor of the ODA Journal effective December 31, 2021, bringing to a close a 35-year tenure with the Journal. The following are his reflections on his time with the editorial board and his acknowledgement of all those with whom he has worked with over the years..

Frank Miranda, DDS, MED, MBA ODA Journal Associate Editor

In 1974, I was recruited from California to join the charter faculty at the new OU College of Dentistry. One of my first actions upon arriving was to join the Oklahoma Dental Association. Many valuable perks have come with my 47+ years of membership, but the most enjoyable has been my official association with the ODA Journal. Since first joining its Editorial Board in 1983, I’ve had the privilege to be intimately involved in the development and publication of the Journal for 35 years. During that time no experience has been more gratifying than the sheer number of personal and professional relationships I’ve been blessed to cultivate.

The one individual most responsible for my formal involvement in Journal activities was Dr. Thomas J. Murdoch. I first met Tom in the late 1970s when he joined the OUCOD as part-time faculty in the Department of Operative Dentistry. In 1975, he and Dr. Earl Mabry had begun a 15-year tenure as alternating editors of the ODA Journal. (Truth be told, they were essentially coeditors. Pretty much joined at the hip, they were a seamless and well-oiled team.) As my friendship with Tom deepened, I became intrigued with his journalistic activities and jumped at his invitation to join the Editorial Board in 1983. For the next seven years, I served first as reporting liaison for the College of Dentistry to ensure that OUCOD news made it into the Journal, and then alternating with either Tom or Earl as associate or advisory editor when the other was serving as editor. We jokingly referred to ourselves as the “3-M Company” (Murdoch, Mabry, Miranda), borrowing the moniker from the morefamous dental product supplier. When Tom and Earl decided to hang it up in 1990, I stayed on the Journal staff as a scientific consultant and OUCOD “roving reporter,” serving with four different editors over the next four years. In addition to Tom’s talents as a writer and editor, he was also a superb and avid photographer; hundreds of his photographs have graced the pages (and covers) of the Journal over the years. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to him (and Earl) for introducing me to the art of journalism. In 1995, I assumed editorship of OU Dentistry, OUCOD’s in-house alumni magazine. While Tom and Earl had provided valuable preparation for this role, the more intensive hands-on nature of dealing with the school’s publication made it very difficult to adequately attend to both projects. So I reluctantly took a four-year hiatus from the Journal. (Fortunately, three of the four ODA editors during this time were OUCOD faculty, so the pipeline for school news remained intact.) When I resigned my first stint as OU Dentistry editor in 2000 I resumed my formal association with the ODA Journal. For the past 21 years that relationship has been continuous, involving service as either Advisory or Associate Editor (in addition to my own stint as Editor in 2002-03). Throughout my time with the Journal, I’ve had the privilege of working with some of the true giants of Oklahoma Dentistry, like Dr. Ray Cohlmia (who was ODA president when Tom and Earl brought me on board and who became a dear and lifelong friend and mentor). I’ve worked with the ODA’s last three executive directors, Bob Berry, Dana Davis and the tireless Lynn Means. (Incidentally, Lynn, the ODA’s seventh executive director, will soon complete her

13th year in the position, which will make her tenure the secondlongest in ODA history, trailing only Bob Berry, who served an astounding 34 years!) I’ve served under 34 ODA presidents (including 16 of my former OUCOD students), 13 different editors (five of whom are also former students), numerous editorial board members who have toiled tirelessly to turn the Journal into the outstanding publication it is today, and a truly dedicated cadre of ODA staff that just keeps getting better and better through the years. (Thanks, Lynn!) A number of innovative changes have marked the Journal’s progress during the last four decades. (As a historical aside, the Bulletin of the Oklahoma State Dental Association was born in 1911 as one of the country’s earliest state dental publications; it was renamed the Journal of the Oklahoma State Dental Association in 1951.) When I first joined the editorial staff, the Journal was being published quarterly, with issues identified as Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. In 2006, publication was increased to ten issues per year. While this vastly expanded the workload for the editorial staff, more news and articles were made available in a more timely fashion. In 2015 issue frequency was reduced to six issues per year and has remained so to the present day (much to the relief of the editorial staff, I’d wager!). Some significant content changes have also made the Journal more inclusive. Beginning in 2008, a concerted attempt was made to devote one issue each year primarily to the affairs of the OU College of Dentistry, creating an even closer bond between the school and the professional community. In the last few years, the Hygiene Hotspot has become a regular feature of nearly every issue, providing a crucial link between dentists and dental hygienists (two groups who have sporadically been at odds in the past), and giving hygienists an opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas with the larger Journal readership. These are a few examples of the progress that has made the ODA Journal one of the premier dental publications in the country. The past 15 years have been particularly satisfying as I’ve had the distinct pleasure to work alongside four of my former students: Drs. Raymond Cohlmia, Randy White, Phoebe Vaughan, and Mary Hamburg. Nothing gives a retired teacher more joy than to witness the positive impact his students make on the dental profession. The editorial management of these four men and women has been nothing short of stellar. It has been a true honor to work with each of them.

I could devote numerous paragraphs singing the praises of so many more people. In lieu of that, let me close with this observation: Every single year of my time with the Journal is full of pleasant memories that I will revisit often and cherish forever. To all those who dwell in and have contributed to those memories (and you are legion) -- you have my eternal gratitude. AUTHOR’S NOTE: I’d love to ascribe much of the foregoing historical information to a razor-sharp memory, but I must credit Ms. Chris Sutton’s excellent article on the ODA’s first 100 years as published in the ODA Journal’s Centennial issue (July/August 2007, Vol. 98, No. 10). Much of the information about the ODA’s past presidents, editors, executive directors and, of course, the Journal, has been culled from that source. If you haven’t read this superb chronicle, I recommend it highly.