Dear Shils Fund Friends,
As newly elected President of the Shils Fund, I am honored and proud to be working to advance innovation in oral health and its impact on overall health and plan to develop new initiatives to encourage young entrepreneurs and students to compete and foster innovation in the field of oral health.
It is an honor and a big responsibility to succeed a mentor, friend, luminary and master strategist Steve Kess. Fortunately, we have a genuinely engaged and energized Board that through collaboration we will make Steve proud.
For more than 20 years, the Shils Fund has celebrated innovation, recognized excellence and honored oral health care leaders whose contributions reflect an enduring commitment to innovation in the field of oral health. We have cultivated entrepreneurialism in oral health and funded innovative, scalable solutions to drive transformational change.
Now, the Shils Fund is transforming! We are cultivating a new, diverse generation of oral health entrepreneurs. Through ongoing collaboration and partnerships with leaders in the health care industry, The Shils Fund will be the funding source for the development of innovative ideas from students, academia, community-based organizations, young clinicians, and diversity organizations. Together, we are advancing innovation in oral health and its impact on overall health to empower the next generation of dental entrepreneurs.
We closed out the year 2022 with an extraordinary event at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, which celebrated the Shils Fund’s 20th anniversary, and presented awards to tenured health care professionals, and rising stars in the field of oral health care innovation. The Shils 20th Anniversary event introduced our new Annual Shils Partnership Awards program – which received tremendous positive feedback- and it celebrated the culmination of the Shils presidency for Steve Kess, Vice President of Global Professional Relations, Henry Schein.
This year, we launched The Great Oral Health Pitch: Innovate, Elevate and Generate Your Idea to Advance Oral Health! to provide an educational environment for oral health students/entrepreneurs to learn from advance to the next stage connections/innovation. Expanding upon the Shils Partnership Awards Program, The Great Oral Health Pitch program continues Ed Shils legacy by encouraging young entrepreneurs and students to compete and foster innovation in the field of oral health.
Innovation and entrepreneurship are vital for the advancement of every industry, and oral health is no exception. Let’s continue to make a positive difference in the oral health community.
Sincerely,
Keith Drayer
President, The. Shils Entrepreneurial Fund, Inc.