The GLAO Distinguished Service Award recognizes a GLAO member who has served the association in various capacities through the years in an exemplary manner. The Great Lakes Association of Orthodontists is proud to present this year’s award to Robert J. Brown, DDS, MS of Dublin, Ohio. This award is presented in recognition and grateful appreciation for his contributions- both to the GLAO as an organization and to the orthodontic profession in general. His tireless efforts are deeply appreciated by his GLAO friends and colleagues. This award will be presented to Dr. Brown during the GLAO Annual Business Meeting to be held Friday, October 12, 2012 from 3:30-4:30 p.m. Please attend and help us recognize Dr. Brown. 

Dr. Brown is a native of Lancaster, Ohio. He received his Bachelor of Science degree with honors from The Ohio University in 1973. He received his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from The Ohio State University in 1977. After two years of private practice, he returned to O.S.U. to pursue his long standing interest in being an orthodontic specialist. He received the Master of Science degree in Orthodontics from O.S.U in 1981. Dr. Brown was fortunate to spend several of his early practice years with the late Dr. Dale Wade in Columbus, Ohio. An experience for which he is eternally grateful. He started his own practice in Hilliard, Ohio in 1984 and continues to practice there today. 

He has been a member of The Ohio State University Orthodontic Alumni Association and served for two years on the search committee for a new orthodontic section head in 2005-2006 at The Ohio State University College of Dentistry. 

Dr. Brown has displayed his leadership skills in serving our profession, starting in 1990-1992 as Secretary Treasurer of the Ohio Association of Orthodontists and followed as President in 1993-1994. He was the Ohio Orthodontic Representative to the Ohio Dental Association specialty council from 1994-2000. 

Dr. Brown served as director from the state of Ohio to the Great Lakes Association of Orthodontists Board of Directors from 1994-2001. He served as Vice President in 2002, President Elect in 2003, and President of the Great Lakes Association of Orthodontists in 2004 with the GLAO annual session being held in a joint meeting with the MSO in Chicago. He served as a member of the AAO House of Delegates for eight years from 1996-2004 and since 2005 has served on the Council on Orthodontic Healthcare, where his term will end in 2014.

In 2005, he was Chairman of Moderators for the scientific program for the AAO annual session in San Francisco and will serve as chair of the Featured Speakers Program at the 2013 AAO annual session in Philadelphia. He has attended numerous leadership and governmental affairs conferences at the AAO level as a representative of the GLAO since 1994. 

Dr. Brown had been married for 33 years to Dr. Bonnie Brown, a general dentist, since meeting in dental school at The Ohio State University. They have two daughters Beth Ann, an English teacher and Sally, who works in corporate marketing for Victoria’s Secret. 

Dr. Brown enjoys fly fishing, snow skiing, boating, and seems always to have a building project in progress. 

Dr. Brown believes that his involvement at the GLAO and AAO level has been one of the most enriching experiences in his professional career.