Six fourth-year dental students have been named to the Faculty Extender Program in Baylor College of Dentistry's Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery/Pharmacology. Now in its third year, the honors program was initiated to interest young dentists in the academic environment.

Faculty extenders for 2002 are Shane Bowen, Russell Cunningham, Jane Lambertus, Shannon Owens, Russell Warren and Clay Williamson. They support faculty by assisting with simple case evaluations, issuing starts to uncomplicated cases

and helping D2 students set up their .first surgical cases. Faculty extenders also work with any student who needs someone with more experience and expertise to guide them in finishing a case, and they take on more difficult procedures that less-experienced D3 and D4 students may be reluctant to start.

"We'd love to see the faculty extenders come back in future years as clinical faculty at BCD to further share their experiences with the dental students," said Dr. Roger E. Alexander, professor of OMS/P and program director for predoctoral oral surgery education. "We hope this program plants that seed in their minds. They don't have to become full-time faculty members to make meaningful contributions to the future of the profession."