DENTAL SCHOOL HAS EYE ON CRESTVIEW - CRESTVIEW - COLLEGE TOWN USA?????

Dental school interested in Crestview, mayor says
Representatives of the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine recently visited the city
By BRIAN HUGHES
Crestview News Bulletin 682-6524 brianh@crestviewbulletin.com  

CRESTVIEW — The city could add the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine to its higher educational institutions. Representatives of the Erie, Pa.,-based private medical school’s dental program recently visited Crestview and reportedly liked what they saw. Mayor David Cadle reported on the visit at a City Council meeting last month. He said the LECOM is “looking to expand and visited Crestview.”
“One of the things they were impressed with is the level of community support they saw here,” Cadle said. “They realized that Crestview’s such a progressive area,” former state Sen. Dr. Durell Peaden said. “Crestview contributed to the development of the pharmacy school at FAMU.” Cadle said the visitors especially were impressed with the strong support shown for Florida A&M’s pharmacy school now being built in the Alatex building downtown. Peaden, who was the driving force that brought FAMU to Crestview, has been instrumental in attracting a component of LECOM’s new School of Dental Medicine, Cadle said. The college recently opened a campus in Bradenton that houses its new dental program, which opens in July. “They are interested in rural and under-served areas like Northwest Florida, and thought Crestview would be the ideal place to put a dental school,” Peaden said. “They’re primarily focusing on having half the dental school coming to Crestview. We’re talking three years down the road.” Peaden said the program would encourage its graduates to open practices in the area. It also will benefit local dental students, who would be able to complete their studies in the city. “It’ll be huge for Crestview as far as offering other opportunities at graduate level and doctoral level,” Peaden said. “As we speak, they’re doing a feasibility study and looking at all the parameters.” Visitors from LECOM included the provost, senior vice president and dean of academic affairs, Dr. Silvia M. Ferretti from the main Erie campus, and Dr. Robert Hirsch, dean of the dental school, Cadle said. Cadle cautioned that Crestview is not the only community in the region the school is considering. “There are two or three areas they are looking at,” he said. “There are no dental schools in the Panhandle.” Peaden said he, Cadle and other hosts showed the college’s representatives around the city, but have no particular location in mind for a campus. “There’s a lot of big steps that have to happen first,” Peaden said. If the college locates a dental school campus in Crestview, it will join Northwest Florida State College, Troy University, University of Florida, FAMU and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.