A 1982 graduate of the College of Dentistry at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center is the first female president of the Tennessee Dental Association (TDA) in its 152-year history.
Terryl A. Propper, DDS, MS, recently assumed leadership of the 2,400-member TDA, a statewide voluntary association that represents the profession and the public it serves.
Dr. Propper, who lives in Nashville, has been a member of the TDA since 1982 and has held many leadership roles. She has also served as president of the Nashville Dental Society.
She is the co-founder and chief dental officer of Endodontic Practice Partners with corporate offices in Brentwood, Tennessee. She retired from clinical practice in December 2018.
Dr. Propper has received many honors, including the fellowship award and CE award from the TDA and the Richard Sullivan Award from the Nashville Dental Society. She received the prestigious President’s Award in 2009 and the Spirit of Service Award in 2013 from the American Association of Endodontists.
Dr. Propper is active with her alma mater, serving as a representative from Middle Tennessee on the Alumni Board of Directors for the UTHSC College of Dentistry.
When the College of Dentistry established a graduate department in endodontics, she donated a sponsored operatory in the endodontic graduate department. Along with friends, Ruth Bailey, DDS, Knoxville, and Jeannie Beauchamp, DDS, Clarksville, Tennessee, she co-chaired a fund-raiser to build a Special Needs Clinic in the college. They provided the seed money for the campaign, which exceeded the goal of $500,000 and raised over $750,000 for this clinic, and continue to raise funds for the clinic.
Dr. Propper’s hobby is cooking. In 1994 and 1997, she won the Tennessee Beef Cook-Off and went on to compete in the National Beef Cook-Off in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Tampa, Florida. She also was a semifinalist in the Paul Newman Cook-Off, and a regional winner in the 2005 Tillamook Mac and Cheese Contest, competing in Chicago, and the National finals in Portland, Oregon. “My patients know when they get a root canal from Dr. Propper, they also get a recipe,” Dr. Propper said in a profile for the Winter 2018 UTHSC College of Dentistry magazine.
Dr. Propper has served on the American Dental Association (ADA) House of Delegates and the TDA House of Delegates and was a consultant to the ADA Council on Dental Practice. She is a past member of the ADA speakers bureau, and was a Hillenbrand Fellowship finalist in 1986. She sits on the board of directors of the Nashville Dental Society and is a member of the TDA Board of Trustees.
“Dr. Propper is an outstanding clinician and leader of the dental profession,” said James Ragain, DDS, dean of the UTHSC College of Dentistry. “We are proud that she is an alumna of the UTHSC College of Dentistry. The Tennessee Dental Association will be under superb leadership this year.”