Dr. Maurice Edwards Named President of the New York State Dental Association
To access headshot photos of the NYSDA officers, click here.
Albany, N.Y. — The New York State Dental Association (NYSDA) has sworn in Maurice Edwards, Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD), effective May 31, 2025, as the 145th president of the organization making him the first black president in NYSDAs history.
Dr. Edwards runs his private practice in Manhattan and is active in the American Dental Association (ADA), American Association of Oral Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS), New York State Association of Oral Maxillofacial Surgeons (NYSSOMS) and the New York Society of Forensic Dentistry. He holds faculty positions in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at New York University College of Dentistry and the Department of Otolaryngology at Mount Sinai and Mount Sinai West Medical Center’s Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Sections.
“It’s a privilege to lead an organization with such a strong legacy and an even brighter future,” said Dr. Edwards. “Together with the board of directors, I look forward to advancing NYSDAs priorities and improving the oral health of all New Yorkers.”
The day after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Dr. Edwards spent considerable time alongside thousands of volunteers at Ground Zero searching for the remains of victims. In the months that followed, he worked with the dental identification unit at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City, helping to identify about 60 percent of all remains recovered. He received NYSDA’s New Dentist Leadership Award for his efforts.
Serving alongside Dr. Edwards in the coming year are the following officers, also installed in May:
Dr. Amarilis Jacobo, President-Elect
Amarilis Jacobo, DDS, is a general practice dentist with private practices in Harlem and the Bronx. She has served on multiple boards and organizations, including NYSDA, ADA, National Hispanic Dental Association, Hispanic Dental Association-New York Chapter, Bronx County Dental Society and the Dominican Dental Association, which she is a founding member of. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she received a state appointment to the New York Forward Re-Opening Advisory Board.
Dr. Lynn Stacy, Vice President
Lynn Stacy, DDS, is a general practice dentist with a private practice in Lowville that she opened more than three decades ago. Dr. Stacy also worked at the Lewis County Residential Health Care facility, serving the elderly residents in a dental capacity for 25 years. She has held various leadership positions within the Jefferson-Lewis Dental Society and the Fifth District Dental Society, becoming president in 2012.
Dr. Stacy currently serves as the NYSDA Trustee for the Fifth District, where she has been involved in the NYSDA Strategic Planning Committee, the Lobby Review Committee and the NYSDAPAC Bylaws Committee. She also acts as the Trustee Liaison to Governmental Affairs. Previously, she has served on the NYSDA Council on Membership and Communications and was a delegate for the NYSDA and the ADA, where she took part in the dental benefits study group.
Dr. Stacy is a graduate of University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine, where she was a member of the Omicron Kappa Upsilon Society. She has been inducted into the Pierre Fauchard Academy and the International College of Dentistry.
Dr. Paul Leary, Secretary-Treasurer
Paul Leary, DMD, is a graduate of Temple University School of Dentistry. He entered the United States Navy in his freshman year of dental school, completed three years of active-duty service upon graduation and remained in the Naval Reserve for 14 years. He left active service and entered private practice, where he continues to work 35 years later. He shares ownership of his practice in Smithtown with Dr. Matthew Hanna and recently welcomed his daughter, Dr. Megan Leary-Ells, to the practice.
Dr. Leary has held many leadership positions in his home of Suffolk County as well as within NYSDA and the ADA. He has served as NYSDA Secretary-Treasurer for the past two years. Additionally, he is the immediate-past trustee representing the Second ADA District, NYSDA Trustee representing Suffolk County and a past member of NYSDA’s Board of Governors. He remains dedicated to educating the next generation of dentists and has presented an ethics course to fourth-year dental students at Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine for the past 14 years.
Dr. William Karp, Speaker of the House of Delegates
William Karp, DDS, is a general practice dentist and has maintained his private practice in the Syracuse area since 1983. He is also an attending dentist at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Health Center where he helps to educate dental residents.
Dr. Karp has held leadership capacities as a delegate to the ADA and as a member of the ADA Council on Communications. At NYSDA, he has served as governor, trustee and a delegate in the NYSDA House. He previously served as president of the Fifth District Dental Society and has been their parliamentarian since 2009.
Dr. Karp is a graduate of New York University College of Dentistry and completed his general practice residency at the University of Rochester’s Strong Memorial Hospital.
Dr. Prabha Krishnan, Immediate Past President
Dr. Krishnan works full-time at her private practice in Forest Hills, which she developed from the ground up, focusing on periodontics and implant surgery. She is also an attending and chief of periodontics at Flushing Hospital Medical Center and serves as a member of the Indian Dental Association Board of Trustees.
In her career, Dr. Krishnan has held leadership positions at the local, state and national levels of organized dentistry. In 2009, while serving as president of the Queens County Dental Society, she won the ADA Golden Apple Award for spearheading the “Women’s Dentists Conference.” She received the Emil Lentchner Distinguished Service Award in January 2024, the highest honor bestowed by the Queens County Dental Society. At the national level, Dr. Krishnan has served as a member of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the ADA's Board and is the immediate past chair of the ADA Council on Communications.
