Alumni Spotlight: Wallace J. Bellamy DMD 89 Elected National Dental Association President
Wallace J. Bellamy DMD 89 was elected to a one-year term as National Dental Association president, effective January 1, 2026.
Bellamy said he is eager to advance NDA’s mission of improving the delivery of oral health care in underserved communities and providing dental educational opportunities for underrepresented individuals on a national level.
“I’m very excited for this new chapter in my career,” Bellamy said. “There’s a lot of responsibilities and we are looked at nationally by different associations to make comments on policies on a national level. I’m up for the challenge.”
Dr. Reginald Salter, National Dental Association Board of Trustees chairman, said it is an honor to install Bellamy as the next NDA president.
“This milestone marks a continuation of proud legacy of leadership and excellence within the Black community and beyond,” Salter said.
Bellamy has been in leadership roles in organized dentistry for decades, including his roles as president of the Sacramento District Dental Society and vice chairman of the California Dental Association’s Leadership Development Committee. He first joined the NDA in the 1990s and has been on its board of trustees on-and-off since the early 2000s.
He said he has appreciated supporting fellow colleagues during turns in national leadership positions. Now is the time for him to make the jump.
“The primary goal is to make sure that the National Dental Association is the voice of the underserved and underserved dentists,” Bellamy said. “We’ve always been the moral voice to speak [and] act upon oral health in America. We’ve always been the champion of the downtrodden and the underserved and the downtrodden and the underserved dentists. We just want to make sure that oral health in America is for all.”