The board of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement has honored Dr. Terry Fiddler with the Dr. Tom Bruce Arkansas Health Impact Award. The annual award recognizes individuals who have had outstanding impacts on the health of Arkansans.
For the past 20 years, Fiddler has been a driving force behind Arkansas Mission of Mercy, which holds annual clinics to provide free dental care to underserved Arkansans. Since 2013, Fiddler has been executive director of the organization, which has delivered $25 million in dental services to nearly 30,000 patients.
A native of Conway, Fiddler graduated from the University of Central Arkansas in 1970 and obtained his doctor of dental surgery degree from the University of Tennessee in 1973. He was a practicing dentist in Conway for 43 years before retiring in 2016. He has served on the UCA Foundation Board, the UCA Board of Trustees and the Board of Trustees of the American Dental Association. Fiddler has also served as president of the Arkansas State Dental Association, the Conway School Board and the Kiwanis Club of Conway. He has received the highest award the Arkansas State Dental Association gives, the Distinguished Service Award.
“Dr. Terry Fiddler’s commitment to serving the underserved has improved the health of tens of thousands of Arkansans who would otherwise have gone untreated. On behalf of our board, I am proud to present Dr. Fiddler with the 2026 Dr. Tom Bruce Arkansas Health Impact Award for his extraordinary impact on our state,” said ACHI President and CEO Craig Wilson, who announced the awards Tuesday, Oct. 27, during the annual Friends of ACHI Appreciation Event at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock.
Bruce, dean of the UAMS College of Medicine for more than a decade and a pioneer in the field of community-based public health, was a national leader in community health and a champion of rural health and health system improvement in Arkansas. The award named for Bruce recognizes individuals who embody his lifetime of service by demonstrating courageous leadership, serving as catalysts for improving the health of all Arkansans, and exemplifying the core values of ACHI: trust, commitment, innovation and initiative.
ACHI is a nonpartisan, independent health policy center that serves as a catalyst for improving the health of all Arkansans through evidence-based research, analysis, and collaborative program development.