RSDM Voice at the Table

Rutgers Board of Trustees has 41 voting members. One of those voices for the first time belongs to a Rutgers School of Dental Medicine (RSDM) alum, Yanique Le-Cadre.

“When I was appointed, I recognized the importance of keeping our institution strong,” said Le-Cadre ’93’00, “and the work that needs to be done to plan for the futures of our students.”

An orthodontist, Le-Cadre was selected as a charter trustee in 2020 for a six-year term. Now she’s halfway through her tenure. In her role, she is involved in making decisions about University’s conduct, management, and administration. She also serves on committees—first the Academic and Student Affairs Committee, and now the Health Affairs Committee. Along the way, she works closely with RSDM administration.

“Returning to Rutgers has just been a wonderful homecoming for me,” Le-Cadre said. “I enjoy this role more than I thought I would; the Rutgers community and people on the board are phenomenal.”

Born and raised in New York, Le-Cadre attended Brooklyn Technical High School, which specialized in sciences. She went to Wesleyan University, where she majored in biology on the pre-med track. Spending time at hospitals, she realized it wasn’t a good fit. That was when she looked another way and noticed her braces. “Being an orthodontic patient, I really fell in love with the profession,” she said. 

She enrolled in RSDM, then the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. She believed the school had a strong clinical component and a diverse student body. She and her classmates became a close-knit cohort. “A lot of us still keep in touch over the years,” she said. “When we get back together, it's like we never left.” As soon as she graduated, she saw the strength of her education. “When I did my general practice residency (GPR) [at the Long Island College Hospital], I could extract any tooth whereas those from other schools didn't get that same foundation.”

After her GPR, she practiced as a general dentist for a few years. However, she still had her heart set on orthodontics, leading her back to RSDM for her master’s degree. “Going back to UMDNJ was the best thing that ever happened,” she said. “It was just a phenomenal experience” with small class sizes, dedicated faculty, and a wide range of cases.

Now, with 30 years in the profession, “I'm at a point in my career, where I started to look for more meaning in what I do and for ways to give back,” said Le-Cadre. She became the president of the New York State Society of Orthodontists, where they do advocacy work to support orthodontists with dental laws and regulations.

In addition to owning a private practice in New Rochelle, NY, Le-Cadre recently began teaching as a clinical instructor at the NYU College of Dentistry Department of Orthodontics. "I enjoy working with students because they bring new, fresh energy," she said. She pulls from her RSDM experiences in the classroom like the many clinical pearls and techniques that Assistant Professor of Orthodontics Jeffrey Cooper taught her as a postgraduate student.  

When she came to visit RSDM as a trustee, "It was such a gift to see and thank some of the faculty members like Drs. Cooper, Fenesy, and Samant, who really made a difference in my professional journey," she said. "I think sometimes the professors may not know their work is really touching someone, but it does. I hope I can also do that for a student along the way.”