Meet Joe Stokl.  Joe’s career has followed a fairly regular trajectory. After graduating with the class of 8T0, Joe went into private practice in Stony Creek, a town adjacent to Hamilton.

It wasn’t long before the Faculty called him back. After a faculty member got in touch “out of the blue” just five years after graduation, Joe began working as a Clinical Associate.

And so, for the next 32 years, Joe would work in his private practice four days a week. One day a week he’d come in all the way from Stony Creek to teach third and fourth-year students restorative and act as a clinical treatment coordinator. It wasn’t the two-hour commute that kept Joe coming in: it was the students.

“The students keep me young,” says Joe. “This worked out very well for me. I’m very blessed, very lucky.”

But when Joe retired in 2014, things went off the rails.

“I took three weeks off. I was going out of my mind,” says Joe. “I had nothing to do after a 60-hour work week. It was not healthy.”

Joe called up the school and asked for more shifts. Overnight Joe went from one day a week of teaching to three, then four.

Teaching here saved me.

Now the long commute doesn’t seem so bad. In fact, the shift from private practice to his associateship at the Faculty was transformative for Joe, who describes private practice as a “human cave” inhabited by only a handful of staff members. At the Faculty, Joe works with young, energetic students and a staff of hundreds.

But after 32 years as a clinical associate, just how long does Joe intend to work at the Faculty? “As a health care provider, you can help a lot of people. My goal is to help a million people before I pack it in.”

And when it comes to his students, Joe has other pearls of wisdom to share.

“Treat the patient like the person who is most important to you in your life – your mom. That’s who every patient is. And try to have some balance in your life,” says Joe. “Working too hard – I don’t recommend it.”

Interested in becoming an  Associate in Dentistry at UofT? Visit FACULTY OPPORTUNITIES for details.