An alumnus of University of the Pacific's Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry made interntional headlines recently when he was elected as president of Pakistan.

Dr. Arif Alvi '84 stepped onto the world stage following the election held Sept. 4. He defeated Pakistan Peoples Party candidate Aitzaz Ahsan and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) nominee Maulana Fazl ur Rehman in a three-way contest to become the country's 13th president.

One of the founding members of the ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and an ally of Prime Minister Imran Khan, Alvi is also a dentist and orthodontist who graduated from the Dugoni School of Dentistry's Orthodontics program in 1984.

In addition to his involvement in politics, Alvi has served the profession of oral healthcare in numerous ways. He became a diplomat of the American Board of Orthodontics in 1997. He is a past-president of the Pakistan Dental Association and was the primary author of the association's constitution. Alvi started his political career about five decades ago when he was a student of de' Montmorency College of Dentistry, an affiliate of University of Punjab in Lahore, Pakistan. He obtained his Master of Science degree in Prosthodontics from the University of Michigan in 1975.

"This is an inspiring example of how leadership can take many forms and can even propel us into new fields of service beyond health care," said Dr. Nader A. Nadershahi, dean of the Dugoni School. "Dr. Alvi has served as a leader in the profession and in his country for many years, and it is exciting to see him demonstrate one of our school's core values of leadership in this new way."

Dentistry runs in Alvi's family. His father Dr. Habib ur Rehman Elahi Alvi was a dentist to India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru prior to Partition in 1947. The family then moved to the newly created nation of Pakistan. Alvi and his wife Samina Alvi have four children.