Dean’s Update follow-up

Colleagues,

Thank you for joining us during our recent Dean’s Update. We appreciate your engagement and are looking forward to the exciting changes coming to our School. We have a wonderful team of faculty and staff who are dedicated to our students, our patients, and our School.

For those who were unable to attend, I want to share a summary of our discussions.

Renovations

We have reached substantial completion of the Phase One renovations and will begin moving Pediatric Dentistry, Orthodontics, the Dental Group Practice, and the Dental Innovation Center to HSC later this month. We will then begin modifications to the current DGP area at Suncrest to accommodate the relocation of Periodontics and Prosthodontics from the tower. This is approximately a six-week project.

Communication (including parking information) has been sent to all patients of the affected clinics via mail; appointment cards have been updated; and personal phone calls are in progress.

Phase One renovations include the addition of a “white box” near the new Dental Innovation Center. The white box is designed as a student education station; it is not intended for patient care. It will allow us to provide small group student education, such as lasers and anesthetic technique training, without using chairs in the Student Clinic.

As you know, our School will be receiving an additional Congressionally Directed Spending allocation of $15 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for Phase Two renovations. We would like to begin these renovations in late fall; construction is expected to take up to two years. We will all need to be flexible with office space during this time. More information will be provided as the details are finalized before construction begins.

We have also received a $5 million appropriation from the state for renovations to our Student Clinic. This funding will allow us to upgrade and refresh the space with new chairs, casement, flooring, etc., and a digital design lab. We would like to complete this renovation in tandem with Phase Two renovations.

We greatly appreciate your support as we complete these renovation and modernization initiatives to significantly enhance the student and patient experience.

Dean’s five-year review

Each of you had an opportunity to participate in my five-year review, which is part of the University’s evaluation process for all deans and administrators. Thank you for your feedback during the 360 survey part of the process. Through this process, we’ve identified areas of strength, as well as areas of opportunity for personal and professional development. Several of the areas of opportunity were specific to communication and engagement with faculty and staff. We will continue working intentionally to meet the needs of our students, faculty, staff, and patients, and look forward to new opportunities that will continue to set up our School for the future.

Organizational structure

We have been working at our School and with Health Sciences Center leadership to align our academic and clinical education programs as well, and to capitalize on our renovations and consolidation of clinics back to the Health Sciences Center. We are developing a more tailored organizational structure that will allow us to build on current changes in dental education and clinical practice to better prepare the next generation of dentists, dental specialists, and dental hygienists.

Later this summer, we will put into action an updated organizational structure that will facilitate functionally aligning and integrating our academic and clinical education programs. This will include two significant changes to our organization. Ms. Amy Funk will serve as our associate dean for curriculum, assessments, and faculty development with a concentrated focus on accreditation. Dr. Lauren Godwin will transition to the role of associate dean for predoctoral education. This position will focus on the integration of biomedical sciences, behavioral sciences, preclinical simulation, and clinical patient care into a cohesive, competency-based curriculum.

In addition, we will be completing a curriculum review that will take a deep dive into modernizing our educational programs. This is similar to reviews that our colleagues at the Health Sciences Center have already completed.

Thank you for all you do for our School and those entrusted to our care.

Stephen