Faculty

In the role of Division Director, Shuman will lead our efforts to care for patients with conditions that may limit their ability to receive routine dental care in traditional ways.

Designed for educators wanting to take their teaching career to the next level, the program will provide dental and dental hygiene educators with the contemporary knowledge and skills needed for effective didactic and clinical teaching.

Brent Larson, DDS, MS, is the Interim Chair of the Department of Developmental and Surgical Sciences, effective Monday, June 20.

Rachel Uppgaard, DDS, clinical associate professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery, received the American College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons Elaine A. Stuebner Scholars Award for 2022. 

Everyday tasks that were once simple can sometimes become complicated and stressful for transgender people. Oral health care shouldn’t be one of them—and researchers across the School of Dentistry are doing their part to make sure that’s the case.

Elham Akhlaghi, DDS, becomes the Interim Director for Admissions at the School of Dentistry, effective May 30, 2022.

Karl Self, DDS, MBA, became the Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the School of Dentistry effective May 9.

Rachel Uppgaard, DDS, clinical associate professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery, shared that work with fellow educators at the American Dental Education Association’s annual meeting in Philadelphia. As part of a presentation and panel, Uppgaard joined seven other dental educators to share what their schools are doing to foster a healthier relationship with pain management. 

Michelle Arnett, RDH, MS, BS, assistant professor of dental hygiene, received a Colgate CARES award to explore the efficacy of motivational interviewing (MI) at oral hygiene appointments. The Colgate Award for Research Excellence is a year-long research grant that provides $30,000 to a researcher in their first five years as an investigator. According to Colgate, “the goal of the program is to advance oral healthcare therapies in the realm of basic science, translational science and clinical care.” Arnett is the second dental hygienist in the Colgate CARE grant history to win this competitive grant. 

Questions are what drive scientific discovery. Big questions—the ones that keep us up at night—foster a desire for learning that never stops. They dare us to dream, to think differently. And they are how we transform our patient care. The School of Dentistry holds as a guiding principle a commitment to lifelong discovery through research that innovates the practice and study of dentistry. A core part of that commitment is the Oral Health Clinical Research Center (OHCRC).