Supporting faculty growth | A message from the Dean

Over the last six years, we have increased internal opportunities for faculty development. Originally, these efforts were led by individual division directors, such as Dr. Nadeau in Comprehensive Care. However, accreditation standards and our Institutional Effectiveness Committee outcome metrics necessitated a more comprehensive program. In the Spring of 2020, Christine Blue, DHSc, MS, RDH, was appointed as the Assistant Dean for Faculty Development.

In the 2022-2023 academic year, the School of Dentistry Faculty Development office provided 17 programs, averaging two per month. The courses covered a broad variety of topics, such as Teaching in an Active Learning Classroom; Clinical Topic Series: Management of Patients with Diabetes and CKD; Managing Medical Emergencies in the Clinic; Identifying, Developing and Deploying Your Leadership Skills for Career Advancement; and Convergence of Molecular and Optical Features of Oral Mucosal Pathology. A total of 497 faculty attended these programs with approximately 55 attendees every month. The Office of Faculty Development also coordinates our newly-developed peer observation process, which provides faculty with feedback on their classroom instruction and coordinates faculty mentoring for newly onboarded faculty.

The development of the Faculty Development Office over the past few years is a tremendous point of growth for our school. I am appreciative of and thankful for the passion of this area and the hard work of Dr. Blue. As we move forward, we will explore ways to parallel this work with a coordinated development program for staff, who also desire similar opportunities. Thank you to the almost 500 faculty attending these programs and the faculty who teach team. 

This is an excellent example of how we are growing.