Last month, we experienced a major change.   With the completed alignment of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy (PT) and Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy (OT), we now consist of seven divisions that include all full-time as well as part-time faculty.

The new alignment between Dentistry, OT and PT provides enormous opportunities for collaboration among the three independent academic programs on research projects and continuing education seminars and workshops.  This also means opportunities to promote competencies for health care professionals that include providing patient-centered care, working within interdisciplinary teams, employing evidence-based clinical practice, applying quality improvements and utilizing informatics.  It also means a shared dedication to improving the health and wellness of all people with an emphasis on reducing health disparities.

With OT and PT joining the School of Dentistry, our community has grown.  Before the alignment, the dental school had 1,766 faculty, staff and students.  With the addition of OT's 300 faculty, staff and students, and PT's 428 faculty, staff and students, we have grown by roughly 40 percent virtually overnight!

I am excited and intrigued by the myriad of possibilities brought on by this innovative alignment, and I am looking forward to many fruitful collaborations with our new colleagues in the years to come.

This year we will begin the process of creating a new five-year strategic plan while we simultaneously begin a rigorous self-study in anticipation of the accreditation process and site-visit by the Commission on Dental Education in April 2008.

As we prepare to enter this period of planning and introspection, I am reminded that we also completed our previous strategic plan, "Shaping the Future, 2001-2005", while we underwent the accreditation process.   That effort was highly successful, and we received 42 commendations from the commission—arguably one of the very best evaluations we have ever received.

In that strategic plan, we stated: "The USC School of Dentistry (USCSD) is a “learning organization,” dedicated to our own ongoing learning, flexibility, comfort with change, and openness to new ideas. We are committed to improving the health of all people through education and training, innovation and discovery, patient and community health outreach, and leadership."

"USCSD seeks to provide outstanding undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate academic programs of instruction for highly qualified students leading to academic degrees in the oral health professions; extend the knowledge of oral health by encouraging and assisting faculty in the pursuit of innovations and discovery scholarship; improve the oral health of all people in Southern California; stimulate and encourage in our students those qualities of scholarship, leadership and character that mark the true oral health professional; serve California and the nation in providing life-long learning to oral health professionals; and provide oral health leadership in the solution of community, regional, national and international complex problems."

Have we accomplished the goals set forth?  How do we measure performance improvements?  What will our goals be for the next five years?  How will know if we are successful?  What does this really mean?

Over the next twelve months we will learn a great deal more about one another and ourselves.  Under the leadership of Steve Allison, we will once again engage in a strategic planning process, to better define and clarify where we want to be in five years and how we plan to achieve our goals.

Over the next twelve months, under the leadership of Mahvash Navazesh and her team, we will engage in a yearlong self-study as part of the accreditation process that will culminate with the April 2008 site visit.

During this same period we will also revisit what is taught and how we learn through a school-wide curriculum revision process led by Arnold Tiber and his faculty team.  In addition, Dennis Mangan and a number of faculty will carefully assess our research infrastructure and performance to determine how we can improve, especially in translational and clinical research.

Of course, we will continue to improve all aspects of our academic programs including undergraduate, predoctoral and graduate programs, as well as life-long continuing professional education programs.  In particular, Ilan Rotstein will provide leadership for developing a capacity for distance learning programs during the coming year.

Sig Abelson and his leadership/management team will continue to improve and expand all of our faculty practice centers including the Redmond Imaging Center (James Mah), the Oral Microbiological Laboratory (Jorgen Slots), the Center for Dental Technology (Michel Magne), and the Oral Health Center (Sig Abelson).  These are a vital part of our mission.

Mike Mulvehill will increase his efforts to provide outstanding clinical venues for our various undergraduate, predoctoral and residency programs—the Norris Dental Science Center facilities as well as our various external partnerships.  In collaboration with Nan Mulligan and Mahvash Navazesh, Mike will continue his efforts to improve performance and efficiencies.  This is a particularly complex area that involves many critical activities of our intramural student/resident clinic activities (e.g. patients, admissions, diagnostics, treatment planning, assignments, operatories, informatics, quality assurance, clinic revenues, state and regional examination facilities, etc.). This activity also serves as a nexus for all divisions and advanced programs further adding to the scheduling complexities.

Gene Sekiguchi will lead our efforts to increase globalization through a new Pacific Rim consortium that he will advance along with Ilan Rotstein and Mahvash Navazesh.  For example, dental students from Showa University (Japan) will visit USC during the last few weeks of August and a visiting faculty from Korea will spend the coming year with Singtao Shi at our Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology.

As we begin this process, here are a few highlights from the previous year to reflect upon and to consider as we advance our efforts:

• This year, 98 percent of the graduating dental hygiene baccalaureate students who took the Western Regional Board Exam passed.  This was the highest aggregate score among all schools participating in this exam.
• Enrollment in the undergraduate, nonprofessional courses offered by the Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy increased by 10 percent.
• We have literally doubled the number of days that our predoctoral D.D.S. students spend in service learning rotations, from 25 days (2003) to 50 days (2006) their senior year.
• We have significantly increased the number of under-represented minority students enrolled at USCSD.  In Fall 2003, we admitted 4 under-represented minority students to the D.D.S. program.  This year we admitted 16 under-represented students into the Class of 2010.  This increase is due to faculty and staff recruitment efforts, a novel post-baccalaureate program and an increase in scholarship funds for under-represented minority students.
• In collaboration with the School of Engineering's department of bioengineering, we offered a new course entitled Craniofacial Biotechnology taught by faculty drawn from the School of Dentistry.  This was designed as a pilot program with 18 engineering students, and we plan to offer a new minor in the bioengineering baccalaureate program in the future.  Engineering students who complete this minor will be well prepared to pursue dental school, medical school, graduate school or biomedical/dental industry careers.  The program has been enthusiastically approved by the new dean of the USC Virterbi School of Engineering.
• New tobacco cessation counseling programs have been implemented between the School of Dentistry (dental hygiene) and the School of Pharmacy.
• New opportunities for dental hygiene students to have international experiences have been designed and implemented.
• New processes and streamlined procedures have been put into place to expedite admissions of baccalaureate OT majors into graduate programs.
• Student retention rates and on-time graduation rates in our baccalaureate programs remain at historically high levels.
• Increased advisement and rotation opportunities serve as enhancements for student performance.
• Career counseling and opportunities after graduation remain very positive, especially for dental hygiene graduates and occupational science graduates at the master’s degree level.

Our goals and plans for the coming fiscal year include:

• The School of Dentistry will engage in preparations for formal accreditation by the Commission on Dental Education with a site visit scheduled for April 2008; from 2006-2007 a formal self-study is required and will be followed by electronic submission of materials in the Fall 2007.
• To best position USCSD for accreditation, as well as continued academic performance improvements, I have appointed Mahvash Navazesh to be the next associate dean for academic affairs.  Mahvash will lead the school-wide self-study.
• In addition, I appointed Robert Keim to be assistant dean for program accountability and educational research; Eileen Suffet to be assistant dean for outcomes assessment and curriculum management; and Sandra Bolivar to be assistant dean for admissions, minority and student life.  These talented people will influence the quality and performance of all academic programs.
• What is taught and how it is taught is very significant for all health professional educators. During the coming year, Arnold Tiber and a faculty team will critically examine curriculum, sequencing of content, and pre-clinical and clinical learning experiences, and recommend opportunities for improvement.
• We will complete all university-specified requirements for approvals required for the new minor in bioengineering as a collaborative effort between dentistry and engineering.
• We are planning an expedited BS/MA degree program for OT as well as dental hygiene.
• A new fundraising campaign designed to support construction/renovations for research infrastructure, continuing oral health professional education facilities, and faculty/staff/student community facilities.  This includes an extension or new building adjacent to the Norris Dental Science Center and a major renovation of the fourth-floor of the Norris building.

Please note that all professional degree programs—such as dentistry, PT and OT—involve recruitment and retention of very talented students and faculty; curriculum that is contemporary, sequenced to be developmentally appropriate, and coupled or aligned with sequenced preclinical and clinical experiences and rotations in hospital and out-patient clinic facilities.  Academic programs are improved through robust faculty development programs, increased community-based programs, improvements in the information technology infrastructure, increased faculty to student ratios in clinic settings and increased local as well as international clinic learning opportunities.

With this in mind we have made some progress in these areas:

• We have increased the number of in-house faculty development programs to increase faculty competencies and calibrations related to learner-centered education, National Board Part I and II examinations, clinical procedures related to the new WREB examination and many patient management activities.
• We have revised the curriculum in the Craniofacial Biology Graduate Program (CBY) to align with the PIBBS curriculum on the Health Sciences Campus.
• We have reduced the number of residents in the AEGD program from 12 to 6 per year in order to gain increased clinic space for faculty practice/retention opportunities.
• We have increased the number of pediatric dentistry residents by two and formed a new agreement with Children’s Hospital of Orange County with a new HRSA-funded federal grant that supports this expansion.
• A postdoctoral program has been started in OT.
• Although retention rates remain extremely high, we are increasing communication efforts that better connect students and residents with university-wide services.
• We have a four-year grant funded by the California Endowment to increase the number of under-represented minorities in dentistry, to increase cultural competencies of health professionals, and to reduce health disparities in Los Angeles County and beyond.
• We have worked to increase the applicant pool of academically qualified students from 1,400 applicants for USCSD in 2000 to 2,600 for 2006.  GPA and DAT scores have increased and so has the number of minority applicants.
• We have increased the faculty to student ratio so that we have clinical faculty for every 5-8 learning clinicians in most of our clinic venues.
• A great deal of dental education is related to patients and their diseases and disorders. We have increased our patient pool from 42,000 in 2000 to 75,000 in 2006 (total people per year).
• Historically (1985-present), 73 percent of our doctoral dental students graduate by May, almost 80 percent by the end of June, and 90 percent plus thereafter.  Our goal is to have all senior students graduate on time with completed competencies.  This is being addressed through several strategies including major curriculum revisions, changes in sequencing of learning content and experiences, and changes in assessment and evaluations.
• Another measure of academic success is the number of students who pursue advanced education after professional school. Thirty-three percent of the doctoral dental Class of 2006 was accepted to dental post-graduate, advanced dental education and dental specialty training around the nation.  This is the highest rate ever for USCSD!  From 1985-2000, the percentage of graduates who were accepted into specialty programs averaged 7 percent per year.
• Ph.D. graduates from the CBY Program gain postdoctoral positions in excellent laboratories around the nation and internationally (for example, CBY graduates hold positions at the NIH, as chairs of departments in major universities, and as well-known and active scientists)

We have made measurable improvements and enhancements in our efforts to attract racially diverse and/or female faculty.  We have also focused on the recruitment of research faculty and encouraged interdisciplinary collaboration through the following:

• All search committees follow university instructions to “cast the net widely” and seek a culturally diverse set of candidates (e.g. Drs. Kim Austin, Veronica Greene, Margo Domingo, Fernando Verdugo, Piedad Suarez, Santosh Kumar Sundaresan and Saravanan Ram).
• We conducted a day-long workshop on Enhancing Culturally Competent Care for faculty presented by Drs. Jane Forrest, Cheryl Resnik and Jody Cormack.
• We have successfully recruited a few research-oriented faculty including David McKemy (joint appointment with LAS), Ilan Rotstein, Pascal Magne, Bill Costerton (joint appointment with engineering and CHLA), Anh Le, Pragna Patel (joint appointment with Keck Medical School at USC) and, most recently, Songtao Shi from the NIH.  These individuals enhance our capacity to increase federally-funded, peer-reviewed grant support.
• Trend analysis from 2001-2005 demonstrates that the number of faculty engaged in scholarship and research activities has increased school-wide from 31 (2001) to 60 (2005).  Interdisciplinary research within USC increased from 7 projects (2001) to 20 projects (2005).  Publications from USCSD faculty during this same period increased from 281 (2001) to 422 (2005).
• Trend analysis from 2001-2005 demonstrates that faculty engaged in community outreach projects increased from 43 (2001) to 118 (2005) and there was also a significant increase in agency/foundation support for reducing oral health disparities.
• The new Dean’s Leadership Forum provides weekly sessions that engage select faculty, staff and students (12-14 per class) to develop leadership skills within a university environment.
• We actively participate in the California Endowment-supported Pipeline Project that is designed to increase underrepresented minorities in the oral health professions (e.g. post-baccalaureate program, networking efforts between faculty and between faculty and students).
• Of course, every year we are required to balance our books in terms of revenues and expenses, and we have done that each year.

I hope you feel good about our progress. However, we still have major, lingering issues that we must resolve:

• We must redesign our curriculum and sequencing so that all students complete their studies on time.
• We must achieve more flexibility for innovative learning tracks within our academic programs: tracks that enable students to be the center of their learning agenda and that offer international opportunities.
• We must decompress the Norris Building so we can enlarge the School of Dentistry  and thereby increase our research infrastructure and performance, our CE facilities, and the essential environs for faculty, staff and student quality of life here at USC.
• We must improve all aspects of civility, ethics and professionalism through all and every aspect of our programs.
• We must improve all aspects of cultural competency achievement by all members of our community.

I hope you are encouraged by our efforts and advances and that you feel empowered to continue to improve our school, our programs and the health of those we serve.  Together, I know we will succeed and grow personally, professionally and as a community.

Cheers,

Hal