Three long-time faculty members have been appointed to or resumed leadership positions at the School of Dentistry in February.

Diane Melrose has been named chair of the Dental Hygiene Program.  Melrose had served as acting chair since Peggy Tsutsui stepped down in August 2002. 

Melrose completed her B.A. in dental hygiene at the University of Iowa in 1971 and joined the USCSD faculty in 1976.  She was promoted to professor of clinical dentistry in 1990. 

A recognized leader in the profession, Melrose has served as consultant to several dental hygiene programs and was named an honorary member of Omicron Kappa Upsilon Zeta Chapter in 2000.  Her textbook, “A Professional’s Guide to Home Fluoride Products” is now in its third edition.

The advanced program in orthodontics has a new director in Glenn Sameshima.  A 1980 D.D.S. graduate of the University of California at San Francisco, Sameshima earned both his orthodontics certificate and his Ph.D. in craniofacial biology at USC.

He joined the orthodontics faculty in 1995 and seven years later was promoted with tenure to associate professor in the Division of Craniofacial Sciences and Therapeutics.  He has been the director of the orthodontics graduate clinic since 2001 and became a Diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics in 2005. 

Sameshima’s research interests, which include two- and three-dimensional orthodontic imaging using cone beam computed tomography and clinical problems related to root resorption, have earned him several grants from the American Association of Orthodontists Foundation.

This month also marks the return of Casey Chen who spent nearly a year on sabbatical at the University of Washington.  During this time, Chen worked with Richard Darveau learning new techniques and applying them to his primary research interest Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, a bacteria known to be a principle cause of periodontal disease.  During his sabbatical, Chen also applied for and was awarded a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to support his ongoing research. 

Chen earned his B.D.S. at National Taiwan University, an advanced periodontics certificate from the University of Pittsburgh (1984), his D.D.S. from Loma Linda University and his Ph.D. at SUNY – Buffalo.  He joined the School of Dentistry faculty in 1992 and was promoted to associate professor in 1998.