Delivering an extraordinary experience
Dr. Bertha Garcia, Dentistry’s Vice Dean & Director, shares how the teams in Dentistry are working together to deliver on strategic plan goals and enrich the learning and care experience.
Dr. Garcia has been in the role since June 2019, and we sat down with her to hear more about Dentistry’s priorities, achievements and recent moments of pride.
Dr. Garcia, you have now been in the role as Acting Vice Dean and Director of Schulich Dentistry for a few months, can you outline what your priorities have been and will continue to be?
We’ve been working on operational, academic and leadership priorities all at the same time.
From the operations perspective, we have begun to identify and review all of Dentistry’s processes, including those associated with the teaching clinics and simulation facilities. We are looking for standardization, good quality assurance methodologies and increased efficiencies.
From the academic and leadership perspective, a major priority is the recruitment of highly qualified faculty to address recent departures and retirements, as well as expansion of our Internationally Trained Dentists Program.
Dentistry’s 10-year strategic plan has as one of its strategic directions – Passionate, Proud and Prepared Dentistry team - which focuses on strengthening the capacity and culture within the School. Can you share some details about the new faculty who have been recruited to the School and the impact that you are seeing as a result?
In the spring of 2019, we recruited six new faculty members.
Dr. Shawn Steele, DDS’05, is an alumnus, as well as a local dentist, who was recently appointed the City-wide Chief of Dentistry for the London hospitals. He was also appointed as the Director of the Dentistry Surgical Care Unit at the School. This unit has the potential to address urgent oral surgical needs in our vulnerable populations.
We were very pleased to recruit two paediatric dentists, both with strong teaching skills and academic pedigrees. Drs. Sharat Pani and Liliani Candido Vieira are now dedicated full-time to address the needs of our paediatric population in the community while teaching students the necessary skills to practice.
We also recruited Dr. Trevor Thang, a newly-minted oral radiologist. Dentists with credentials such as his are extremely rare and in demand. He has past links with imaging researchers at Robarts Research Institute and brings with him the potential for great research collaboration.
Dr. Cecilia Dong is a prosthodontist and she has joined us from the University of Manitoba. She brings with her a wealth of research experience and national and international collaborations.
Our sixth recruit is joining us in January 2020. Dr. Amanpreet Sabharwal is a periodontist trained and currently working in Buffalo, New York. He will bring with him a multitude of skills in addition to periodontics, as well as strong research potential.
Dentistry has had a structure in place for some time, which works closely with student leaders and students. And in the past year, there has been a stronger focus on that. Can you share with us the ways in which Dentistry is engaging with student leadership and more broadly with students? How have students received this engagement?
We have excellent students. We are very fortunate that they want to be engaged in all parts of our enterprise.
Since my appointment, we have fine-tuned the student town halls with a student-centred agenda, which is built in preparation with our Associate Dean, Undergraduate Dental Education and other academic leaders.
Students bring their questions forward, and they also bring information obtained through their networks for further discussion. For example, we are currently engaged in a benchmarking exercise with other dental schools regarding students’ expenses to see what opportunities exist to help address their challenges. A student-led, peer-to-peer mentorship program was successfully implemented by Christine Hunyh, Dentistry Class of 2020, and we are currently engaged in making sure that it is sustainable in the long term.
What are Dentistry’s education priorities for the current school year?
We have three major priorities:
- Complete the implementation of the new clinical model.
- Launch the expanded three-year program for the Internationally Trained Dentists program.
- Expand our Continuing Dental Education initiatives, including calibration of community part-time faculty.
Dentistry recently received a $1 million donation. A portion of those funds will be going to support highest priority needs. How do you anticipate using those funds?
Although we have no firm plans yet, my intention is that we will be investing the funds in student experience. That could include support for conference attendance, research projects, leadership training, invited speakers, events and more.
Western recently celebrated Homecoming weekend, and during that time three Dentistry faculty members, two of whom are alumni, were recognized as Alumni of Distinction. What does it mean to the School to take these moments to celebrate and recognize faculty and alumni?
The feedback that have I received so far has been overwhelmingly positive. Visibly recognizing the excellence of Dentistry alumni has a major impact in the very important role that the School has had in our community. Students, staff and other faculty had a sense of pride and accomplishment as a result of this distinction.
