Diversity in Dental Academics

The American Dental Education Association (ADEA) is committed to addressing both the dental faculty shortage and the severe shortage of underrepresented minorities in dental school faculty. ADEA launched the Minority Dental Faculty Development (MDFD) Program in 2004 with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation with the premise that “diversity among dental faculty is critical to a diverse dental workforce.” ADEA/AAL are sponsoring faculty of color tuition scholarships for professional development which will encourage and foster the development of faculty of color in academic dental careers.

A manual, Growing Our Own: The ADEA Minority Faculty Development Program: A Manual For Institutional Leadership in Diversity provides strategies to combat faculty and minority shortages in academic dentistry. One of the strategies highlighted is that faculty produce faculty. They act as role models to present academic dentistry as a worthy career consideration for their students. Dr. Dennis Mitchell describes one of his most fulfilling moments in his teaching career as the time when he identified a promising first-year dental student and watched him evolve from a student to a clinician interested in becoming a faculty member. This mentoring is essential to the growth of culturally diverse faculty and faculty as a whole.

Meet Dennis Mitchell, DDS

Dr. Mitchell is full time faculty and an administrator. He is the Vice Provost for Faculty Diversity and Inclusion for Columbia University as well as the Senior Associate Dean for Diversity at the College of Dental Medicine. He works vigorously to make sure that there is a diverse student body and has raised the percentage of underrepresented minorities from two to eighteen-percent. Dr. Mitchell combines his administrative role with an active clinical position in the faculty practice.

Watch this video to learn more about Dr. Mitchell’s combined role in teaching dentistry.

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