GSDM Faculty Promotions to Associate Professor Announced
The following Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine faculty have been promoted to the rank of associate professor:
Gurkan Goktug, Restorative Sciences & Biomaterials, provides didactic teaching and clinical mentoring to 24 postdoctoral prosthodontic residents each year. He has been the course director of the Removable Partial Denture seminar since 2015. For 17 years from 2002-2019, he was the course director for Basic Prosthodontics Techniques, a 440-hour hands-on preclinical training course for incoming residents that equips matriculating dental students with fundamental prosthodontic techniques and procedures, supported by hands-on simulation laboratory training before they start treating patients. He challenges students and residents to think creatively and consistently guides them to improve their quality of work with enthusiasm and care. An effective teacher proficient in all aspects of the specialty of prosthodontics, Dr. Goktug is the recipient of several postdoctoral prosthodontic awards for teaching excellence and faculty appreciation.
Brenda Heaton, Health Policy & Health Services Research, is an innovative scientist in oral health disparities research. She has taught in the pre-doctoral dental curriculum and in several courses at the School of Public Health, in addition to her current teaching in the dental postgraduate program. She is the PI of a five-year R01 award (to 2023) to study the role of social networks in influencing oral health behaviors and modifying risk for various disease outcomes. Most recently, she received an R21 award to develop behavioral intervention messaging for a planned future network-based intervention in public housing communities. In addition, she has been funded to develop simulation models aimed at identifying and addressing the mechanisms responsible for producing oral health disparities. She is serving a three-year term on the board of directors for the American Association for Dental Research as a member-at-large and recently completed a three-year term as an elected officer of the Behavioral, Epidemiologic and Health Services Research Group of the International Association for Dental Research, one of that organization’s largest and most prolific scientific groups.
Dolrudee Porsche Jumlongras, Pediatric Dentistry, clinical director of the Pediatric Oral Healthcare Center and interim program director of the pediatric dental residency program, combines excellent patient care, didactic teaching and clinical training to strengthen the residents’ education program. Her management skills in combination with a keen sense of business acumen has led to a successful and sustainable pediatric dental treatment center at GSDM. Her scholarly activities focus on complex pediatric case management, in particular, the management of dental and craniofacial anomalies such as amelogenesis imperfecta and ectodermal dysplasia. She is collaborating with faculty in the Department of Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center to improve and enhance oral healthcare services for special needs patients.
Afsheen Lakhani, General Dentistry, a group practice leader at Goldman School of Dental Medicine and a restorative dentist at BU Dental Health Center, 930 Commonwealth Avenue, is a dynamic, creative clinician educator who developed an elective, Implementing Digital Dentistry into Your Practice, a hands-on course initially offered in spring 2020 and immediately oversubscribed. Always willing to see her students and their patients and help them with procedures and treatment plans, she also has collaborated with faculty and mentored students in various poster presentations in institutional and national meeting. Her scholarly activity includes a research project as a PI on “The Impact of Peer Mentoring on the Professional Development of Dental Students.” studying its affects and implications on dental students’ performance and overall development.
Jess Liu, Periodontology, is a creative and progressive teacher who likes to share his knowledge with the residents. He is the Implant Fellowship program director and course director for Integrating Digital Dentistry in Treatment Planning and Complex Restorations. He instituted new treatment protocols in conjunction with the Department of Restorative Sciences, which integrated navigation and robotics in implant dentistry. In addition, Dr. Liu is highly regarded for mentoring periodontology residents on the “all-on-X” technique.
Vasiliki Maseli, General Dentistry, is one of the five certified consultants for the Commission of Dental Competency Assessment (CDCA), fellow of the International Academy for Dental Facial Esthetics and fellow of the International College of Dentists. She teaches in the pre-clinical Operative Dentistry and is also a general supervising faculty in the treatment center. She takes an active role in the evaluation of students’ competency in Operative Dentistry, as one of the two faculty members who can ‘sign-out’ our students for this competency in Restoration of Teeth by Direct Restorations. Dr. Maseli is a recipient of the Massachusetts Dental Society’s 2021 Ten Under 10 Award, the annual list that recognizes new dentists for their significant and diverse impacts on the dental profession.
Andrew Miller, General Dentistry, director of the Pre-Doctoral Endodontics Program, has developed and implemented the on-call protocols for the predoctoral endodontic faculty and postdoctoral endodontic residents. Dedicated to our students, he ensures they are well prepared to take the simulated licensure examination for CDCA and WREB, and he continues to improve the students’ clinical skills in the Treatment Center and preclinical endodontics courses. Dr. Miller is passionate about student development and he has distinguished himself through his commitment to dental education by enhancing the Endodontics curriculum.
Stanislava Misci, Restorative Sciences & Biomaterials, serves as a clinical director for the Advanced Education Program in Prosthodontics, she manages and monitors activities of the Postdoctoral Prosthodontic Treatment Center, which includes overall production, chair utilization and associated revenue, creating guidelines and protocols to facilitate efficient clinical operations while adhering to required compliance protocols and best practices, overseeing prosthodontic faculty calibration, and creating programs to enhance laboratory, didactic and clinical educational experiences of the Prosthodontic residents. Dr. Misci is a course director for two postdoctoral prosthodontic courses and guest lecturer in four other postdoctoral prosthodontic courses. She actively engages residents in their clinical training, and successfully mentors them on digital workflow and treatment protocols, which has resulted in numerous poster presentations.
Pinelopi Pani, General Dentistry, was the first of the predoctoral periodontal faculty to help students place implants using CAD CAM milled surgical guides. She also was the first of the predoctoral periodontal faculty members to use the X-Nav system with our students. This X-Nav system integrates with the Cone-Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) to precisely plan and place implants for our predoctoral patients who require single tooth replacement by implant restoration. Dr. Pani is course director for Introduction to Periodontology and the Preclinical Periodontology courses, where students learn and practice on each other in a clinical environment, which had many challenges over the past year due to COVID-19. She also participates in several courses for DMD students and mentors residents at other institutions with their teaching and research activities.
Goli Parsi, Orthodontics & Dentofacial Orthopedics, supervises orthodontic residents in the clinic, and directs courses in the subjects of Biomechanics and, American Board of Orthodontics Review. She also directs the Mock Board exams, and recently outlined a new course in the Multidisciplinary Approach to Sleep Related Breathing Disorders. In addition, Dr. Parsi has mentored 10 students or residents in their research, starting in her first year on the faculty, all while carrying out her own research and clinic work. Board certified in dental sleep medicine, she codirected the successful CE course in Sleep in 2018, 2019 and 2021, and is in the process of setting up a sleep clinic.
Jayapriyaa Shanmugham, Pediatric Dentistry, supervises all the research activities conducted in the department as the director of research including two large federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grants and also is a co-investigator in both grants. Dr. Shanmugham developed and implemented two courses for the post-doctoral students, which provide the required didactic training in research methodology. She also developed a new training module on cultural competency and oral health literacy for pre-doctoral students. Dr. Shanmugham has been a research advisor for several post-doctoral students including masters and doctoral students as well as pre-doctoral students and is the recipient of the 2021 GSDM Predoctoral Mentor of the Year Award. Dr. Shanmugham recently joined a team to teach and mentor faculty members in clinical research, as part of the GSDM faculty development program developed by the Department of Clinical Research.
Ana Zea, General Dentistry, director of the Applied Professional Experience (APEX) and Externship programs, has led the team in revising the programs several times over the past 10 years. Under her leadership, the APEX and Externship experiences have been streamlined and systematically integrated within the didactic curriculum. She also has incorporated a service-learning component into the first-year curriculum, which integrates didactic coursework, clinical activities and reflection exercises that are now part of GD 510, Comprehensive Preclinical Dentistry, of which she is course co-director. Dr. Zea was among the first faculty members to collaborate on the implementation of an e-portfolio learning platform at GSDM. She helped to design the evaluation templates and develop rubrics for evaluation of e-portfolio projects. She also has made a significant impact in support and outreach to underserved populations by visiting our partner Community Health Centers regularly to ensure students and their patients have positive experiences.