Chair, Department of Pediatric Dentistry

Chair, Department of Pediatric Dentistry Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry

The Department of Pediatric Dentistry at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, Virginia, invites candidates to apply for the Pediatric Dentistry Chair faculty position. This position involves examining the operations of the department as a whole and the relationship to the institution and patients. In this role, the incumbent will help departmental faculty with balancing research, teaching, and patient care. The Chair will provide leadership for the educational, scholarship, patient care, and service mission of the department and the School of Dentistry.

Additionally, the incumbent will collaborate and participate with other units at VCU, VCU Health System (VCUHS) and the Children’s Hospital of Richmond (CHoR) to provide outstanding patient care and continuing education for VCU Dental students. The Chair will serve on the Board of VCU Dental Care (Dentistry@VCU), the LLC providing services to the School of Dentistry, and overseeing the operations of the clinical staff for VCU Dental Care.

The primary mission of the School of Dentistry is to educate practitioners of dentistry capable of meeting the general oral health needs of the communities they serve. Integral parts of the mission are research and other scholarly activity, patient care, leadership in dental education and organized dentistry, and collaboration and participation with other units within VCU and VCU Health System.

The Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Dentistry is located in downtown Richmond, Virginia. With a 132-year history, Virginia’s only dental school offers opportunities for selected, qualified individuals to study dentistry and oral health through its Doctor of Dental Surgery (D.D.S.) program, graduate specialty training programs, and a dental hygiene program. The VCU School of Dentistry is one of a small number of dental schools in the country affiliated with an academic medical center, the only dental school in the Commonwealth, and one of the oldest dental schools in the United States, founded in 1893.

It is one of six health sciences academic programs on the Medical College of Virginia (MCV) Campus of VCU.

The chair will provide leadership and management of the department’s faculty and staff to include annual review and evaluation, mentoring for development and promotion, and/or tenure review. The chair is also responsible for the departmental academic and clinical financial affairs, and for ensuring compliance with school, university, and state policy and regulations. The chair is responsible for interfacing with the VCU Health System, the Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, and the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU to support the teaching and clinical services mission of the department and school.

Teaching duties shall include medical students, dental students, graduate students, allied health students, residents, fellows, and colleagues, where appropriate. Teaching responsibilities also shall be considered to include preparation of instructional materials, evaluative materials, testing, and maintenance of personal professional skills through continuing education, advising and mentoring trainees, and participation in academic reinforcement programs.

Faculty members are expected to teach in an integrated curriculum system that includes baccalaureate, graduate, and professional education. Teaching across traditional departmental lines and in multidisciplinary teams is required. Faculty members are expected to foster transformative learning that is informed by interdisciplinary and translational research, scholarship, and creative expression. Faculty members must demonstrate the ability to contribute to and participate in a humanistic environment of learning, as well as to adapt to change and embrace modern technologies.

Faculty members must demonstrate the ability, or acquire and develop such ability, to incorporate adult learning theory, evidence-based oral health care, innovation in student learning, and…