Our vision is clear. The School of Dentistry will transform itself in a way that ensures it will continue to be recognized as a leader in interdisciplinary health care, acknowledged as a center of excellence in interdisciplinary learning and teaching, leader and innovator in research and academic leadership, and exemplary in providing access to the highest quality oral health care for the local, regional and global communities. The vision was distilled from thoughtful analysis of the School's strengths and weaknesses and recommendations of internal and external reviewers.

The School will reassert itself as a renowned institution that provides outstanding patient care, education, and research. These are the bold steps it will take to transform dental education and dental practice. 

Strategic Initiatives

• Carry out innovative research in new ways that will advance science, dentistry and overall health.
• Educate students and dentists whose practice in oral health care is based on science and who aspire to leadership in academic dentistry.
• Educate students to be dentists who make a difference in local, regional and the global communities.
• Work to eliminate economic barriers to access to quality heath care and to eliminate health disparities in our population.
• Position our graduates and the dental profession to lead in the creation of an efficient, optimally integrated, patient-centered health care system.