“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans” is a quote – attributed to John Lennon – that sums up the life of a dean. I can assure you that life is happening at the VCU School of Dentistry and, I might add, we are busy making other plans. Many good things are ongoing daily, we are advancing student experiences and we are planning for a bright future.

In these past months, our faculty has embarked on recruitment of new associate deans. This summer, we concluded an internal search, appointing Sharon Lanning, D.D.S. (H.S.’99), as our new senior associate dean for academic affairs. In her many years of service at the school, in many roles, including as past chairperson of periodontics with national recognition in dental education through ADEA, Lanning has prepared for this leadership role and is already putting her stamp of organization and clarity on the role. This fall we conducted a search for the senior associate dean for Clinical Education and our own Jeff Johnson, D.M.D., was selected. Johnson was the school’s pediatric dentistry chair, and before that served as chairperson of pediatric dentistry at LSU School of Dentistry. Johnson’s experiences building pediatric clinical enterprises in both academic and private practice environments adds dual lenses of academic excellence and clinical effectiveness to the role. 

In these first weeks of 2025, we have concluded interviews for the assistant/associate dean for student services from an exemplary pool of candidates and will be announcing who will join our leadership team in the next few weeks. Building our leadership team represents the work of many faculty members, students and staff who have shared with candidates their vision for the future of the school.

Our new leaders follow in the footsteps of others who have had significant, positive impact on the activities and culture of our school. In passing on these responsibilities, we also celebrate and thank Rick Archer, D.D.S., for his years of service in the role of senior associate dean for clinical affairs and Ellen Byrne, D.D.S., Ph.D., for her many years of service in the role of senior associate dean for academic affairs and recently as the interim associate dean for student services. 

Fall was busy indeed. We have experienced continued growth in student clinical activity within a revised group practice model. We are just beginning construction of a new adult special-needs dental clinic generously supported by Karen and Roger Wood, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’75) and the Delta Dental of Virginia Foundation. And we will rebuild our 12th Street lobby to be a more welcoming and safe community-facing entry to our clinics. We are also extending education beyond our school’s walls, with record enrollment in our continuing education courses. The fall Virginia Implant Excellence Week Symposium was enjoyed by more than 160 participants who learned about state-of-the-art developments in implant dentistry from national and international speakers. Proudly, we can learn from and share knowledge with members of our community both within and beyond the walls of the dental school. More continuing education is coming.

Our development team has been diligently planning our Trailblazer award brunch that celebrates VCU’s commitment to our African American alumni and honors those people who made possible the opportunities for today and remind us of our responsibilities for tomorrow with regard to teaching and expressing cultural humility. We are proudly a diverse community, with a significant and personal history that is enriched with stories of remarkable dentists who we celebrate at our Trailblazer event. 

Spring also brings into focus our access to care mission by highlighting outreach to our youngest of patients. We will again celebrate Give Kids a Smile Day. Originally organized in 2002, it has become a national event aiming to provide free dental care to underprivileged children and is today but one example of our students’ and faculties’ commitment to service. This year we will expand Give Kids a Smile Day to include activities at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond site as well as our new Northside (formerly Brook Road) Pediatric Dentistry Clinic. Carol Caudill, D.D.S., (Cert.’13, M.Ed.’24) interim chairperson, and Tiffany Williams, D.D.S., (M.S.’14, Cert.’22) program director, welcome all to the event. 

Amidst all this, we have also been preparing for the current semester. Although a snow storm and water shortage were not the excitement we had planned for, we returned to the semester ready for all the activities spring semester brings. First up is our White Coat Ceremony, and never has the intent of bestowing professionalism to our students been more significant. Becoming a dentist involves accepting the responsibilities and ethical vows of the profession; this ceremony marks a moment in each student’s life when education becomes a relationship with such responsibilities before earning the D.D.S. degree. And not to forget that graduation is the most important spring activity, our faculty are presently laser focused on assuring every student is prepared for on time graduation.

There is also the exciting work of planning a new building to support our community and activities. Together with planners and architects, a small group from the School of Dentistry including Rick Archer, D.D.S., Mike Healy, D.D.S., Iain Morgan, Ph.D., and Dan Amatruda have worked with me to guide the early stages of fitting all of our activities within a single community-facing and welcoming building. In the coming weeks and months, tours of other new dental schools and further planning will be required before a formal plan is finalized. What can be shared today is that we are aware that now is the opportunity to create the very best dental education and care facility for future success.

This year’s successes represent good work done by great people. It’s been said that the best preparation for good work tomorrow is doing good work today. That work is intentional, with a sharp focus on maintaining our historical standards of clinical excellence, enhancing our culture of belonging and generosity, growing our research enterprise, expanding our graduate educational programs and better serving our community. The VCU School of Dentistry leadership, faculty, students and staff are doing the good work today in anticipation of better service to all of our stakeholders tomorrow.