Press Release

Pacific Garners $1 Million for
California Pipeline Program

University of the Pacific School of Dentistry received more than $1,000,000 from The California Endowment to participate in the California Initiative Dental Pipeline program. The main objectives of the Pipeline program are to increase the number of under-represented minority and low-income students enrolled in California dental schools and to increase senior students’ and residents’ time spent in patient-centered community sites and rural clinics.

According to statistics gathered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2002, less than five percent of California dental students and only eight percent of California dentists were African-American, Hispanic, or Native American. In addition, California currently has 68 dental health professional shortage areas, many in rural areas. In order to address these concerns, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiated the 11-school, nationwide Pipeline, Professional and Practice: Community-Based Dental Education Initiative in 2002. This year, The California Endowment provided funding to expand this program to include all California dental schools.

“This funding provides a great opportunity for Pacific to expand its focus on serving the diverse communities that make up our state’s population.” said Dr. Paul Glassman, associate dean and director of Pacific’s Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency program and principle investigator for Pacific’s Pipeline program. The dental schools that were eligible to apply for the grants were University of the Pacific, Loma Linda University, University of California at Los Angeles, and University of Southern California.

Pacific’s pilot program will focus on residency education as well as increasing the number of residency positions created in community clinics serving underserved populations and recruiting underrepresented minority and low-income students. Pacific’s predoctoral curriculum currently includes community-based experiences, however the time spent in these environments will be increased as well as the number of sites visited. In addition, dental school graduates will be encouraged to enroll in residency programs treating underserved populations.

“It is critical for one of the nation’s most diverse states to have an equally diverse health care workforce,” said Jai Lee Wong, senior program officer for The California Endowment. This is a great concern in the dental profession and Pacific has recognized the need to educate more underrepresented minority and low-income students and provide all our students with experiences designed to have them be more sensitive to the health needs of the state’s diverse population.

This is an article that appeared in Contact Point (Vol. 83, No. 3), an award-winning magazine produced by University of the Pacific School of Dentistry.