Press Release
ROBERT C. BYRD HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER
WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA
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Sheila Price, WVU School of Dentistry, |
WVU Gets $1.3 Million for Dental Initiative
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will provide $1.35 million dollars to the West Virginia School of Dentistry to strengthen its linkages with West Virginia communities in need of dental care and bring more underrepresented minority and low-income students into dental programs.
The five-year Pipeline Profession & Practice: Community-Based Education project will expand of the community-based dental education, help WVU recruit and retain under-represented minority and low-income students, and enhance cultural sensitivity among students and faculty. The dental school will use the West Virginia Rural Health Education Partnerships to expand its community-based programs and seek additional partnerships as it lengthens the existing community-based rotations for senior dental students. This expansion will significantly increase the school’s contribution to the care of underserved populations in West Virginia.
As part of the project, WVU will work to encourage students from grade school through college to consider dentistry as a career.
“We need to nurture the next generation of dentists for West Virginia and the nation,” said Sheila Price, D.D.S., Ed.D., assistant dean of dentistry at WVU. “Our goal, and the Foundation’s is to reduce oral health disparities due to economic, race, ethnicity, or geographic barriers. With the expanded community program, the volume of oral health care provided by dental students is expected to increase significantly.”
According to Dr. Price, the school hopes to increase representation of under-represented and low-income students in the dental program. Over the long-term, the Pipeline project is expected to positively impact the availability of dental professionals in underserved areas by better preparing students to serve culturally diverse and rural populations.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, N.J., is the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. It concentrates its grantmaking in four goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to basic health care at reasonable cost; to improve care and support for people with chronic health conditions; to promote healthy communities and lifesyles; and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse–tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs.
WVU is one of ten U.S. dental schools selected to receive the grant. The Pipeline Profession & Practice national program office is based at Columbia University’s School of Dental and Oral Surgery.
–WVU –
bc: 12-17-02
