HSC Profiles
Teresa Dolan
To educate and serve:
Dual mission motivates UF's dentistry dean
UF College of Dentistry Dean Teresa A. Dolan, D.D.S., M.P.H., views her lofty position at the helm of the state’s only public dental school and one of the top dental research institutions in the nation as an opportunity to touch lives.
As a professor and former associate dean for education at the college, Dolan is firmly grounded in the its mission to educate the state’s future dentists, but she’s also deeply committed to advocating for and providing care to the state’s underserved residents.
“I know this probably sounds clichéd, but I’ve always been attracted by the helping aspects of the health professions,” she said.
Service to Florida through care for indigent, underserved and medically compromised residents is an important part of the college’s mission. One of the state’s largest providers of low-cost dental care to indigent residents through its Statewide Network for Community Oral Health, the college owns clinics in Jacksonville, St. Petersburg and Hialeah and partners with 12 others to provide affordable dental care to Florida’s most vulnerable residents.
Dolan’s career has focused on dental care for the elderly. She earned diplomate status from the American Board of Dental Public Health in 1994 and is nationally known for her research in geriatric dentistry.
It is this research background that gives Dolan a clear appreciation for interdisciplinary collaborations in research, education and clinical care. Under her leadership, the college earned a $2.9 million National Institutes of Health Research Infrastructure award which, when matched with state dollars, resulted in a $4.9 million infusion of capital into the college’s research enterprise. This award enabled the college to broaden ties with the Health Science Center’s Genetics Institute, the Diabetes Research groups, the Cancer Center and the McKnight Brain Institute, as well as the General Clinical Research Center.
