The School of Dentistry on the Health Sciences campus at East Carolina University is poised to become one of the most exciting academic dental organizations on the planet.  We are ready to hit our first major growth spurt. 

Our building in Greenville will be one of the most beautiful, technologically advanced, and environmental green buildings on any university campus.  The North Carolina general construction firm, Balfour Beatty, is now working with us as we finalize planning for the building with our architects from the Raleigh-based-firm, BJAC, and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson from Pennsylvania.

Two major initiatives are now underway.  One is to identify the initial sites for our School’s Community Service Learning Clinical Centers.  Associate Dean, Dr. Greg Chadwick, is leading this effort.  He is being assisted by the Raleigh based consulting firm, Cansler-Fuquay Solutions.  Site selection is being based on oral health and dental needs of the community, socioeconomic factors that will make the site educationally and financially viable, and input from dentists and dental leaders with knowledge of the areas being considered.  The selected sites will be staffed by full time School of Dentistry faculty, Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) residents, a hygienist and, once they exist, fourth year dental students.  These Community Service Learning Clinical Centers will be unique in dental education, providing a rich environment for practical, community and patient focused, general dental education.  They will also provide much needed dental and oral health services to rural North Carolinians.

The other major initiative is recruiting first a leadership team, and then our faculty and staff.  Leadership team recruitment has begun with several dean and director positions being publicized.  They appear on the ECU website as well as in the ADEA Bulletin of Dental Education.  We anticipate having much of the leadership team recruited by July of 2009.  Faculty and staff recruitment will begin in the summer of 2009.

The student program will begin in August of 2011, so the earliest we plan to accept applications is July of 2010.  Our School will be using the American Dental Education Association’s national application service.  Academic prerequisites for our School appear elsewhere on our site.  The new residency programs will also open during this period.

We will continue to regularly update this portion of our website, and once construction begins images of our progress will start to appear.

This is a fantastic time in the young history of our new School and I hope many of you will want to be a part of it in some way.

                                                             James R. Hupp, Dean