A Message from Dean Clark Stanford
Welcome to the University of Iowa College of Dentistry and Dental Clinics. My name is Clark Stanford and since 2022, I have been the Dean at the College of Dentistry here in Iowa City, Iowa. I would like to introduce you to a little bit of what our mission and visions are as a college.
Our core mission at the UI College of Dentistry is to advance oral health for the people of Iowa and beyond through our education, discovery research, and patient care. To do this, we have articulated four visions, which guide us toward success.
The first is student success. This means educating, preparing, and supporting students so that when they enter general or specialty practices, they are able to provide quality oral health care and operate at the top of the profession.
We do this by having a robust set of early clinical experiences in the curriculum, so students can get into the clinics and begin gaining valuable experiences. Our students will see patients within their first year of dental school.
Our second vision is research and discovery. The College's research enterprise has exponentially grown over the last several years thanks to our world-class faculty engaging with students to create breakthroughs.
We want to position ourselves to provide excellence in research that allows us to positively change the future of oral health.
Our third vision is engagement with our communities. This means engagement with our faculty, staff, students, patients, and all of our critically important stakeholders in the state of Iowa and around the world.
And our fourth vision is recognizing the changing demographics within our industry. More students than ever before are pursuing dentistry who are either first-generation students or have no family connection to the profession. We recognize that changes are occurring and are prepared for the future in our education programs, research, and clinics.
Thank you for visiting the UI College of Dentistry's website and I hope we are able to assist with any questions you have from applying to dental school to finding a dental provider and anything in between.
Clark Stanford, DDS, PhD, MHA
