The University of Iowa College of Dentistry and Dental Clinics is proud to announce the appointment of Dr. Dharini van der Hoeven as the Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs for the college.

Van der Hoeven is currently the John M. Powers Endowed Professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at the Houston School of Dentistry. She received her MS (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) in 2004 from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, and her PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2008.

She currently has a research program in signal transduction in oral cancer and development of anti-cancer therapeutics. Van der Hoeven is a national leader in the American Dental Education Assocation (ADEA) in innovative educational dental school curricular designs, professional curricular management and educational assessment. She currently serves as a Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) site visitor and is on the ADEA Board of Directors.

Further, she is chair-elect of the ADEA Council on sections administrative board and chairs the ADEA Micro-credentialing for faculty development program. She was an ADEA AAL Leadership fellow in 2020.

She will be joining collegiate leadership on June 28, 2024.