Q&A with Scott De Rossi, new dean of School of Dentistry

Scott De Rossi is the former chairperson of the Oral Health and Diagnostic Sciences department at Augusta University's Dental College of Georgia. UNC chose De Rossi as the new dean of the School of Dentistry in October. He started his new position on Jan. 15. Staff writer Eva Ellenburg met with De Rossi to discuss his new role and his plans for the school. 

The Daily Tar Heel: What was your career like before coming to UNC?

Scott De Rossi: I started as an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, which is where I trained in dental school. I finished my dental schooling there, my residency program and actually went into dental school knowing I wanted to stay in academics … 

Subsequently, I rose through the rankings of, you know, junior faculty, clinic director, residency program director, assistant dean, director of graduate dental education and then was recruited to be a department (chairperson) in Georgia … And then one of my faculty members, who graduated from the radiology program here, actually nominated me for the position of dean.

DTH: What interested you about this position?

SDR: So it’s really an easy question to answer, right, so when people always ask, "Why do you want to be dean?” and the sort of flippant answer is “a momentary lapse of reason” or “temporary insanity” because it’s not an easy job. And the reality is, when you look at what brings you to work everyday or, you know, what motivates you when you wake up, for me it’s to make a difference …

And you can do that as an instructor, you can do that as a department (chairperson), and sort of the higher you go up in your role, the bigger your impact can be. And so I decided that I wanted to make an impact, not only on a population or a community at a dental school, but really on dental education as a whole.

DTH: What is your vision for the UNC School of Dentistry?

SDR: Having been here, you know, less than four weeks, it’s certainly difficult to articulate a vision because it takes time to gather information, it takes time to learn the culture and politics, but there are things that certainly we can do. 

We need to focus on expanding our clinical education to students and evolve that in a way that we’re integrating new technologies, teaching technologies, new pedagogical models to learning … So we need to evolve our clinical and didactic program. We need to expand our research program and sort of focus more on translational research … I want to expand our service learning, both regionally but also globally, so we’re going to really expand our international program and global outreach.

DTH: What do you anticipate will be your biggest challenge in your new position?

SDR: There are tons of challenges in dental education at the moment. The list is long and it includes things like the globalization of health care; it includes things like increased debt burden of our graduates. We have dental students graduating with significant debt, not only at this dental school but, you know, across the country — this is one of the more affordable ones …

So there’s a long list of challenges and, you know, the good thing is that we have incredibly bright people here at all levels — staff, students, faculty, administrators — that are going to help us answer these questions because certainly I don’t have all the answers.

DTH: What are you most excited about regarding your new job?

SDR: It’s an easy answer and it’s probably not as specific as you like. Two major things: this school has all the potential to be the preeminent dental school in the world, and so I’m excited about really creating a school that is absolutely second to none. Secondly, I’m so excited to be able to meet with all the students, the staff, the faculty and the alumni. I mean, I am a people person, and so I love being in that environment.

This is such an incredibly close-knit community and family of UNC dentistry that it’s been incredibly exciting to sort of meet people and actually be welcomed into that group.

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