On November 20, the UMKC School of Dentistry welcomed 36 candidates for the Advanced Standing International Dental Program.
These candidates were selected from a pool of over 500 applicants and are spending two days of lecture, interviews, tours and hands-on examination at the school in hopes to join the program.
The program will accept nine students and focuses on training dentists from foreign dental programs who desire to have a United States dental degree from a CODA approved institutional program.
It includes a semester-long didactic and laboratory orientation to the dental school. The cohort will then enter the third-year dental class during the summer term and complete the Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) curriculum.
We’ve heard from our administration and our students and have seen the unveiling of new renderings, but as we countdown to the fall of 2026 and the opening of the new Healthcare Delivery and Innovation building, we continue to hear more insights from those actively involved in the planning of the project and the development of our future dental professionals – the faculty.
Dr. Cynthia Petrie, Professor and Chair, Department of Restorative Clinical Sciences, looks forward to aspects of the project that won’t just move from the current facility, but start fresh in the building, including the digital design studio.
“As the practice of dentistry continues to rapidly evolve and incorporate many new technologies, it’s been a challenge to appropriately modify our curriculum and patient care in the existing facility. The new building will include a digital design studio and will offer the latest technologies, resources, and materials to allow for both the education of our students and excellent patient care particularly in restorative dentistry, crowns, implants, bridges and dentures,” says Petrie, “It will be a state-of-the-art facility which has been designed for enhanced patient care and with plans for future growth.”
Dr. Rebeca Weisleder, pictured left, Clinical Professor and Chair, Department of Endodontics, emphasized the impact the project will have on all facets of the profession, from care to education.
“The new building will bring multitude benefits to the community we serve, the city of Kansas City and the state of Missouri. This state-of-the-art facility will allow students, faculty, staff and most importantly, patients, which will experience new technology, new advanced dental procedures, and techniques to provide the best care to conserve their natural teeth,” she says, “The urgent care clinic will allow the opportunity to serve all patients in their time of need and promote better dental health throughout the public. It will bring new jobs, new opportunities to excel but mostly, an environment of education, service and collaboration between other specialties and the commonality of Kansas City.”
Dr. Becky Smith , pictured left, Clinical Professor and Team 1 Leader, discussed the aesthetics of the building offering a positive and practical change.
“I am excited about having windows!” she says, “I know it sounds trivial, but they can improve our mental health and shade matching! I am also excited about more security and food/retailers being so close. Another feature I am looking forward to is that parking, will be closer and have a convenient patient drop-off area. The new building will help us be more efficient in the clinic and the design is very inviting for everyone. There are many aspects of the renderings I am excited about. The design and openness will allow easy flow of people throughout the building. We will have better security. Even the little things, like having an awning, will provide protection from the weather, when you walk out the door or wait for a ride.”
Dr. Solon Kao, Vice Chair and Associate Professor, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Hospital Dentistry says he’s very excited about the move.
“The new Healthcare Delivery building will offer efficient delivery of the highest level of urgent dental care in one centralized location,” he says.
To view building renderings and get more details on other units in the building, click here.
Members of the Cox lab represented the UMKC School of Dentistry’s Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences at the 46th Annual Meeting of the Society for Craniofacial Genetics & Developmental Biology, held at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center on October 10 – 12.
In attendance were: Shiva Daneshmehr, DDS, a current OCS PhD student; Andrea Osorio Osorno, DDS, a current PhD student at the Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia but currently working in the Cox lab under a 1 year visit; Andrés Mauricio Murillo, DDS, a visiting faculty member in the Cox lab from the Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia; Talia Thambyrajah, a first year dental student who worked in the Cox lab full time last year as a research assistant; Shivani Gargvanshi, PhD, a new postdoctoral fellow in the lab who completed her PhD at the UMKC School of Pharmacy; Soumya Rao, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Cox lab; Ryan Anderson, Research Associate; Liza Cox, PhD, Senior Research Associate; and Timothy Cox, PhD, Endowed Professor in Dental & Musculoskeletal Tissue Research.
Dr. Timothy Cox, a keynote speaker, presented: “Facing reality: the challenges of elucidating the genetics of common craniofacial anomalies”.
Talia Thambyrajah (left) and Shiva Daneshmehr (right) co-presented a poster: “The ontogeny of craniofacial microsomia in a mouse model”.
(Authors included: Shiva Daneshmehr, Talia Thambyrajah, Dr. Akiko Suzuki, Ryan Anderson, Dr. Andres Mauricio Murillo, James Cox, Esra Camci, Liza Cox and Timothy Cox.)
Pictured from left to right: Soumya Rao (poster presenter) Ryan Anderson and Shivani Gargvanshi, with poster titled: “Novel gene mutations discovered in new orofacial cleft syndromes”.
Authors: Soumya Rao, Alanna Strong, Liza Cox, Rolf Stottmann, Cynthia Prows, Laurie Seaver, George McGillivray, Michael Buckley, Tony Roscioli, Mathieu Tremblay, Maxime Bouchard and Timothy Cox.
Pictured from left to right: Andrés Mauricio Murillo, Andrea Osorio Osorno, Liza Cox, Ryan Anderson, Soumya Rao, Shengping Huang, Shiva Daneshmehr and Timothy Cox
Pictured from left to right: Ryan Anderson, Andrea Osorio Osorno, Liza Cox, Shivani Gargvanshi, Shiva Daneshmehr, Talia Thambyrajah, Soumya Rao and Andrés Mauricio Murillo.
Administrators, faculty, student and staff have all been actively involved in the planning and design of the new Healthcare Delivery and Innovation building, scheduled to open in fall of 2026. Now that we’ve had a peek at what the building will look like, we’ve asked to hear about the project from those directly involved in the process.
They’re looking forward to the future opportunities the building will bring, with Dr. Steven Haas, Dean of the UMKC School of Dentistry, describing the strategic planning that’s gone into the project over the last year.
Dean Steven Haas pictured at the Ovation for Healthcare Innovation Event.
“As we have been planning and designing this incredible project, we have never lost sight of our vision for the building. Our intent has always been to make the building a beacon of the Health Sciences District, designed holistically to be student and community centered,” says Haas, “This will be done through integrated experiences that advance healthcare by elevating innovation, thereby improving outcomes. The Healthcare Delivery and Innovation Building will be highly versatile and collaborative so that we can provide the best possible education to our students and be of the upmost service to our patients. Its unique design will allow it to be functional and adaptable, so we can continue to respond to the rapid changes we see in healthcare and will revolutionize our programs for the next 50 years and beyond.”
Dr. Lance Godley, Associate Dean of Clinical Programs says the building clinics and labs will enhance what is already one of the country’s best clinical dental education experiences.
Dr. Lance Godley, right, pictured with Jeff Primos, Assistant Dean of Business Affairs and Strategic Development, left, and Dr. Steven Haas, Dean, center, at the Ovation for Healthcare Innovation Event.
“The vision of the building design is to be flexible enough to accommodate new technologies and techniques that are not even conceived of yet for patient care,” says Godley, “It has also been designed to be more efficient and community-facing to serve our patients better. By combining these two elements, we have created a dental clinic for the future that will deliver person-centered care by affording people dignity, compassion, and respect and offering coordinated treatment and personalized care through new and developing technologies.”
Dr. Eric Gottman, Director of Clinical Operations noted the project comes at a perfect time as the school prioritizes keeping up with the fast pace of changing technology in dentistry.
Dr. Eric Gottman, right, pictured with Layne Konneman, dental student, at the Ovation for Healthcare Innovation Event.
“The new facility will not only allow us to apply digital technologies, but we will be able to enhance the overall patient experience and the dental care they receive in a warm, welcoming environment. By incorporating the School of Medicine and the Health Equity Institute, we will be able to better address the healthcare shortages and needs in our community,” says Gottman. “The integration of these programs within one building will provide substantial learning opportunities all our students and give them the tools necessary to become compassionate healthcare professionals in their communities.”
Dr. Liz Kaz, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, believes moving the predoctoral dental and dental hygiene clinical operation won’t only have an impact on learning, but ultimately on the patient care provided by the school.
Dr. Liz Kaz, right, pictured with Dr. Mary Walker, Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs, left, at the Ovation for Healthcare Innovation Event.
“Classroom and laboratory learning will be maximized in the building as students will have expanded and ease of access to advanced equipment and dental technologies planned for the dental clinics., ” says Kaz, “This will provide the perfect melding to prepare students to offer the highest quality dental care now and well into the future. This is truly a transformative experience for our students, patients, faculty, and staff!”
Tanya Villalpando Mitchell, Professor and Chair of the Division of Dental Hygiene, is looking forward to the doors this opens for both dental and dental hygiene students to be of service.
Tanya Villalpando Mitchell giving a presentation at the UMKC School of Dentistry.
“The new building will provide students the opportunity to learn in a progressive and innovative clinical environment while serving the residents of Kansas City and surrounding communities with excellent dental care,” says Mitchell, “The UMKC School of Dentistry will continue to serve the community, but in a new space where knowledge, training, and education will produce dentists and dental hygienists ready to enter the workforce as competent clinicians.”
Mitchell also says it’s exciting to finally be able to have a visual of what this project will look like.
“The new building has a modern look and will be a wonderful addition to the UMKC campus making the School of Dentistry visible and accessible to all seeking oral health care.”
Jeff Primos, Assistant Dean of Business Affairs and Strategic Development, believes the building will be a success in efficiency and aesthetics for both students and patients.
Jeff Primos, middle, pictured with dental students at the Ovation for Healthcare Innovation Event.
“Although our current building has served us well for 50 years, we’ve dedicated ourselves to the goal of efficiency in the space so that students won’t be competing with everyone in the clinic and patients won’t experience logjams,” says Primos.
“The design of the facility is so that students will be able to provide beginning-to-end care in a centralized location, rather than our current situation which, for example, has separate clinics for oral surgery, endodontics and emergency services all in different areas. With its predominantly glass design, the building will also boast much sought after natural light for student and patients to enjoy, yet still be energy efficient and employ redundancies modeled after hospitals.”
Our students, faculty and staff are just as amped up by the remarkable opportunity the new facility offers. Stay tuned for more thoughts from the UMKC School of Dentistry!
To view building renderings and get more details on other units in the building, click here.
The University of Missouri–Kansas City hosted an Ovation for Healthcare Innovation Event on October 17 to unveil their plans and new renderings for the highly-anticipated Healthcare Delivery and Innovation Building.
Students, faculty, staff, administration and community partners gathered at the Health Sciences Building on Hospital Hill for a morning of mingling, hands-on demonstrations at the student showcase and, of course, the reveal of the latest rendering of the building.
To kick off the presentation of the renderings, Nuhka Nguyen, a third year dental student, addressed the crowd, emphasizing her excitement as a student to make an impact on residents in Kansas City and the surrounding area in the new facility.
“It will be at the forefront of teledentistry,” said Nguyen, “Teledentistry is a technology that allows dentists to provide care to patients remotely. This is a huge breakthrough for underserved populations and individuals with disabilities who may not have access to traditional dental care.”
C. Mauli Agrawal, Chancellor of the University of Missouri–Kansas City, followed, highlighting the unique nature of the project.
“Our building will be one of a kind. We know of only one other combined medical and dental education building in the nation, and none other that will include what ours will: dedicated space for our Health Equity Institute, collaboration space for our Biomedical Engineering program and dedicated advancement of personalized medicine through the work of our Data Science Analytics and Innovation Center, also known as dSAIC.”
He continued by taking the crowd on what he playfully coined an “old-fashioned virtual tour,” describing the building floor by floor and each academic unit’s presence in the building. For dentistry, Chancellor Agrawal gave a glimpse into both patient and student life in the building.
“Patients will check in at our dedicated entrance on the second floor for oral surgeries, endodontics or emergency dental procedures,” he said, “Student teaching clinics, lockers, and labs will be on the third and fourth floors. A new digital design lab will give students a place to train on CAD software to scan and design crowns, bridges and implants and then either 3D-print or use milling machines to produce the dental prostheses. Our radiology and dental hygiene programs also will be located here.”
He pointed out the deliberately designed entrance for Dentistry, saying it is, “In part for ease of patient access, but also in anticipation of the future opening of an after-hours clinic to help Children’s Mercy and University Health handle dental crises that come in through their emergency rooms.”
The building will provide leading-edge pre-doctoral dental clinics and technology, enhancing our ability to graduate top-notch dentists and reach more patients than ever.
Renderings by Clark & Enersen of the UMKC Healthcare Delivery and Innovation Building
The University of Missouri-Kansas City at a Tuesday event revealed the design of its largest capital investment to date: the $120 million Healthcare Delivery and Innovation Building. UMKC expects to break ground next year on this new building, with key funding from the state of Missouri and visionary Kansas City donors coming together to support this cornerstone project that will launch a new era for the UMKC Health Sciences District and health-care access. The six-story 200,000-square-foot building will be constructed on what is now a parking lot at 25th and Charlotte streets. The project will enable the university to provide state-of-the-art education for the next generation of health-care providers, find newer and better ways to serve patients in need, strengthen collaborations with surrounding neighborhoods and facilitate greater interdisciplinary partnerships to fuel innovation and research.
“The new Healthcare Delivery and Innovation Building will be one of a kind,” said UMKC Chancellor Mauli Agrawal. “We know of only one other combined medical and dental education building in the nation, and none other that will include what ours will with a unique combination of collaborative programs focused on elevating health care.”
UMKC will house key assets in the building for the following programs:
UMKC School of Dentistry. UMKC is a regional leader in dental education with the only public dental school in the states of Missouri and Kansas. The new building will provide leading-edge pre-doctoral dental clinics, enhancing our ability to graduate top-notch dentists. The new space also means students can serve more patients in need through advanced equipment, greater efficiency, expanded hours for acute dental care and the ability to implement teledentistry. Currently, the School of Dentistry provides $750,000 annually in uncompensated dental care for the community. The new facility will house UMKC’s acute dental care programs – such as oral surgery, endodontics and emergency procedures – plus program space for radiology, lab work and a high-tech dental design lab to produce crowns, bridges and implants.
UMKC School of Medicine. UMKC has the highest-ranked public medical school in Missouri for primary care. The new facility will allow the School of Medicine to provide cutting-edge simulation labs, including dedicated space to practice essential medical procedures; a full-scale operating room and patient exam rooms to practice patient communication and care. The collaborative learning spaces for students encourage a culture of communication and better prepare them to work with colleagues in their professional lives.
UMKC Health Equity Institute. The institute brings together researchers, government and community organizations to improves the lives of the underserved and bridge health-care gaps. The institute combines its research strengths with community groups’ grassroots involvement to identify, quantify and reduce those gaps. In the new building, researchers will collaborate to tackle health disparities and provide access to health care with initiatives including Our Healthy Jackson County that brings free vaccines, health screenings and other resources into neighborhoods and places of worship. The institute’s new space will include a kitchen lab to teach healthy meal preparation.
UMKC biomedical engineering. In the new building, doctors, dentists and engineers will work side by side, creating faster, more effective collaboration between science, engineering and the medical world. Product development will accelerate in areas such as medical implants, imaging technology and surgery tools, and UMKC can expand access to the in-demand biomedical engineering degree program with potential global impact. On average, a single engineering position creates 1.5 staff jobs and brings 2.5 households to the Kansas City area, positively impacting Kansas City’s economy.
Data Science and Analytics Innovation Center. In partnership with MU and other University of Missouri System universities, UMKC leads a center focused on creating new advances in data sciences and analytics. The new space in the building will provide the center opportunities to focus the power of data science on transforming the way we personalize health care. The data center within the new facility will provide high-performance computing for industry, government and nonprofit organizations within our region to solve data-intensive computing problems.
University Health. Our clinical partner will occupy two floors of the new building for office space.
The project is close to being fully funded:
Included in the last two budgets from Governor Mike Parson and passed by the Missouri General Assembly, the state of Missouri has committed $60 million,
UMKC Student National Dental Association/Hispanic Student Dental Association (SNDA/HSDA) and AWD (Association of Women Dentists) joined together to put on a “Pink Out” day, encouraging all faculty, staff and students to wear their best pink attire. From the classrooms to the clinic, pink lined the hallways in shirts, scarves, bracelets and more.
Throughout the week, the student organizations shared facts about breast cancer to raise awareness, and over the lunch hour on Friday, October 13, participants got together to join in on some tasty pink treats and take a group photo.
The Office of Academic Affairs is pleased to announce the approval of the long-awaited Advanced Standing International Dental Program from the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA).
This program will accept nine students and focuses on training dentists from foreign dental programs who desire to have a United States dental degree from a CODA approved institutional program. It includes a semester-long didactic and laboratory orientation to the dental school. The cohort will then enter the third-year dental class during the summer term and complete the Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) curriculum.
Applications are being accepted through the ADEA Centralized Application for Advanced Placement for International Dentists (ADEA CAAPID), and the program is slated to begin in January 2024.
Dr. Gustavo Leal, Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Restorative Clinical Sciences, will act as Interim Director.
The dental school hosted 32 prospective students on Friday, September 29 for a showcase day, where attendees were able to meet each other and learn more about what their dental school experience would look like. Attendees came from far and wide, including Hawaii and Kuwait.
After being introduced to faculty, staff and the dean, attendees were led on a tour of the school. Although these students would have their clinical experiences in the new Healthcare Delivery and Innovation Building, which is currently in final planning stages, the current building will still house many key operations. Following the tour, attendees went to a “Class 1 Prep” activity, where they were led through an operative experience to show the students what they can expect during their first two years of dental school.
Attendees were invited for a social gathering at Vested Coffee and tours of the Beacon Hill Apartments near campus after an informative day at the school.
This year’s JayDoc Memorial 5K took place on September 16 at Shawnee Mission Park. The run directly benefits the JayDoc Free Clinic, located at 340 Southwest Blvd and provides medical and dental care for the uninsured and underinsured population of Kansas City.
The clinic operates on the help of both student and physician/dentist volunteers and is funded entirely through donations and grants. This 5k is one of the many efforts to raise funds so that the clinic can afford lab testing, medications, and supplies.
The school has a long history with the JayDoc clinic, and is involved in multiple events, including a “pediatric night” of free dental care, where ten dental students in conjunction with pediatric faculty supervisors provided free dental care to 10 children who presented for care at the evening clinic.
This year’s event was in honor of Caroline Trupp. Caroline was a rising second-year medical student who was passionate about giving to the underserved and the JayDoc Free Clinic. She was also an enthusiastic runner and thus, it is with a heavy heart and great sense of purpose the JayDoc Memorial 5K was named in her honor.
