Faculty and Staff Accomplishments

Christina Baker (DH ’13) was elected vice president of the Supreme (National) Chapter of Sigma Phi Alpha National Dental Hygiene Honor Society.

Profs. Christina Baker (DH ’13) and Tanya Mitchell (DH ’95, MS ’01) presented a poster, “Student and Faculty Perceptions of a Virtual Clinic – Progressing Students’ Clinical Skills During a Pandemic,” at the virtual ADEA Allied Program Directors Conference.

Richie Bigham, assistant dean for student programs, was recently elected to a three-year term as Councilor for the ADEA Section for Dental School Admissions Officers.

Dr. Tim Cox, professor, Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, was an author, with others, on two articles:
A dyadic approach to the delineation of diagnostic entities in clinical genomics. American Journal of Human Genetics 108(1): 8-15. doi.org/10.1016/j. ajhg.2020.11.013. A GWAS in Latin Americans identifies novel face shape loci, implicating VPS13B and a Denisovan introgressed region in facial variation. Science Advances. Online ahead of print. Feb 5, 2021. 10.1126/sciadv.abc6160.

Dr. Timothy Cox, professor and endowed chair in Dental & Mineralized Tissue Research, Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, is an author on four publications:
Nature: Microcomputed tomography of craniofacial mineralized tissue: A practical user’s guide to study planning and generating quality data. Cox, T.C. (2020). BONE (Invited review) doi: 10.1016/j. bone.
Effects of multi-generational soft diet consumption on mouse craniofacial morphology. Hassan, M.G., Kaler, H., Zhang, B., Cox, T.C., Young, N. & Jheon, A.H. (2020)
Frontiers in Physiology (Craniofacial Biology & Dental Research). doi: 10.3389/ fphys.2020.00783. A synonymous exonic splice silencer variant in IRF6 as a novel and cryptic cause of non-syndromic cleft lip and palate. Sylvester, B., Brindopke, F… Cox, T.C…(9 authors contributed equally) (2020)
Genes (Special Issue: Molecular Genetics of Facial Traits & Malformations) doi:10.3390/genes11080903a. A survey of spiking activity reveals a functional hierarchy of mouse cortical and thalamic visual. Siegle, J.H…Cox, T.C…(90 authors contributed equally) (2020). Nature (accepted Aug. 31, 2020).

Dr. Sarah Dallas, professor, Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences was named a Distinguished Curators’ Professor.

Dr. Kenneth Frick (DDS ’86), director of the Advanced Education Program in Endodontics, is the president of the College of Diplomates of the American Board of Endodontics, and the chair of the American Association of Endodontists Standing Committee on Membership Services, a two-year position. Dr. Frick also continues as a consultant to the Commission on Dental Accreditation, conducting site visits for Advanced Education Programs going under accreditation review.

Dr. SOUMYA RAO, postdoctoral fellow attended the 61st McKusick Short Course on
Human and Mammalian Genetics and Genomics, which this year was held virtually July 20-30, 2020.

Dr. Li Qin Zhang, research associate, joined the Cox Lab on Sept. 1. She was previously an NTT research associate professor in the School of Medicine.

Dr. Lorie Holt (DH ’93, MS ’97, PhD ’20), associate professor and director of the Degree Completion Program, and Associate Prof. Tanya Mitchell (DH ’95, MS ’01), director, both of the Division of Dental Hygiene, presented “We Can Change: Rethinking e-Portfolios in Assessing Student Competencies” at the virtual ADEA Annual Session in March 2021.

Dr. Jean-Marc Retrouvey, professor and chair, Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, is among the authors of a book, 3D Diagnosis and Treatment Planning in Orthodontics, a first on the subject.

Dr. Melanie Simmer-Beck (DH ’94, MS ’04, PhD ’13), professor and chair, Department of Dental Public Health and Behavioral Science, has been named a Missouri State Champion for the 100 Million Mouths project.

• Asst. Prof. Julie Sutton, Division of Dental Hygiene, received the UMKC Chancellor’s Award for Community Engagement.

Dr. Rebeca Weisleder, chair, Department of Endodontics, has been elected as secretary for the ADEA Section on Endodontics for the 2021-2022 term. The secretary assumes the roles of chair-elect and chair in the following years.

Dr. Doug Pearson (DDS ’77), Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Restorative Clinical Sciences-Faculty Award Winner

Tanya Villalpando Mitchell (DH ˇ95, MS ˇ01), RDH, MS, professor and director of Graduate Studies, Division of Dental Hygiene, has been appointed to a two year term as the Chair of the Division of Dental Hygiene

Dr. Bhavika Thakkar, clinical associate professor, Department of Restorative Clinical Sciences, has been appointed interim assistant director of the Advanced Education in General Dentistry program.

Dr. R. Scott Conley, associate professor, Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, has been appointed director of the Advanced Education in Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics Program.

Dr. Carol McArthur is a researcher and one of the authors of the findings published yesterday in an article, “A high prevalence of potential HIV elite controllers identified over 30 years in Democratic Republic of Congo”, published in EBioMedicine, part of The Lancet family of medical publications.

Dr. Melanie Simmer-Beck, Chair & Professor, Department of Dental Public Health and Behavioral Science, for her appointment as the Missouri State Champion for the 100 Million Mouths Campaign https://cipcoh.hsdm.harvard.edu/current-oral-health-champions to serve as a resource and advocate to promote integration of oral health education in health profession school curriculums. Missouri was one of six states selected in the U.S. for this project

Erin Bumann, D.D.S., Ph.D., M.S., associate professor and JoAnna Scott, PhD, assistant professor. Published June 8 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The article is titled “Early life stress is associated with earlier emergence of permanent molars”