New Faculty

 

Dr. Thikriat Al-Jewair has joined the faculty as an associate professor and director of the Advanced Education Program in Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics. She served in a similar role at the State University of New York at Buffalo before joining UMKC. Dr. Al-Jewair earned a BDS degree (’03) from King Saud University, an MSc in dental public health (’09) from the University of Toronto and a certificate and MS in orthodontics (’12) from the University at Buffalo.

 

 

 

 

Dr. Ed Cantrell (DDS ’89) has joined the faculty as a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Restorative Clinical Sciences.  Dr. Cantrell graduated from Kansas Sate University, holds a DDS degree from UMKC and was in private practice in Olathe, Kansas, for nearly 30 years. He taught part time at the School of Dentistry several years before joining the faculty full time.

 

 

 

Dr. Timothy C. Cox has joined the faculty as a professor and the Endowed Chair in Mineralized Tissue Research in the Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences. Dr. Cox earned his BS (’89), BS [Honors] (’90) and PhD (’94) from the University of Adelaide, Australia. He was previously a professor and endowed chair at the University of Washington.

 

 

 

 

Dr. Paul Hansen has joined the faculty as a clinical professor and assistant director of the AEGD program.  Dr. Hansen received his DDS (’75) from the University of Nebraska and a certificate in prosthodontics (’84) at Wilford Hall Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Hansen directed the Graduate Program in Prosthodontics at the UMKC School of Dentistry from 1995 to 2002.  He spent the past 12 years teaching at the University of Nebraska.

 

 

 

Dr. Solon Kao has joined the faculty as a vice chair and associate professor in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Hospital Dentistry.  Dr. Kao earned his BE in biomedical engineering from Vanderbilt University (’94) and his DDS degree from the University of Tennessee, Memphis (’98). He received his OMS training at Medical College of Georgia (’05) and earned American Board of OMS (ABOMS) certification (’07).  He had been a pre-doctoral OMS director and fulltime faculty at Augusta University since 2005 before joining UMKC.

 

 

Dr. Stefan Lohfeld has joined the faculty as an assistant professor in the Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences. Dr. Lohfeld earned his MS in 1998 from the University of Bremen, Germany, and his PhD in 2004 from the RWTH Aachen University, Germany. He worked at the National University of Ireland Galway from 2002 until joining UMKC.

 

 

 

 

Dr. Aparna Naidu has joined the fac­ulty as a clinical associate professor in the Department of Oral Pathology, Radiol­ogy and Medicine. Dr. Naidu earned her DDS (’01) from Northwestern Univer­sity Dental School and her MS in biomed­ical sciences (’06) and certificate in oral and maxillofacial pathology (’06) from Baylor College of Dentistry – Texas A&M University.

 

 

 

Dr. Tiffany Tavares joined the faculty as a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Oral Pathology, Radiology and Medicine. She earned her DDS from the Universidade Federal Fluminense in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2013 and completed her oral medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard School of Dental Medicine this year. Tavares is a member of the American Academy of Oral Medicine and a diplomate of the American Board of Oral Medicine. Her academic interests are in oral mucosal diseases, oral potentially malignant disorders and oral oncology.