Diaz named fellow for SUNY Hispanic Leadership Institute

Patricia Diaz, Sunstar Robert J. Genco Endowed Chair in the School of Dental Medicine, is one of 11 fellows selected for SUNY’s 2024 Hispanic Leadership Institute (HLI) class.

SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. recently announced the 11 emerging Hispanic/Latinx leaders and allies selected for this year’s class, which is the seventh since the program’s inception in 2017.

“By working to increase Hispanic and ally representation in leadership positions, the HLI provides its fellows with the skills needed to ensure they are represented at the decision-making table and know they’ll be valued and supported throughout their careers at SUNY,” King said. “These 11 individuals are role models to colleagues and students, and we congratulate them as they start their HLI journey.”

Thanks to generous support from New York State and the State Assembly’s Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force, SUNY’s Hispanic Leadership Institute bolsters Hispanic/Latinx leaders and allies through rigorous executive training and provides a network to grow in their positions. The fellows, who hold faculty and staff positions at SUNY community colleges, four-year colleges and universities, will begin their work in January. Diaz is the only fellow from UB chosen for the class of 2024.

Diaz, who joined UB in 2020, also serves as director of its Microbiome Center. In early November, she was appointed the Sunstar Robert J. Genco Endowed Chair. She was the first faculty member to be appointed to the $1 million endowed chair, which honors Robert Genco, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Oral Biology, Periodontics and Microbiology, and founder of the Microbiome Center. He passed away in March 2019.

“Dr. Diaz has proven her prowess as a researcher and academic leader in just a few short years at UB,” says Marcelo Araujo, dean of the School of Dental Medicine. “It is no surprise that she was chosen as a fellow for the prestigious Hispanic Leadership Institute. I know she will represent UB and the School of Dental Medicine extraordinarily well.”

Diaz earned her DDS from CES University in Colombia, her PhD from the University of Adelaide and her MS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she also completed her residency in periodontology. A leader in the study of microbiomes, Diaz aims to understand community dynamics and develop tools to manipulate the microbiome to stop development of periodontal disease.

Diaz is the fifth UB faculty member to be named an HLI fellow. Previous UB fellows are Oscar Gomez Duarte, Department of Pediatrics, and Justin Reed, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, both in 2019; and Yoly Golzalez-Stucker, Department of Oral Diagnostic Sciences, and Dalia Antonia Caraballo Muller, Department of History, both in 2020.