Araujo reflects on first 18 months as dental school dean

UB signifies home. When I had a chance to return to UB in a leadership position, I didn’t think twice. Serving as the dean was the opportunity of a lifetime. I saw it as a chance to do something very important.

I originally decided to be a periodontist. In the 1990s, you couldn’t talk about periodontics and not talk about UB. It was the center of periodontics research in the world and continues to be today. Although my master’s degree had nothing to do with periodontics, coming to UB provided the chance to meet my idols — individuals I read about in my textbooks and published literature — while I pursued my master’s and PhD.

My work in industry and organized dentistry have given me a broad perspective of what the profession needs, including governance, industry training and incorporating strategies from corporate America.

I also attended the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where I earned an executive scholar certificate in nonprofit management. This, coupled with the leadership positions I’ve held in the dental field, prepared me for this role.

Being able to launch a strategic plan and set a roadmap for the dental school’s future and what our focus will be over the next five years. This has been a yearlong, thought-provoking process that has involved all parts of the dental community — faculty, staff, students and residents. We have very specific goals. Some are short-term; some will take five years. In the end, we hope to move into a more proactive mode in order to best educate our students and best serve our patients in the community.

The strategic plan has four pillars: people, innovation, education and community, which altogether will allow us to achieve our goals.

We’re focusing on people and listening to what they need. They are the foundation of everything we do, and they will continue to be involved in what we are doing moving forward. For instance, we’re looking to make changes to the curriculum and to the residency program to optimize the academic experience and incorporate innovation in oral health education.

When we talk about innovation, we don’t just mean research but also how we teach. We plan to invest in our future by bringing innovators onto the faculty. They will lead the transformation of teaching modalities and integration of advancements in digital dentistry at the school, which will benefit both our students and patients.

The four pillars will help us continue to be a top dental school globally and support UB’s goal to be among the top 25 public research universities in the country. Everything in the strategic plan ties to President Satish Tripathi’s vision for the university.

Investing in people and providing them with opportunities. One of the goals is to recruit and retain top faculty and staff. We also want our students to graduate into fulfilling careers or continue to pursue additional education that will make them more attractive to prospective employers.

Faculty recruitment. We are one of 75 accredited dental schools in the country, and there are many open positions. We want to make sure we attract the best educators, clinicians and researchers. And we are. Since 2023, we’ve hired 33 faculty, between full- and part-time, both in tenure and clinical-track positions, with more anticipated to join us in the coming months.

People are watching what Buffalo is doing because we’ve been very successful. We measure this based upon the number of applicants we get for every open position. We are able to choose from a select group of excellent national and global candidates, and I expect this will only increase over the next two to five years with the adoption of our strategic plan. We want to expand internationally and help grow the school and university.

Because it’s harder to get funding for research than it once was, we also need to attract faculty who have their own funding. This fall, we’ve hired four new faculty in the Department of Oral Biology, three of whom have funding coming with them and one of whom has extensive craniofacial research experience.

Part of what I’ve learned in leadership is how to be creative and use existing resources to see where people can be most effective. This will help us meet our goals in the future.

We need to understand the needs of the profession, and train and retrain faculty and staff to meet those needs. We are very proud to have an evidence-based curriculum. We’re also implementing artificial intelligence in teaching and research, including my own research. Going forward, we want to make sure we’re innovating not just the clinical structure, but also the equipment to give students access to modern technologies they will encounter in real-world settings.

Our ultimate goal is to provide the best dental treatment for the Western New York community. Buffalo needs a lot more attention when it comes to oral health. I’m proud to note that 83% of this first-year class is from New York State. That is the largest percentage we’ve seen in the last five years. In addition, all four classes in the dental school are extremely diverse. We want to make sure we are educating providers who look like the people they are treating.

I’m hoping to continue to make the dental school more patient-focused. I also want to ensure our school supports the goals of the university in terms of health care and health science, not only in research but also in clinical care. We will be major contributors to the “Top 25” goal set by President Tripathi.

Finally, I want focus on the importance of the UB dental school being recognized in the United States and internationally. We have a proud alumni base working throughout the world. We want to ensure they continue to be proud of their alma mater and the big wins we are bringing to the school.