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CDM meeting, a forum to address diversity by Cindy Abole Public Relation With the arrival of July and the mid-point of summer also comes the annual gathering of a group of campus leaders, dental medicine faculty and statewide professionals. These men and women have discussed plans and evaluated ideas regarding improvements in minority recruitment at the college. Members of the College of Dental Medicine’s Dean’s Advisory Council on Diversity met on July 13 to discuss plans and directives for recruitment and the future of dentistry in SC. Pictured (right to left): Dr. Lazetta Giles-Williams, Dr. David Mishkin, Dr. Steve London, Dr. Karen Johnson,  Dr. Sabra Slaughter, Dr. Gwendolyn Brown, Jenny Commins, Dr. Tariq Javed, Dr. George McTeer and Dr. Larry Ferguson.  This meeting marks the third summer that College of Dental Medicine diversity director Gwendolyn Brown, DMD, has organized such a campaign and gathering for the college. It's a project whose efforts are endorsed and embraced at the highest levels by Dental Medicine Dean Richard DeChamplain, DMD, MUSC President Ray Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., and others. “Dr. Brown has done an excellent job in cultivating a positive relationship in her roles as diversity director, private practitioner and dental alumnus,” said Tariq Javed, DMD, associate dean for academic and student affairs at the college. “She conveys a balanced approach and openness to help communicate the needs and concerns shared by the university, members of the diversity council and our minority students.”  The mid-July meeting gathered a mix of dental medicine faculty and campus leaders including Vice President and Provost Rosalie Crouch, Ph.D., and Executive Staff Director Sabra Slaughter, Ph.D., along with about a dozen dental medicine alumni and minority professionals. For Brown, it is their commitment that provides an important perspective to the program.  “What we discuss and plan does not only affect minority recruitment within the college but affects the school’s social and academic environment and the comfortable level students feel in such a setting,” said Karen E. Johnson, DDS, a Charleston periodontist and part-time periodontics instructor who is a member of the group. Johnson became the first African American female dentist to matriculate through the school’s graduate periodontics program. She was also Brown’s predecessor serving as the college's first diversity coordinator from 1993 to 1995. The college's diversity efforts have also expanded statewide to include interaction with the South Carolina Dental Association (SCDA). Brown is a member of the SCDA’s membership committee on diversity. Just this year, she was instrumental in expanding statewide outreach efforts featuring visits by minority dentists, dental hygienists and assistants into classrooms to increase dentistry awareness.  According to information provided by the SCDA and S.C. Office of Research and Statistics, a notable disparity exists with the number of African American dentists practicing within the Palmetto State. Just this year, the SCDA reported that of the state’s 1, 615  practicing and licensed dentists, only 100 are black. Additional information compared the ratio between black dentists and the general S.C. population as 1 in 41,000. Among dentists and black South Carolinians, the ratio falls to 1 in 11,852 people.  “What we're trying to accomplish is to strengthen the image of black professional practicing around the state, especially in black communities,” Brown said.  Also discussed at the meeting were methods used for tracking qualified minority applicants, the status of minority scholarships like the Dr. George C. McTeer Sr. scholarship and other financial aid, plus the future of summer programs. Newcomer and CDM Development Director Jenny Commins reviewed the status for the college’s new $10 million, 100,000-plus square foot clinical education facility known as the James B. Edwards College of Dental Medicine.