Dr. Cecile A. Feldman Installed as Chair-elect of the ADEA Board of Directors

Dean Cecile A. Feldman

Rutgers School of Dental Medicine Dean Cecile A. Feldman was installed as Chair-elect of the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Board of Directors, a role that will allow her to help shape the future of dentistry.

“I am extremely honored,’’ Dean Feldman said today. “Today, the opportunities facing our dental education institutions are boundless. New knowledge, new science, new therapeutics and collaborations with other health professions are making the here and now one of the most exciting of times. There are, however, considerable challenges that I firmly believe can be overcome with a strong organization that supports academic dental institutions nationwide and serves as a passionate, effective advocate for dental education.”

ADEA represents all 76 dental schools in the United States and Canada, over 800 allied and advanced education programs, 65 corporations and more than 20,000 individual members.

“Cecile Feldman is exactly the kind of leader we need in this new world of collaboration,” said Richard W. Valachovic, D.M.D., M.P.H., President and CEO of ADEA. “She knows how to bring people together for a common cause, and our work to drive interprofessional education will invariably be stronger because she is with us.”

As Chair-elect, Dean Feldman said she will focus on the best ways for dental education to adapt to a rapidly-changing higher education and health care environment. She stressed the importance of ADEA’s advocacy role, which can raise public awareness of dentistry as a critical component of health care. ADEA is the voice for education’s role in the future of the dental professions, and in the ways various health professions are educated together,” she said.

“What will dentistry be like in 2050?’’ asked Dean Feldman, who has been dean of the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine, formerly New Jersey Dental School, since 1999. “ADEA serves as a think tank, exploring options and developing initiatives to create our future.”

Dean Feldman earned her DMD and a certificate in advanced general dentistry, both from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. She also completed an MBA in Health Care Administration from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Her career has included service for the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education; the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority; National Institute of Health Council of Councils and the National Advisory Dental and Craniofacial Research Council. She also held leadership roles as co-chair of the American Dental Association’s Education Committee.

From 2013-14, Dean Feldman served as ADEA Board Director for Deans. She will remain in her new role as Chair-elect of the ADEA Board of Directors through March of 2016, when she will succeed Huw F. Thomas, B.D.S., M.S., Ph.D., as Chair of the ADEA Board of Directors.

“My experiences as a faculty member and mentor for the ADEA Leadership Institute have been particularly rewarding and important,’’ she said. “The future of our profession lies with the next generation of dental education leaders. I have been honored to work over the years with absolutely outstanding fellows and thus I am confident that our future is very bright.”