Biography

I am a graduate of University of Pennsylvania (BA), Harvard School of Dental Medicine(DMD) and  University of California Los Angeles (MPH).   Subsequently I completed a General Practice residency at Montefiore Medical Center in NY and a Dental Public Health residency at the University of California San Francisco, and in 1994 became board certified in Dental Public Health.
I have been a residency director in general practice dentistry and a site director in the NYS –DOH  sponsored dental public residency. I have served for many years as a site visitor for residency evaluation for the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) of the American Dental Association and have served on the review council at CODA.
Currently, I am the Department Chairman of Dentistry/ Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the North Bronx Health Care Network (NBHN), a network of the Health and Hospital Corporation (HHC) in NYC as well as President of the Council of Dental Chairmen at HHC. During the past four yearsI have been elected and served as the President of the Medical Board at NBHN. I hold Associate Professor, faculty appointments at the Columbia School of Dental Medicine, Dept. of Community Health, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine Dept. of Dentistry. 
In 2006, I received Silver Anniversary Award for the Class of 1981 Graduate of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine who contributed most to society, the profession and the school, in honor of the contribution I have made to increase access to care for underserved populations, especially HIV infected individuals. In 2008, I was selected as the Jacobi Medical Center Honoree for the New York City “Doctor’s Day” Award (2008).
I have recently completed a certificate program in Medical Bioethics at the Albert eisntein College of Medicine (2013) and most recently an immersion program at the Institute of Health Improvement in Cambridge, Ma (2015).
My research, grants and publications relate to access to appropriate oral health services.  In particular, I have published and received grants for assessing and improving oral health services to HIV infected patients and underserved populations. Most recently, I am the author of a chapter entitled Oral Complications of Pregnancy, in  Cherry and Merkatz's Complications of Pregnancy.

Lastly, throughout my career I have also enjoyed and maintained an active general dental practice and have supervised residents performing clinical dental care.