Dentistry Dean Timothy L. Hottel Moves to New Role as Director of Statewide Oral Health Initiatives for UTHSC
The College of Dentistry at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center has received full reaccreditation from the Commission on Dental Accreditation of the American Dental Association, the nation’s largest dental association. The major programs in Dentistry and Dental Hygiene were reaccredited without any recommendations, and the entire portfolio of advanced residency training programs received only a single recommendation.
This significant achievement was accomplished under the direction of Timothy L. Hottel, DDS, MS, MBA, who served as dean of the college for eight years. The reaccreditation designation, which lasts for seven years, comes after a rigorous process that included review of the curriculum, site visits, and interviews with patients, faculty, staff, and students.
The reaccreditation coincides with Dr. Hottel’s decision to move to a new role at the university as Director of Statewide Oral Health Initiatives in the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor. This new position allows Dr. Hottel to focus on fully developing the oral health initiatives of the university across Tennessee. The College of Dentistry maintains clinics across the state in Memphis, Jackson, Union City, Chattanooga, and Bristol, with new sites under development in Nashville and Knoxville.
Dr. Hottel’s new role includes supporting and developing the emerging Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD), or residency program, in the Saint Thomas Health System in Nashville. It also entails continuing the growth of the college’s distance clinical program in Chattanooga; supporting the development of the forensic dentistry fellowship; and assisting the campus and the college with the design and construction process for the new Delta Dental College of Dentistry Building planned as a second dentistry facility on the Memphis campus.
UTHSC’s Chancellor Steve J. Schwab, MD, expressed his appreciation for the many years of Dr. Hottel’s successful service as the dean of the College of Dentistry, as well as for his willingness to focus on the development of the university’s statewide initiatives.
Dr. Schwab has charged a committee to begin the search for a new dean for the College of Dentistry. Marie Chisholm-Burns, PharmD, MPH, MBA, FCCP, FASHP, FAST, dean of the College of Pharmacy, and Anthony A. Ferrara, vice chancellor for Finance and Operations for UTHSC, will co-chair the committee. The membership of the committee will be announced this week. J. S. Covington, DDS, MS, the associate dean for Admissions and Student Affairs, will serve as the interim dean of the college until a new dean is selected.
UTHSC’s College of Dentistry is the oldest dental college in the South, and the third-oldest public college of dentistry in the United States. It educates more than 70 percent of the dentists in Tennessee, and roughly half of the dentists in Arkansas.