The UF College of Dentistry announced Dr. Isabel Garcia as its new dean Monday.
Garcia will head the college in February and will be the seventh permanent dean of the college.
“The college is recognized as a national leader, and so there’s the potential to build on a tremendous legacy,” Garcia said.
Garcia has served as the deputy director of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research in Maryland since 2007 and has worked with the institute since 1995.
She has helped oversee the institute’s $400 million budget and staff of more than 400 scientists and administrators. She said her experience in leading and managing a large, complex organization will make her a good fit as dean of the college.
“The main difference is that where I work now, we are focusing on the education and training of researchers,” Garcia said, “and one of the college’s missions is the development and training of future oral health providers.”
Garcia was selected out of more than 50 applicants after a nationwide search by UF. The search began in December after the previous dean, Dr. Teresa A. Dolan, stepped down in the Spring of 2013.
Dr. Robert Burne, who was on the search committee, said Garcia was recommended from a highly competitive list of national and international applicants.
“She’s an exceptional individual,” Burne said, “and she’s trained as a dentist, so she has a very good understanding of what it means to be a dentist.”
Burne, the chair of the UF department of oral biology and associate dean for research, said the committee had to reopen the search in March after it chose four out of about 40 applicants, none of whom were selected.
Garcia was then selected to head the college by UF Health President David Guzick.
Garcia, a graduate from Virginia Commonwealth University and University of Michigan, has received awards including the National Institutes of Health Director’s Award for Mentoring and the U.S. Public Health Service Jack D. Robertson Award for outstanding long-term dedication and service to improve the nation’s oral health.
“The college and university as a whole is known to be highly collaborative and so there are lots of partnerships existing across the colleges, centers and institutes,” Garcia said, “and obviously I’m interested in these opportunities and how I can help to expand them.”
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 9/16/2014 under the headline "UF College of Dentistry welcomes new dean "]
