Cecile Feldman, DMD, MBA, was approved as the new dean of UMDNJ-New Jersey Dental School (NJDS) by the University’s Board of Trustees on February 20, 2001. She served as acting, then interim dean of the school since early 1999.

A 1984 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Dental Medicine, Feldman earned a certificate in advanced general dentistry from that school in 1985,and went on to receive an MBA in health care administration from The Wharton School. She came to NJDS as a clinical assistant professor in 1988, rising to her present rank of professor in the Department of General Dentistry and Community Health in 1998.

Feldman’s accomplishments during the past four years include: design of the e-curriculum, a network of educational resources that provide students with instant access to information; revamping the clinical management information system; increasing research and clinical revenues; strengthening ties to surrounding communities, particularly in Newark and Atlantic and Camden counties; and expanding the dental school’s involvement in oral health education and prevention programs such as New Jersey Special Olympics and the Liberty Science Center. In 1998, as chair of the Accreditation Steering Committee, she led the predoctoral and postdoctoral programs of the school in a successful site visit (no recommendations for improvement) from the Commission on Dental Education. NJDS was the second school in the Commission’s history to claim such a unique distinction. She is currently a consultant to the commission.

She has been principal investigator or co-investigator on 17 grants, and primary and co-author of 90 articles, abstracts, book chapters and audiovisual and software programs. Her areas of expertise include quality assurance, outcomes assessment, health informatics, health services research and health professions education. She is an adjunct professor in the Department of Dental Care Systems at the University of Pennsylvania, a senior adjunct fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics in The Wharton School, and was a 1999-2000 Leadership Institute Fellow for the American Dental Education Association.