Spring 2013 - Tufts University School of Dental Medicine

on campus
knew he was good at science and math, but
his undeveloped English skills hid what he
was capable of. Being a social worker, his
mother knew to tap into the support systems
available. She signed him up for Big
Brothers, the Boy Scouts, soccer leagues
and a program called Summerbridge
(now Breakthrough Cambridge), where
high school and college student volunteers
helped him improve his English and
his study skills. His middle school grades
improved so much that he was accepted to a
private high school, Noble and Greenough.
He still struggled with English, and he
had an hour-and-a-half commute each
morning, but in the end, he graduated
with honors, winning the most-improved
student award.
“Danny is goal-oriented,” says his
mother. Whether it was getting into a private
school or becoming an Eagle Scout,
“he wanted to really succeed in whatever
he did.”
While Gonzalez was in high school, his
father joined his family in Cambridge and
took a position as a dispensary assistant in
the oral surgery clinic at Tufts School of
Dental Medicine. He had practiced dentistry
for 25 years in Colombia, and hoped
to go back to dental school for the degree he
would need to practice in the United States.
But that would mean loans and debt.
He knew that his sons would be applying
to college soon. After much thinking,
Guillermo made a decision: he would retire
from dental practice and help support his
family so his sons could have a good start
on their own careers.
So with help from his family—not to
mention several part-time jobs of his own—
Danny Gonzalez attended the College of
the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.
“I didn’t know exactly what I wanted
to do,” he says. “With my dad when I
was little, I was in his dental office many
times. I knew it was a great profession;
you had a lot of autonomy. But medicine
was also a little intriguing.” His
grandfather had been a neurologist, and
Gonzalez had gone with him when he visited
patients in the Colombian countryside.
“I was a little undecided, like most
college students,” he says.
The two years after graduation would
help guide him. He took a job at the Dana
Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, where
he was involved in several cancer therapy
research projects. He worked closely with
a dentist who treated patients with head
and neck cancer, and saw how vital dentistry
was during treatment.
“I was able to meet with patients, and
they said one of their biggest complaints
was losing their teeth while undergoing
their therapy,” Gonzalez says, explaining
that patients might lose the ability to produce
saliva because of radiation or multiple
chemotherapy drugs, and their teeth
would begin to decalcify. “Not only is it an
important medical component to be able
to chew and eat food, but socially and psychologically,
to be able to smile and display
your teeth to other people was very important
for the patients.”
Gonzalez started to think seriously
about dentistry. He talked to his dad (who
tried to stay objective), but also other dentists.
He shadowed faculty in the Tufts
dental clinics and did research under the
guidance of Aidee Herman, associate clinical
professor of periodontology.
By the time he was accepted into the
Tufts Dental class of 2015, Gonzalez was
already a familiar face at One Kneeland
Street. He has since become president-elect
of the Tufts student chapter of the national
Hispanic Dental Association, participated
on the school’s admissions committee and
organized a school soccer team.
Guillermo feels only pride at what his
son has accomplished and doesn’t mind
being a retired dentist. “I have no regret
about my decision,” he says. He is now a
case manager for Somerville-Cambridge
Elder Services. “I love what I am doing
right now. I love my elders.”
Of course, should his son need help
studying for a perio exam, he always
makes himself available to, say, explain the
boundaries of a free gingival margin and
biological width. “I have another resource
whenever I don’t understand something,”
Gonzalez says of his father. “He’s been a
great help.”
Julie Flaherty, a senior health sciences writer
in Tufts’ Office of Publications, can be
reached at julie.flaherty@tufts.edu.
2020 Vision
Strategic planning initiative
charts a course for the dental
school by Helene Ragovin
for the past year, tufts school of dental
Medicine has been looking ahead, developing
a strategic plan, known as 2020
Vision!, which will chart a future direction
for the school. A 14-member committee
of faculty and staff from across
the school—basic science, preclinical and
clinical—along with a student from the
class of 2014, has been gathering information
and soliciting feedback from those
who work and study at One Kneeland
Street, as well as alumni and leaders in
oral health care and policy.
The Tufts Dental community has been
eager to respond: More than 500 people
have participated in the process in some
way. From this feedback, the committee
will develop a series of short- and longterm
recommendations.
Along with the school’s strategic
plan, several working groups have been
involved in a curriculum revision project,
looking at how to integrate the basic
and clinical sciences, how to use more
technology for teaching and learning and
how to get students involved in clinical
care earlier in their training, says Nadeem
Karimbux, associate dean for academic
affairs. Although revision of the curriculum
has already started in some areas, the
new 2020 Tufts Oral Health Curriculum
will be fully implemented in the 2014-15
academic year.
Those leading the strategic-planning
process say inclusiveness has been paramount.
“Whatever we do, we like to be
transparent and to make sure that everybody
understands what we are doing,”
says Roya Zandparsa, clinical professor
of prosthodontics and operative dentistry
and chair of the school’s Strategic
Planning Steering Committee. “We want
to make sure we work as a team, as part
of the university, to reach to a higher
level.” Tufts Dental Medicine talked with
Zandparsa about the strategic plan.
34 tufts dental medicine spring 2013