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New Associate Deans for Academic Affairs, Academic Policies Appointed

October 1, 2009

Dr. Uri Hangorsky	Dr. Joan Gluch (GD'92)

Penn Dental Medicine announces two new administrative appointments -- Dr. Uri Hangorsky as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, and Dr. Joan Gluch (GD'92) as Associate Dean for Academic Policies. Both appointments were effective September 8 and both are positions with new areas of administrative responsibility within the School.

In his new post, Dr. Hangorsky will have oversight of the academic/student service divisions within the School, including academic affairs, student affairs, and admissions. These areas of responsibility reflect an expansion of this associate deanship and a change within the School's administrative structure that merges the offices of Student Affairs, Academic Affairs, and Admissions into a single unit to better serve and manage students' academic needs. The current administrators and staff within each of these offices will remain the same.

Dr. Hangorsky, who is also Clinical Professor of Periodontics, is a long-time member of the Penn Dental Medicine community, first joining the faculty in 1980 and having held major teaching, clinical, and administrative responsibilities throughout his time with the School. Most recently, he served as Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs (2004-2009) and was Director of Predoctoral Periodontics from 1998 to 2004. Since 2004, he has also held the position of Director of the Program for Advanced Standing Students – a role he will maintain.

Among his teaching awards were the University of Pennsylvania's Provost Award for Distinguished Teaching (2002), Penn Dental Medicine's Graduate Periodontics Outstanding Teaching Award (1991), and the School's Joseph L.T. Appleton Award for excellence in clinical teaching. Dr. Hangorsky holds a DDS from Columbia University Dental School and his MS in periodontics from Case Western University.

In her position as Associate Dean for Academic Policies – a new associate deanship for the School – Dr. Gluch will ensure the School's compliance with the required standards of the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) for both the predoctoral and postgraduate dental education programs. Dr. Gluch will work in an integrative role with the other associate deans and the graduate program directors on specific projects to evaluate and improve operations and policies at the School.

Dr. Gluch, who served as Acting Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2008 – 2009, has been a member of the Penn Dental Medicine faculty since 1991. Currently an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Division of Community Oral Health, she will maintain her position as Director of Community Health within that Division, a post she has held since 2001. Since 2002, she also has been a Senior Fellow with the University of Pennsylvania's Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, and since 2008 she has served as an Associate Fellow with the University's Center for Public Health Initiatives. Dr. Gluch holds a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and an EdM from Temple University.

"I am looking at the School's administrative structure to build systems that will best serve our students and ensure we are maintaining strength across all academic disciplines," says Morton Amsterdam Dean Denis Kinane. "With these two appointments, Drs. Hangorsky and Gluch will be a crucial part of that process."

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