Ryan Richard Ruff, PhD, MPH Named Division Chief of Community Oral Health

Philadelphia – Penn Dental Medicine has named Ryan Richard Ruff, PhD, MPH, as the new Division Chief of Community Oral Health. His appointment to this leadership role was effective February 1. The Division of Community Oral Health, within the School’s Department of Preventive & Restorative Sciences, is responsible for the DMD didactic and community-based experiential and clinical education for community and public health and health promotion.

“We are thrilled to be welcoming Dr. Ruff to Penn Dental Medicine,” says Penn Dental Medicine’s Morton Amsterdam Dean Dr. Mark S. Wolff. “He brings a wealth of community-based work to this role to help us build upon the care we are providing in the community and the public health experiences and understanding of our students.”

Dr. Ruff comes to Penn Dental Medicine from New York University (NYU) College of Dentistry, where he served as an Associate Professor and Director of the Biostatistics Core, as well as Director of the Master of Science program in Clinical Research. He was also an Associated Professor at the NYU School of Global Public Health and a recurring instructor at the Columbia University Epidemiology & Population Health Institute. Additionally, Dr. Ruff serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

As an epidemiologist and public health professional with an interest in school health, Dr. Ruff’s research, as principal investigator, involves designing pragmatic clinical trials and community-based participatory research studies to increase access to oral healthcare and improve child development. He has received over $22 million in research funding as a principal investigator from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

Dr. Ruff holds a PhD in Research, Statistics, & Evaluation from the University of Virginia, a MPH in Epidemiology from Harvard University, and a MPhil in Education from Cambridge University. He was named a fellow of the American College of Epidemiology in 2022.