Dushanka Kleinman, D.D.S., M.Sc.D. (Vice President)

Dushanka V. Kleinman D.D.S., M.Sc.D. (USPHS RADM (ret.)) is Professor Emerita and former Associate Dean for Research and Principal Associate Dean, School of Public Health, University of Maryland at College Park where she played a senior role launching the School of Public Health (2007-2023). In these positions she worked closely with the school’s and university’s faculty, students and senior leadership, established the School’s central research administrative structure, engaged with the campus and surrounding community to facilitate collaborative research and related practice activities, and played a key role in the initial development, accreditation and subsequent accreditations of this School of Public Health. Her research interests include prevention of oral health disparities, health literacy, strategies to integrate oral and general health, public health impact studies and community health improvement initiatives.

Prior to her work with the University of Maryland, Dr. Kleinman completed 28 years of government service where she served as Deputy Director, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, NIH (1991-2006), assuming the role of NIDCR Acting Director twice. At NIH she also served as the first assistant director of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research (2003-2005), now the NIH Common Fund. As an officer in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, she retired at the rank of Rear Admiral, Assistant Surgeon General. In 2006 she completed a five-year term as the 15th Chief Dental Officer, USPHS, overseeing the events during the 9/11 and anthrax attacks. She was the co-editor, and coordinated the federal involvement in the development, of the first-ever Surgeon General’s report on oral health (2000) and A National Call to Action to Promote Oral Health, A Public-Private Partnership Under the Leadership of The Office of the Surgeon General (2003). Dr. Kleinman is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Public Health and has served as president of the American Board of Dental Public Health, American Association of Women Dentists, and the American Association of Public Health Dentistry. She is a member ADA’s National Advisory Committee for Health Literacy and Dentistry and served as the co-chair of the HHS Secretary’s Advisory Committee on National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives for 2030 (2016-2020).

Dr. Kleinman has a D.D.S. from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry and a hospital rotating internship at the University of Chicago Hospitals and Clinics. She received a M.Sc.D. in dental public health and her dental public health residency certificate from the Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine at Boston University. She became a member of the Santa Fe Group in 2007.