Speaker Bios:
Mark Herzberg is currently serving as the Forty-ninth President of the AADR (2020-21). Herzberg is a Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry and the Director emeritus of the Minnesota Craniofacial Research Training Program. He completed his D.D.S. at the New York University College of Dentistry, New York and his Ph.D. at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Department of Oral Biology. Herzberg's current research focuses on survival mechanisms of the commensal oral streptococci, the role of mucosal epithelial cells in protection against infection and the development of cell autonomous antibacterial therapies. These studies have serendipitously led to the discovery of a novel tumor suppressor in head and neck cancer.
Gregg H. Gilbert is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He also serves as Chair of the Department of Clinical & Community Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry. His research interests are in the field of oral health clinical research, including practice-based research, oral epidemiology and dental behavioral sciences research. He serves as National Network Director for the National Dental Practice-Based Research Network as a result of funding from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. In 2002, Gilbert received the Distinguished Scientist Award from the International Association for Dental Research.
Stuart A. Gansky is Professor and Lee Hysan Chair of Oral Epidemiology in the Division of Oral Epidemiology and Dental Public Health, as well as Associate Dean for Research of the School of Dentistry at the University of California, San Francisco. He earned his Dr.P.H. in biostatistics at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Currently, Gansky directs the University of California, San Francisco Center to Address Disparities in Children’s Oral Health (CAN DO) and the NIDCR-funded Coordinating Center to Help Eliminate/Reduce Oral Health Inequalities in Children. Gansky has published more than 135 papers. His research has focused on oral health disparities studies, randomized prevention trials, tobacco initiation prevention and cessation research and methodological issues related to clinical and translational research. His work, along with CAN DO team members, conceptualized a multi-level framework and researches factors related to, and ways to reduce, children’s dental disease.
Vesa Kaartinen is the Associate Dean for Research, Director of the Oral Health Sciences Ph.D. Program and a Professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He earned his M.S. in biochemistry and his Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Kuopio, Finland. He then completed a post-doctoral fellowship in molecular biology and mouse genetics at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Kaartinen’s research focuses on understanding the role of morphogens in the pathogenesis of common human birth defects. He has more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and four book chapters.
Shannon Wallet is the Associate Dean for Research in the Adams School of Dentistry, Interim Chair and Professor in the Division of Oral and Craniofacial Health Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Wallet’s research is focused on mechanisms associated with altered innate immune functions, which lead to dysregulated adaptive immunity. Currently, her laboratory focuses on the contribution of epithelial cell biology and signaling to innate and adaptive immune homeostasis and dysfunction. Wallet has been an active member of the IADR/AADR since 2007. She currently serves as the Councilor for the AADR North Carolina Section and Secretary of the AADR Microbiology and Immunology Interest Group.