Dental School receives $6.5 million in HRSA grants

The Department of Comprehensive Dentistry in the Dental School received more than $6.5 million in grants from the Health Resources and Services Administration. Professor Jeffrey Hicks, D.D.S., was awarded three grants totaling nearly $3.5 million. A five-year grant for more than $2.8 million will be used to expand the Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) program by increasing the number of residents from 10 to 15, and will recruit more residents from underrepresented groups. Two additional grants, each $299,500, will provide updated equipment for the AEGD program, and will be used to buy computer technology, digital radiology equipment and clinic equipment used to train undergraduate dental students.

David Cappelli, Ph.D., D.M.D., M.P.H.,associate professor and director of the Public Health Dental Residency Program, received The Texas Oral Health Workforce Grant, a grant of more than $1.5 million, for a three-year project in collaboration with the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, which will expand existing programs that provide preventive services to children in Bexar County. The program will integrate a case management approach to addressing the oral health needs of these children.

Dr. Cappelli and Jane E.M. Steffensen, M.P.H., CHES, also an associate professor, are co-principal investigators on a five-year grant totaling nearly $1.6 million that will enhance the dental public health pre-doctoral curriculum.