Charles Bertolami Becomes the 14th Dean of NYU’s College of Dentistry

By John Beckman

Charles N. Bertolami—a leader in the dental research, education, and clinical communities—became the 14th dean of NYU’s 142-year-old College of Dentistry on Sept. 1.

Bertolami is the former dean of the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF) School of Dentistry. During the 12 years he served in that post, UCSF has led the nation in overall NIH funding for dental schools. In addition to expanding the school’s research capacity, he enhanced its clinical and teaching programs, including renovating clinics and laboratories; implemented a new curriculum reinforcing integration of basic and clinical sciences in dental education; established and expanded joint degree programs; and established a year-long post-baccalaureate program for students from economically or educationally disadvantaged groups.

“Under Mike Alfano’s deanship, the College of Dentistry went through a remarkable transformation,” says President John Sexton. “There was a renewed and powerful emphasis on research, the facilities were upgraded, the role of dentistry was expanded, new healthcare collaborations were envisioned, the quality of students improved greatly, and the College of Nursing became part of the dental college. Finding a successor who could sustain that momentum was a significant challenge, but Charles Bertolami is ideally suited not only to sustain it but to accelerate it.

“If you go to a dentist in the United States, chances are 1-in-12 that you will be cared for by a graduate of the NYU College of Dentistry. We have an obligation, therefore, to ensure that the leader of the school is among the best in the country, a person who can set an agenda for excellence in research, education, and clinical care delivery and envision new possibilities for the role of the profession within the health care field. The search committee did an outstanding job, and we are very grateful and pleased that Charles Bertolami will be taking on the deanship. This is a great day for the dental college—its students, its faculty, and its patients.”

Bertolami was previously dean and professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery at the UCSF, posts he has held since 1995. Prior to that, he was professor and chair of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Section at the University of California-Los Angeles School of Dentistry and associate dean for faculty affairs, and chief of the Dental Service at the UCLA Medical Center. From 1983-1988, he was assistant professor in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the School of Dental Medicine and in the Department of Surgery in the School of Medicine at the University of Connecticut.

His research and scholarly interest has focused on orofacial tissue repair, the biochemistry of hyaluronic acid, the use of sodium hyaluronate in treatment of temporomandibular disorders, and professional ethics. His research has been consistently funded by the NIH and, while chair of oral and maxillofacial surgery at UCLA, he served as the principal investigator for the UCLA-Drew Regional Research Center for Minority Oral Health. He has been the recipient of and principal investigator on many research grants, and the author of numerous articles in scholarly and research publications.

Bertolami is the president-elect of the American Dental Education Association and is the former president of the American Association for Dental Research. He has served as a two-term member of the Overseers’ Visiting Committee for the Faculty of Medicine and Dental Medicine at Harvard; was named as distinguished alumnus of the Ohio State University College of Dentistry (1996); distinguished alumnus, Harvard School of Dental Medicine (2000); served as the Percy T. Phillips Visiting Professor at Columbia University (2002); named the Vincent A. Barr Visiting Professor at the University of Kentucky; and received the Paul Goldhaber Award of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine (2003). He co-chaired (with Harvard Medical School Dean Joseph Martin) the NIDCR Blue Ribbon Panel on Research Training and Career Development (2000); and chaired the American Association of Dental Schools (AADS) Committee on Future Faculty, 1998-99. He is currently co-chairing (with Wendy Mouradian) a joint ADEA-AAMC panel on joint curricular issues for dental and medical students. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, a Fellow of the American College of Dentists (FACD), and a Fellow of the International College of Dentists (FACD).

“I never thought I would leave the University of California, but I was absolutely astonished by the quality and character of the faculty, the students, the staff, and the senior administration at NYU,” says Bertolami. “I was completely unprepared for their excellence, their commitment, and their vision. I was impressed with the way the chair of the search committee, Louis Terracio, and Vice President for Academic Development Bob Berne, worked with me; there was instantaneous trust. The opportunity to help build on the legacy of prior dean Mike Alfano and to work with Terry Fulmer, dean of the College of Nursing, in one of the most innovative relationships in the health professions, was too good to pass up. NYU is where the action is, and it will remain so for the foreseeable future. I see this as a great opportunity as the next chapter in my life where I hope to be able to make a substantive contribution.”

A native Ohioan, Bertolami received an A.A. degree with distinction from Lorain County Community College, majored in liberal arts at the Ohio State University, and then received his D.D.S. degree, summa cum laude, from Ohio State in 1974. Subsequently he began graduate work at Harvard, receiving a Doctor of Medical Sciences (D.Med.Sc.) degree in 1979. He received specialty training in the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital, serving as chief resident from 1979-80.