Strauss Appointed Executive Associate Provost
Dr. Ronald Strauss, a faculty member in the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Dentistry for more than three decades, has been named the University’s new executive associate provost, effective Sept. 1.
Strauss will serve as chief deputy to Dr. Bernadette Gray-Little, the University’s executive vice chancellor and provost. He will be liaison to the Appointment, Promotion and Tenure Committee and chair of the Health Sciences Advisory Committee, Enrollment Policy Advisory Committee, Commencement Committee, Distinguished Chairs Selection Committee and others. He succeeds Steve Allred, who left in June to become provost at the University of Richmond.
Strauss came to Carolina in 1974. He holds joint appointments in three schools – as Dental Friends distinguished professor and chair in the School of Dentistry’s Department of Dental Ecology, professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Social Medicine and clinical professor in the School of Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology.
Since 1977, Strauss has been the dental director of the UNC Craniofacial Center, and he has also served as president of the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association, receiving its Distinguished Service Award and Honors of the Association. A 1978 recipient of the School of Dentistry Community Mentor Teaching Award, he was a member of the inaugural UNC Faculty Engaged Scholars Program of the Carolina Center for Public Service at the beginning of the year.
His research has focused on the social impacts of chronic health problems, particularly dental conditions, craniofacial anomalies and HIV/AIDS. Dental alumni provide for the Dr. Ronald P. Strauss Community and International Health Award to support students’ understanding of the social and cultural influences on health care.
Strauss earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Queens College, his doctor of dental medicine degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and a subsequent master’s degree and doctorate in sociology, also from the University of Pennsylvania.
