Education

• Postdoctoral Certificate, Dental Care Administration, Harvard University School of Dental Medicine, 1982
• MPH, Public Health, Harvard University School of Public Health, 1980
• DDS, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1979
• BS, Biology/Geology, University of Rochester, 1975

Biosketch

Jane A. Weintraub, R. Gary Rozier and Chester W. Douglass Distinguished Professor, served as dean for the UNC Adams School of Dentistry from 2011 to 2016. She is widely recognized for her expertise in oral epidemiology, dental public health and clinical research. She is a leader in research to understand and prevent oral health disparities. In 1982, Weintraub began her career in academia at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, followed by several years at the University of Michigan.

In 1988, Dr. Weintraub began her first appointment with the UNC Adams School of Dentistry as an assistant professor. After seven years, Weintraub received an appointment at the University of California, San Francisco School of Dentistry as the recipient of the school’s first endowed chair, becoming the Lee Hysan Professor of Dental Public Health and Oral Epidemiology. She also served the UCSF School of Dentistry as the chair of the oral epidemiology and dental public health division in the school’s preventive and restorative dental sciences department until her departure. During her time as a professor, Weintraub was known for mentoring countless students and early-career researchers as well as developing and conducting dental caries prevention clinical trials. She continues to hold leadership roles in numerous committees for a variety of national and international dentistry and public health associations.

Weintraub’s focus and research in public health dentistry has helped shape scientific guidelines regarding sealants and fluoride that have become a part of mainstream dental and public health practices. She served as the principal investigator and director of the UCSF Center to Address Disparities in Children’s Oral Health, also known as CAN DO. The center focused on preventing early childhood caries, a condition that is difficult and expensive to treat. In 2008, this National Institutes of Health-funded center received funding totaling $24.4 million, the biggest grant in the UCSF School of Dentistry’s history.

She is a past president of the American Association of Public Health Dentistry and the International Association of Dental Research’s behavioral sciences and health services research group. She was one of the scientific editors and contributing authors for the first Surgeon General’s Report on Oral Health. In 2009, Weintraub received the International Association of Dental Research’s H. Trendley Dean Distinguished Scientist Award for her work in oral epidemiology and dental public health, and in 2010 she received the American Dental Association’s Norton M. Ross Award for Excellence in Clinical Research. In 2014, she received a UNC Adams School of Dentistry Honorary Lifetime Alumni Association Member Award.

Research Interests

Access, caries, clinical trials, dental education, epidemiology, health services, preventive dentistry, dental public health, health Disparities, population health, interprofessional education, teledentistry

Research Summary

Weintraub’s research involves the disciplines of dental public health, oral epidemiology, and clinical research focused on oral disease prevention and understanding and reducing oral health disparities in children and older adults.  She enjoys research that has implications for the future of dental education, dental practice and health policy.

Availability to Mentor

Undergraduate/college student, graduate student, undergraduate DDS or DH student, and junior faculty members