Lampiris to Lead New Office of Community Engagement as Assistant Dean
Lew Lampiris, DDS, MPH, recently began his new appointment as the school’s first assistant dean for community engagement and outreach. In this capacity, Lampiris will oversee the creation of the school’s new Office of Community Engagement and Outreach.
“I’m excited to assume this position. I look forward to facilitating collaborations between the school and communities throughout the state,” said Lampiris. “A major goal is to improve the oral health status of the people of the state through engaged teaching, learning, service and research efforts. This position will assure the School of Dentistry is represented in community initiatives and events that align with the school’s mission, vision, and strategies.”
Under Lampiris’s guidance, the Office of Community Engagement and Outreach will promote, monitor, and advance the school’s service activities. These efforts support the school’s mission of ‘transforming dentistry for better health’ and give a formal home to the school’s ongoing, countless service efforts across the state of North Carolina and the United States. Lampiris will continue to serve as director of the Dentistry in Service to Communities (DISC) Program, which facilitates eight weeks of service rotations for the school’s Doctor of Dental Surgery students during the summer between their third and fourth years of dental school.
“When we decided to create an Office of Community Engagement and Outreach, I knew that Lew would be exactly who we needed at the helm,” said Dean Scott S. De Rossi, DMD, MBA. “Lew has a demonstrated passion for service activities and an innovative approach to how to better engage with our constituents across the state and the country. As demonstrated by our values statement – ‘passionately serving our people, our community and our field through inclusiveness and beyond excellence’ – this new office is a natural extension of how efforts already ongoing. I am thrilled that Lew agreed to oversee this exciting effort.”
Lampiris, who joined the school’s faculty in 2013, is an associate professor in the Department of Dental Ecology. Prior to coming to Chapel Hill, Lampiris worked at the American Dental Association as the director of the Council on Access, Prevention and Interprofessional Relations. He is a recipient of the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors Distinguished Service Award (2007), an American Dental Association Presidential Citation (2010) and the American Association of Public Health Dentistry’s Distinguished Service Award (2013).
