Appointments, Dental Hygiene, Faculty and Staff

Mauriello Steps Down as DH Director; Wilder to Serve as Interim Director

Dr. Sally Mauriello, a professor in the UNC School of Dentistry’s Department of Dental Ecology, is stepping down from her position as director of the Undergraduate Dental Hygiene Programs to focus on teaching, research and community service, School of Dentistry officials recently announced.

Rebecca Wilder, who directs the Graduate Dental Hygiene Education Program, will become interim Undergraduate Dental Hygiene Programs director, effective Aug. 16, 2010. Wilder is a professor in the Department of Dental Ecology and also serves as director of faculty development for the school.

In announcing Mauriello’s decision, interim Dean John W. Stamm praised her deep commitment to the dental hygiene programs and her outstanding efforts in preparing her programs for the American Dental Association Commission on Dental Accreditation’s site visit in April 2010.

“Sally will hand over a high-quality dental hygiene program that is optimistic and ready to face the future and that has the self-confidence to embrace change,” Stamm said.

“Over the years Sally earned her doctorate degree, and thereby strengthened her capacity for higher levels of research, both inside and beyond the School of Dentistry. For a good number of years Sally has quietly but steadily built an increasingly respectable body of research, and most recently she presented at the Barcelona IADR [International Association for Dental Research] meeting some intriguing findings related to alternative measurement methods for gingival and periodontal disease.”

Mauriello joined the School of Dentistry faculty in 1979. She received her bachelor of science degree in dental auxiliary teacher education (DATE) from the University that year, and then both her master of education and doctor of education degrees from North Carolina State University.

During her five years of program leadership, Mauriello oversaw the modification of the dental hygiene degree completion program to include an online format; instituted an annual Commitment Ceremony for first-year dental hygiene students; and worked with alumni to reactivate the Dental Hygiene Alumni Association and create a scholarship (in collaboration with the Durham-Orange Dental Hygiene Association). She also personally mentored students who went on to receive national recognition for community projects and conducted patient-centered research during this time.

Wilder, a faculty member since 1981, graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City with bachelor of science and master of science degrees in dental hygiene education. She has taught and directed courses in the dental hygiene undergraduate and graduate curricula, as well as in the pre- and postdoctoral curricula. Wilder is an editor for the second edition of “Mosby’s Dental Hygiene: Concepts, Cases, Competencies,” published in 2008.

She is a former recipient of the Colgate/IADR Oral Health Research Award for outstanding accomplishments in oral health research and also the Pfizer/American Dental Hygienists’ Association Award for Excellence in Dental Hygiene.

In 2007, she received her alma mater’s Alumni Achievement Award. She currently serves as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Dental Hygiene and has mentored many graduate students in their research, as well as their professional development as future academicians.

Wilder has participated in leadership training in the University’s BRIDGES professional development program for women and, more recently, the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Leadership Institute and the ADEA/Academy for Academic Leadership’s Institute for Teaching and Learning.

She will continue in her roles as faculty development and graduate program director.