Since our founding more than 50 years ago, the University of Florida College of Dentistry (UFCD) has built a distinguished reputation for educating the next generation of clinicians, supporting innovative programs and advancing patient care and discovery. We began our year-long strategic planning process in mid-2024 during a time marked by significant change. As we conclude this process in mid-2025 we face continued change, amplified by uncertainty and challenge, yet rich with tremendous opportunity and promise.
This strategic plan signals UFCD’s intentions to maintain and advance our position as a national leader in learner-focused dental education, person-centered oral care, innovative research, and professional service and leadership. We will continue our ongoing excellent work while empowering our people to pursue exciting new initiatives and implement leading-edge technologies. The framework for our strategic plan articulates our goals and objectives in six domains:
- Education & Training
- Patient Care
- Research, Scholarship & Creative Works
- Infrastructure & Technology
- Service
- Interpersonal & Professional Culture
Important Features of the Strategic Plan
While each domain includes its own objectives and strategies, the plan has thematic throughlines cutting across multiple domains.
- Evidence-Based and Data Driven: Throughout the plan, adopting an evidence-based approach to education and patient care is an important theme as is using data-driven approaches to enhance care and education, and evaluation of outcomes.
- Leveraging Technology: In this era of accelerating technological development, including artificial intelligence (AI), it is not surprising that multiple domains noted the opportunities afforded via implementing new technologies. The plan highlights the value of integrating technology, AI, and data science to enhance education, patient care, clinical operations and research.
- Interdisciplinarity and Collaboration: UFCD has an excellent track record of interdisciplinary collaboration, and multiple domains emphasize the importance of maintaining and expanding these efforts. This includes promoting interprofessional educational experiences, expanding interprofessional clinical and research collaborations, and facilitating partnerships through infrastructure and technology.
- Supporting Our People: We recognize that our people are our most valuable strength; hence, efforts to support the personal and professional development of our people appear throughout the plan. This includes recruiting and retaining excellent people, supporting training and professional advancement, creating spaces that improve quality of life, and cultivating a culture of growth and well-being.
We are proud of UFCD’s accomplishments and excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. We enthusiastically share this strategic plan with you, as it expresses a compelling vision of our future. We invite you to join us in making this vision a reality.
A. Isabel Garcia, D.D.S., M.P.H., Dean
Roger B. Fillingim, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Planning and Institutional Effectiveness