The Executive Boards of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam) have appointed Prof. Elsbeth Kalenderian as dean of the Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA), a joint venture of the Faculties of Dentistry of the UvA and of VU Amsterdam. Kalenderian is currently affiliated with the University of California - San Francisco School of Dentistry. The appointment is for a period of five years and will take effect on 1 August 2021. Kalenderian has also been appointed as professor of Comprehensive Dentistry at the UvA.
Kalenderian will succeed Prof. Frank Abbas, who has been in office since July 2019. The appointment was made in consultation with the Faculty Student Council and the ACTA Works Council.
'Elsbeth Kalenderian has more than twenty-five years of experience in academia and public health. She is an excellent oral health scientist and an experienced clinician, as well as a seasoned academic leader,' said Karen Maex, chair of the selection committee and rector magnificus of the UvA. Vinod Subramaniam, rector magnificus of VU Amsterdam: 'We are therefore very pleased that Elsbeth Kalenderian will be making the switch from the US to Amsterdam to bring her leadership and vision to ACTA.'
Scientific career and managerial positions
Elisabeth (Elsbeth) Kalenderian (1959) has been professor of Preventive & Restorative Dental Sciences at the School of Dentistry at the University of California - San Francisco (UCSF) since 2016. She is principal investigator of several US National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded studies in the fields of patient safety, quality measurement and quality improvement in dentistry. She also headed the Preventive & Restorative Dental Sciences department at UCSF. From 2007 to 2016, Kalenderian served as clinic dean and chair of the Department of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology at Harvard School of Dental Medicine.
Kalenderian has also held a variety of leadership positions in the public health sector, including at the American Heart Association, the American Stroke Association and the North Shore Medical Center (Salem, USA). Kalenderian was also director of Transition House (Cambridge, USA), a leading agency focused on intervention and prevention of domestic violence.
Kalenderian obtained her dental degree from the University of Groningen. She completed her clinical training in oral and maxillofacial surgery at Boston University and obtained a Master's degree in Public Health from Harvard University. Kalenderian obtained her PhD from the UvA for research at ACTA into diagnostic terminology in dentistry.
About ACTA
ACTA's three pillars are scientific research, education and patient care. ACTA is an international leader in research and education. In addition to training students to become dentists, ACTA Dental Education (ADE) provides postgraduate courses for dentists. ACTA is located in Amsterdam on the VU Amsterdam campus in the Zuidas area.
