Dr. Ronnie Myers has been named dean of the year-old Touro College of Dental Medicine in Valhalla. He succeeds Dr. Jay Goldsmith, the school”™s founding dean, who was named dean emeritus.
Their appointments were announced by Dr. Alan Kadish, president of the Touro College and University System, which includes New York Medical College in Valhalla.
A former dean at Columbia University College of Dental Medicine, Myers joined the Touro dental school as senior associate dean for academic and administrative affairs in June 2016, just prior to the entrance of its inaugural class of 2020. Touro officials said he has worked to develop the new curriculum and educational program during the past year.
Myers in the announcement said in his new role, he will be “developing a unique educational and clinical program that incorporates many aspects of primary health care into the oral health care environment. This initiative, along with the integration of emerging technologies into the modern daily practice of clinical dentistry, will set the Touro College of Dental Medicine apart from many others.”
Myers was trained as a pediatric dentist at Columbia University College of Dental Medicine and completed a fellowship at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. He was in private practice and on staff at the Bronx Developmental Center before joining the Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery in 1982 as director of the general practice residency program at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
He has been a consultant to the Commission on Dental Accreditation, a former member and chair of the New York State Board of Dentistry and is a past chair of the American Dental Education Association section on clinic administration. He is a reviewer for the Journal of the American Dental Association, the Journal of Dental Education and the American Journal of Infection Control.
Goldsmith in the Touro announcement said that as dean emeritus, “I look forward to continuing to attract and advise faculty and students and securing additional affiliations” for the dental college.
