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On the Drive for Top Five
January 21st, 2009
Faculty of Dentistry dean Anthony Iacopino knows exactly where he wants to be in five years.
“We want to be one of the top five dental schools in North America in five years,” Iacopino said.
The Drive for Top Five Campaign was launched last month and the goal is exactly what the title says.
“It’s a question of public opinion and perception. When you ask someone about the state of the profession and where the hottest places in the field are, we want the University of Manitoba to be in the first five names they can rattle off.
“That means we’re going to be at the top of the game in education, innovative programming, niche research, student recruitment and community support.”
Reaching that elite level will have a huge impact on what the faculty and its students and staff members can do.
“When you reach that level you get respect. Students interested in dentistry will know that this is a place that they can come to get the best possible education and we can be a centre of intellectual thought for the dental community.”
It’s not just about the Faculty of Dentistry. Reaching the top five can have spin off benefits for the larger university and the entire Manitoba community.
“When you reach that stature you have the ability to draw talent to Winnipeg, and that impacts the entire city because those people don’t just work in the Faculty of Dentistry, they get out into the community and contribute their skills to making Winnipeg and Manitoba a better place.”
Getting to top five is going to mean changes across the board for the Faculty of Dentistry. From a public relations standpoint, the faculty is already on the move, aggressively promoting its stories to the Winnipeg Free Press and CTV News.
The success of a Dental School hinges on maintaining a close relationship with its graduates, who depend on the research and training programs that come out of the dental school to drive their industry. To that end, Iacopino, who joined the faculty last summer, has been meeting with dentists from across Manitoba.
“My goal is to visit every office in the province over time (there’s over 300 of them in all) to get to know the issues from the practitioners and to tell them about the faculty and what we’re doing. So far the people have been unbelievably welcoming and some of them have become our strongest supporters,” Iacopino said.
Similarly, the faculty has taken its former alumni relations/continuing education position and split it between two full-time people, which means the alumni person can focus on friendraising among alumni, while the continuing education person can focus on lining up training programs that meet alumni needs.
“And we’ve expanded our mentorship program,” Iacopino said. Previously, students waited until the third year in their program before being partnered with community dentists. Now that happens in year one with the mentor taking part in the faculty’s white coat ceremony at the beginning of the year.
“The mentors will follow them through their training which will culminate with graduation. By that time, they’ll have a four-year relationship with someone in the field which will hopefully lead to better relationships with organized dentistry and the practicing community.”
The Drive for Top Five is really just kicking off, over the coming months Iacopino said they’ll be seeking external resources to put in place the tools needed for the faculty to excel.
Make no mistake, getting to the top of the heap in North America is going to be a lot of work. But it can happen. Iacopino says he believed strongly in that from the moment he first laid eyes on the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Manitoba.
“I was immediately struck by the differences between this school and all the schools I had been associated with in the United States. Thanks to the small class size, there’s really a family atmosphere in the faculty and a genuine concern among the instructors, support staff, and students for improving the school and to make everyone feel welcome. Additionally, this was the most highly skilled faculty and support staff that I have ever seen in a dental school,” Iacopino said.
The only hold ups were a matter of resources – something that the Faculty is hoping a resource plan will address – and making sure people in the industry know exactly the level of talent at the University of Manitoba.
“People here are pretty humble and they don’t believe in blowing their own horn,” Iacopino said. “But the problem with that is that other people aren’t aware of the accomplishments here and they can take credit for those accomplishments. I’ve seen schools in the States taking credit for innovations that were developed here.”
Iacopino says his role as dean will be to maximize the talent that’s already here and supplement that with new talent.
“I take a hands on approach to being a dean with respect to being a people person and making sure there are open communications but I don’t micromanage. I try to give people the resources they’ll need to achieve success and reach their full potential,” Iacopino said. “And I believe in taking risks and doing new things. I like to challenge the existing status quo and see if we can come up with something better.”
Previous to joining the University of Manitoba, Iacopino was the associate dean for research/graduate studies and professor in the department of restorative dental sciences at Marquette University School of Dentistry, Wisconsin, where he spearheaded the reworking of the undergraduate and graduate curricula, and with Baylor College of Dentistry in Texas.
He’s originally from New Jersey and grew up looking towards the ocean.
“I always thought going through school that I was going to be a marine biologist,” he said. “I thought I was going to be the next Jacques Cousteau. I loved the coast.”
But while he was earning his BA in biological sciences at Rutgers College, the field of dentistry caught his eye.
“I was intrigued by the work and lifestyle of dentistry. But while most people assume dentistry means going through school and then hanging up a shingle, I knew there were more options. From the beginning, I knew I was interested in the scholarly approach. I wanted a career that included clinical work, research and teaching,” Iacopino said.
“I’m the sort of person who needs to do multiple things.”
And once he was in dental school, he was hooked.
“I found out how much I loved the academic environment. I liked the professors, and I loved the scholarly debate and educational atmosphere. I knew this was the kind of environment I wanted to be in,” Iacopino said.
He’d already met his goals at Marquette when recruiters from the University of Manitoba came calling, but it wasn’t until he came up here and saw what the university had to offer that he was convinced.
“I had never thought about coming to Canada or about a position with a Canadian dental school,” Iacopino said. “It was really my wife Sharon who said, ‘Why not have a look at it?’”
Moving was tough, but they’re settling in nicely. Sharon, a nurse, has found work at the Grace Hospital as a patient safety and quality improvement officer, and they’ve moved into the community of LaSalle just south of Winnipeg. Their daughters, aged 18 and 21, stayed in Wisconsin to finish their education and have both announced that they are interested in the field of dental hygiene.
As for Iacopino, he hasn’t completely left that love for the ocean behind.
“Fishing is my one passion in life. I’ve fished all over the world and I just can’t get enough of it. It’s never boring. There’s always the challenge of figuring out how to get one on your line.”
Manitoba, of course, is a fisher’s paradise for Iacopino, whether it be heading out on a junket or dipping his hook in the water next to the home at LaSalle.
“I’ve been going to Mexico for 20 years and most of the people I’ve been fishing with down there have been from Canada,” Iacopino said. Now, of course, he’ll be able to trade stories with them about what the fishing is like in Mexico and back home in Canada.
Posted in: Dentistry