Our mission, vision, and values

Mission

To promote oral health as an integral component of overall health through outstanding experiential and evidence-based learning and patient treatment, grounded in a culture of care for the diverse communities we serve, and driven by innovation, impactful research, and strong interprofessional collaboration.

Vision

To be a recognized leader in the advancement of oral health and overall health through an integrated and innovative approach to education, research, and patient treatment, including outreach that provides a comprehensive student experience within and for our diverse local, national, and global communities.

What we value


ACCOUNTABILITY — to our students for education, to our patients for care, to our oral health professions, and to our communities for the provision of competent oral health care professionals.

RESPECTFUL LEADERSHIP — we aspire to lead with words and actions that are grounded in ethics, integrity, commitment, transparency, and trust.

COMMUNICATION — that is clear, concise, and respectful.

INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY — to champion and integrate equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA) within our vision, mission, culture, actions, and interactions with one another.

ADVANCING HEALTH — through impactful community engagement,
we provide compassionate care and health promotion to advance the health
of members of diverse communities.

APPRECIATION — we appreciate and care for each other by recognizing
and celebrating our accomplishments.

EVIDENCE-BASED APPROACH — our approaches to education, research,
and service will continue to be based on the current best available research
evidence, and we will contribute to the generation of evidence by evaluating
new approaches as they are implemented.

INNOVATION — we challenge ourselves to be innovative in our approaches
to education, research, and outreach.

The full text of our 2021-2026 strategic report is now available.