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Dental Hygiene Faculty and Staff News
Jennifer Cullen Appointed Director of Dental Hygiene
School of Dentistry dental hygiene faculty member Jennifer Cullen has been appointed director of the school’s Dental Hygiene Division.
Dr. Purnima Kumar, chair of the Department of Periodontics and Oral Medicine, which oversees the division, announced the appointment in January, ending a national search.
Since 2016, Cullen has served as Director of the Dental Hygiene Degree Completion Program and a clinical lecturer. She leads the online program’s curriculum management, faculty development, student support, budget, marketing, recruitment and admissions. She also helped lead the development of a new online, accelerated pathway for dental hygienists who have earned their associate degrees and wish to streamline earning both their bachelor’s and master’s degrees in dental hygiene. In her new position, she will also hold the faculty rank of Clinical Assistant Professor.
“With over 20 years in the dental hygiene profession, over a decade of experience in online education, and a passion for facilitating access to both healthcare and education, Jennifer brings unique strengths, skills, and perspectives to her leadership role,” Kumar said in announcing the appointment. “The dental hygiene program has a long and rich history of graduating future-ready hygienists and graduate students, and I am excited to see Jennifer’s vision for its future.”
Cullen graduated from Ferris State University’s Dental Hygiene Program in 1998 and completed her BSDH in 2012 through the U-M dental school’s Degree Completion E-Learning Program. She continued her education with a master’s degree in Public Health, with a certificate in Health Education and Promotion, from Benedictine University in 2015.
She completed a public health internship in 2015 at the Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Center, where she helped create oral health and dementia education initiatives for multidisciplinary providers and their patients with memory loss. During her time with Catholic Social Services of Washtenaw’s Blueprint
for Aging program in 2016, she was heavily involved in the Washtenaw County “60+ Survey” and in advancing county-wide elder justice initiatives.
Cullen joined the U-M DH program in 2012 as an adjunct clinical lecturer, moving to clinical lecturer in 2016 when she was named director of the Degree Completion Program. Over the course of her career she has taught and mentored undergraduate and graduate students in various learning environments, including clinical, didactic, online and in diverse communities. She has managed teams of faculty and staff in a range of activities related to the sustained
management and evaluation of an academic program. As an advocate of undergraduate and graduate student research, she has served as a faculty advisor and thesis chair on numerous projects that have been published and-or received school and national awards.
“I’m grateful for this opportunity to help shape the future of dental hygiene for both the School of Dentistry and the profession in general,” Cullen said. “Dental hygiene is poised for great professional growth in helping improve the health of patients and the public in areas such as multidisciplinary care, dental technologies, advanced research and equitable care. An organization’s success is not achieved by one person, but by a team of faculty, staff and students using equitable collaborative practices to inform program decisions and empower others by instilling a sense of shared purpose and belonging.”
Kumar thanked the search committee, led by chair Dr. Phil Richards, a DDS faculty member, as well as DH faculty members Darlene Jones and Martha McComas who served as the DH division’s Interim Director and Interim Assistant Director, respectively, during the search. The director position opened in 2022 when former director Janet Kinney returned to her faculty position after serving as director for 10 years.
Founded in 1921, the Dental Hygiene division has been a part of the School of Dentistry for more than a century, making it one of the oldest in the country with the longest-standing DH graduate program. The division offers an entry-level bachelor’s degree, degree completion bachelor’s degree and master of science degree, with both on-campus and online options in the degree completion and graduate programs. The division provides clinical patient care at the undergraduate and graduate levels, both at the university level and in community-based dental programs. A wide range of educational experiences prepare students for careers as a clinician or for positions in public health, research, education and administration. The school engages students in interdisciplinary education, clinical rotations, dental specialty clinics and community service to broaden their scope of learning.
New Leadership Roles Announced in Dental Hygiene
Two Dental Hygiene faculty members have been appointed to leadership roles within the division: Iwonka Eagle will be the new Director of the Dental Hygiene Graduate Program, and Stefanie VanDuine has been named Director of the Dental Hygiene Degree Completion Program. The appointments were announced by Jennifer Cullen, Director of the Dental Hygiene Division within the Department of Periodontics and Oral Medicine, both effective July 1, 2024.
Eagle, recently promoted to Clinical Associate Professor effective Sept. 1, will direct both options for earning the MSDH degree – the on-campus version that includes a blend of classes online and on campus, and the fully online format. She brings experience in all aspects of DH education as well as state and national leadership in MDHA and ADEA where she serves as chair on several committees and special interest groups (SIG).
Eagle joined the dental school in 2015 as an Adjunct Clinical Instructor. She holds both a BSDH (2004) and MSDH (2014) from the U-M DH program, as well as a bachelor’s degree in human biology from Michigan State University (2000). She previously worked in research at the Karmanos Cancer Center, before switching her career track to dental hygiene. In between her DH degrees she worked in clinical private practice. Since joining the dental school’s faculty, she has taught across the division of dental hygiene in the undergraduate, degree completion and MSDH programs. She is the Fundamentals of Periodontics course director for D1 dental students. Eagle is active in educational and clinical research and has mentored many undergraduate and graduate students as both faculty advisor and thesis chair, and she currently manages the BSDH research thread.
VanDuine, a Clinical Instructor, will direct both the on-campus and the new AS-MS in DH online branches of the Degree Completion Program. She brings experience in curriculum and course development, has been a peer reviewer of dental and dental hygiene courses, and served on curriculum committees across both dental and dental hygiene programs. She has extensive experience in teaching courses related to dental hygiene education in the Dental Hygiene Degree Completion and MSDH programs. She will lead the education and matriculation of students throughout the degree completion program, while closely managing the curriculum and digital course development according to online-learning best practices. She also will contribute to admissions and enrollment strategies, and will continue her current teaching responsibilities.
VanDuine holds both BSDH (2010) and MSDH (2014) degrees from the U-M DH program. She joined the program as an Adjunct Clinical Lecturer in 2014 and was promoted to Clinical Lecturer in 2017. She has served as course director in several didactic courses and has taught in various clinical settings throughout the dental school. She received the Dental Hygiene Senior Class Faculty Award in 2017 and 2023. She supervised the research thread in the BSDH program from 2017-23. A particular research and educational interest, which VanDuine has presented on nationally, is the oral health of those with bleeding disorders and other systemic health conditions.
The graduate program was previously directed by Danielle Rulli, who has accepted a faculty position at the dental school at Ohio State University. VanDuine takes over the previous role of Cullen, who was promoted to DH Director in January.
