Dennis A. Mitchell, DDS, MPH

Dennis A. Mitchell, D.D.S., M.P.H, serves as interim dean of the College of Dental Medicine. He has held many leadership roles at Columbia. Most recently he was senior advisor for Inclusion and Belonging and senior vice provost for Faculty Advancement at Columbia University. He is a professor of Dental Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center.

As senior vice provost, he implemented the program elements of the University’s ongoing financial commitment (currently totaling $185 million) to enhance the diversity of the faculty, and works with the leaders of each of Columbia’s schools to evaluate and strengthen their diversity initiatives.

Dr. Mitchell joined the Columbia faculty in 1991 after completing his general dentistry residency training at Harlem Hospital, a Columbia University affiliate. At a time when the HIV/AIDS and crack cocaine epidemics were sweeping New York City, Mitchell advanced research on the oral manifestations of HIV in people of color and women, and also examined a cohort of injecting drug users at Harlem Hospital. A New England Journal of Medicine article about treatment of periodontal disease and the risk of preterm birth, which emerged from his research, has been cited 744 times and received the American Academy of Periodontology Clinical Research Award for the year’s outstanding paper with direct relevance to clinical practice in 2007. Decades later, scholars still cite this groundbreaking work. Committed to improving clinical dental practice in Harlem and upper Manhattan, Mitchell co-created and launched the Community DentCare Network, which provides screenings and dental services to underserved patients regardless of ability to pay. Community DentCare is now responsible for over 20,000 patient visits annually.

He is a co-principal investigator for Columbia’s Summer Health Professions Education Program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and for the Summer Public Health Scholars Program funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Together, these two pipeline programs bring over 125 young scholars to the Columbia campus each summer.

Dr. Mitchell previously served as the Director of the Harlem component of the Community DentCare Network for Columbia, and as Director of Research and Community Dentistry at Harlem Hospital. He oversaw the development, implementation and evaluation of Columbia’s offsite dental service programs in Harlem, which is now responsible for over 20,000 patient visits annually.

Mitchell has been widely recognized for his contributions to the fields of public health and dental medicine. He is the 2025 recipient of the ADEA Gies Award for Eminence in Achievement. He was named a Fellow in the American College of Dentists and received the American Dental Education Association Distinguished Service Award in 2022; and in 2021, he was named Fellow in the Academy of Community and Public Health Service at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center.