Dr. Carlos Smith

Dr. Smith is the inaugural Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the Director of Ethics Curriculum and Associate Professor in the Department of Dental Public Health and Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry. He is also a member of the VCU Institute for Inclusion, Inquiry and Innovation. He joined VCU SOD in 2015 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of General Practice and has served in a variety of roles including Group Practice Leader and Course Director. He is one of 12 faculty nationwide to be directly appointed to the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Collaborative on Dental Education Climate Assessment. He serves as a liaison to the Commission on Change & Innovation in Dental Education and is a member of the board of directors of the American Society for Dental Ethics, the Virginia Dental Association Foundation and the Academy for Professionalism in Health Care, an organization devoted to enhancing professionalism through ethics and humanities education. Dr. Smith is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American College of Dentists. An active Fellow in the American College of Dentists, Smith is one of two inaugural 2021 Dr. Jerome B. Miller Fellows within the ADEA Leadership Institute. He serves on the Virginia Health Catalyst Future of Public Oral Health Taskforce and c-chairs the Workforce Implementation Team.

His research interests include dental student and faculty wellbeing, diversity and inclusive excellence, professional identity formation and dental ethics. His most recent scholarship includes a book chapter on ethical considerations in geriatric dentistry and a multi-institutional study of burnout, loneliness and resilience in dental faculty amid COVID-19. He maintains a private practice in general dentistry with the Dental Faculty Practice and is co-advisor to the VCU chapter of SNDA.
An ordained clergy, Dr. Smith completed clinical pastoral education at Duke Medical Center providing care and crisis management to families of cardiac pediatric patients. Recent honors include 2021 ADEA Olav Alvares Award for Early Career Scholars, 2020 School of Dentistry Dean’s Faculty Excellence Award for Humanism, 2020 Richmond Magazine Top Dentists - Best Instructional Dentist Category, 2018 National Minority Quality Forum’s 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health by the Congressional Black Caucus and a 2019 Hampton University Forty Under 40 Alumni Recognition Society Inductee. He is a graduate of the ADA Institute for Diversity in Leadership and the AAL Institute for Teaching and Learning.
Dr. Smith earned his DDS from the University Of Michigan School Of Dentistry, Master of Divinity from Duke Divinity School, Certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University and BS in Biology from Hampton University.

Disclosures: None to report