Members of the McGovern Center recently published a paper on the Dental Clinical Humanities Certificate Program, describing an evaluation study based on exit surveys of graduating students, reflections on the program’s future, and considerations for the field of dental humanities. Authored by Angela P. Gomez, EdD, MBA, MS, Deborah R. Franklin, DDS, LPC, CTTS, Nathan Carlin, PhD, and Joelle Robertson-Preidler, PhD, HEC-C, “A Dental Clinical Humanities Program at UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry: The First Ten Years and Future Directions,” appears in the Winter 2026 issue of the Journal of the American College of Dentists.
The Dental Clinical Humanities Certificate Program is a collaborative educational program between the McGovern Center and UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry, welcoming dental students to explore humanities and ethics in dentistry. Over the course of 10 years, the program has had nearly 50 students and continues to grow. Students participate in the Student Professionalism and Ethics Association in Dentistry, attend events, take interprofessional extracurricular electives offered through the McGovern Center, and produce a capstone final project.
The Winter 2026 issue is the first of two in a series of special issues organized by the National Collaborative on Humanities and Ethics in Dentistry, a collaborative group comprised of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics, the Department of Health Humanities & Bioethics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, the Eastman Institute for Oral Health at University of Rochester, and the Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics and Health Leadership at Stritch Medical School at Loyola University Chicago