National Collaborative on Humanities & Ethics in Dentistry

The National Collaborative on Humanities and Ethics in Dentistry (NCHED) is sponsored by 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.

The general goals of the NCHED are to:

  1. Focus on the potential for dental faculty and practitioners to drive positive change as science, business and health care adapt to meet the needs of the communities they serve.
  2. Identify and address emerging ethical issues in dental policy and practice, focusing on areas where arts and humanities interventions may benefit patients and practitioners.
  3. Learn from interdisciplinary connections between dentistry and other professions to generate insights into challenges and opportunities facing dentists today and in the future.
  4. Build a community of stakeholders interested in exploring solutions to deep-seated quandaries related to humanities and ethics in dentistry.
  5. Explore connections between the past, present, and future, in recognition that present circumstances were created through historical policy, and practice and understanding history can inform current and future strategies for improvement.

The next webinar will be on February 25 at 12 pm (CT). David T. Ozard, PhD, Emeritus of Philosophy at Loyola University Chicago and founder of the American Society for Dental Ethics. In the session, attendees will learn to recognize the main elements of the development of dental ethics as a discipline for teaching and learning and examine whether the discipline of dental ethics is adequately addressing the reality that professional formation is a process of life-long self-formation. RSVP to join this national virtual event.


Past Webinars

February 25, 2025

The Growth of Dental Ethics as a Discipline
David T. Ozar, PhD, Loyola University Chicago and the American Society for Dental Ethics


November 19, 2024

Spirituality, Religion, and Oral Health
Carlos S. Smith, DDS, MDiv, FACD, Virginia Commonwealth University


September 23, 2024

What Does It Mean to Care? A Readers’ Theater Performance of Imelda for Medical-Dental Professionals
Performance followed by an interdisciplinary panel engaged in conversation about the moral questions in oral surgery and patient care


April 29, 2024

The Dentist in Film: Beneath the Comedy and the Horror

Speaker: Howie Movshovitz, PhD, Film Critic at KUNC public radio and film and television lecturer at the University of Colorado Denver
Moderator: Cathy Flaitz, DDS, MS, University of Colorado Anschutz
Discussant: Christina Slobogin, PhD, University of Rochester


February 13, 2024

Everything Comes Alive with Cherry Pie: Stories of Life at the End of Life
Marcia Brennan, PhD, Rice University


Contact Information

Joelle Robertson-Preidler, PhD, MA, McGovern Center representative