The Vice-Chancellor of Charles Sturt University (CSU), Professor Ian Goulter, has announced the appointment of Professor Ward Massey as the Foundation Head of the University’s School of Dentistry and Health Sciences.

 

Professor Goulter said Professor Massey was an outstanding appointment whose international experience and reputation would help to establish CSU’s dental and oral health program as the leading program in Australia. [See Background notes]

 

“I am delighted to announce that Professor Massey will take up his appointment from January 2008 to oversee the establishment of the CSU program,” he said.

 

CSU was granted $65.1 million in the May 2007 Federal Budget to establish a dental and oral health school based in Orange and Wagga Wagga, with Dental Education Clinics in Bathurst, Albury-Wodonga and Dubbo, commencing in 2009.

 

“Professor Massey’s Australian and international teaching and research experience will facilitate the recruitment of more leading dental and oral health academics of the highest calibre to CSU,” Professor Goulter said.

 

“He will visit Australia briefly in September 2007 to meet key University staff, be briefed on the advanced construction program for the new facilities and discuss curriculum development.”

 

Speaking from the United States where he is currently a Professor in Restorative Dentistry at the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, University of Maryland, Professor Massey said that he was excited by the challenge of helping to create a new national school of dentistry at CSU.

 

“This is a rare and wonderful opportunity to create something new for both the dental profession and the people of Australia,” Professor Massey said.

 

“One of the most exciting aspects of the initiative is the opportunity to build a new program in inland Australia which will have a real and immediate impact on the general health and well-being of Australia’s inland communities. With family living in regional Queensland and having worked in my early years in Broken Hill, I appreciate the problems that are created by lack of access to health services for rural and remote communities.

 

“I want to make sure that my contribution to establishing the new school builds on CSU’s established reputation for providing high quality health programs and clinically prepared graduates.

 

“Together we will establish a school that is internationally recognised as offering one of the world’s best dental training programs,” he said.