Faculty part of team receiving Interprofessional Education grant3 min read

Ann Arbor, Mich., Aug. 29, 2019 – A team of educators that includes two School of Dentistry faculty members has received a Community Engagement Grant from the Michigan Center for Interprofessional Education and the Ginsberg Center.

Drs. Diane Chang and Stephanie Munz are part of a team that received the grant for a project at Cranbrook Tower, a senior citizen apartment complex in Ann Arbor. Chang said the project will bring together Cranbrook residents and students in the health professions of dentistry, pharmacy and nutritional sciences. The team will identify residents’ specific medication-related, dental and nutrition educational needs and put together an interprofessional educational event in early 2020.

Chang is an adjunct clinical lecturer in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Hospital Dentistry, and Munz is clinical associate professor in the department and director of its General Practice Residency Program. Both are past Interprofessional Leadership Fellows, a program sponsored by the IPE center. Other members of the project team are Olivia Anderson, School of Public Health; Paul Walker and Caitlin Ferguson, College of Pharmacy; and community partners at Cranbrook Tower.

This is the second year that the Center for Interprofessional Education has joined with the Edward Ginsberg Center at U-M to award the grants for projects that benefit communities and support interprofessional student learning. Teams eligible for the grants of up to $5,000 must represent at least two U-M schools and include at least one of the current or past Interprofessional Leadership Fellows. The IPE center said the grants are designed to engage faculty interested in advancing their scholarship and community impact, while enhancing the capacity of social sector community partners and communities through substantial, reciprocal engagement. Funding proposals were invited for teaching, research and other educational activities focused on advancing equity and decreasing economic and racial disparities in Washtenaw County, Detroit, and other Southeast Michigan communities, especially in the areas of education, employment, and housing.

The other team to receive the Community Engagement Grant will develop an “Expansion of an Academic-Community Partnership with the Ann Arbor Housing Commission and the University of Michigan.”

The Center for Interprofessional Education is a coordinating center for Interprofessional Education and collaborative care efforts at U-M. By aligning and integrating the needs and interests of health professions education with collaborative practice, the center achieves its goals through curriculum development, clinical innovation and evaluative research. Its learning opportunities for U-M students include not only traditional semester-based courses, but also clinical and field experiences, service learning, simulations and online learning modules.

The Ginsberg Center’s mission is to cultivate equitable partnerships between communities and U-M in order to advance social change for the public good. Its vision is for inclusive democracy, thriving and diverse communities, and equity and social justice by empowering students, faculty and academic program staff. It connects community organizations with U-M students, faculty and staff invested in positive social change.

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The University of Michigan School of Dentistry is one of the nation’s leading dental schools engaged in oral health care education, research, patient care and community service.  General dental care clinics and specialty clinics providing advanced treatment enable the school to offer dental services and programs to patients throughout Michigan.  Classroom and clinic instruction prepare future dentists, dental specialists and dental hygienists for practice in private offices, hospitals, academia and public agencies.  Research seeks to discover and apply new knowledge that can help patients worldwide.  For more information about the School of Dentistry, visit us on the Web at: www.dent.umich.edu.  Contact: Lynn Monson, associate director of communications, at [email protected], or (734) 615-1971.