Long Named Associate Dean in UAMS College of Health Professions

By Jon Parham

Long previously served eight years as chair of the college’s Department of Dental Hygiene as part of a 20-year tenure on the college’s faculty. Her new responsibilities will include leadership in areas of program development, approval and accreditation as well as faculty development in the college, which encompasses 21 programs in 18 professions.

She succeeds Diane Skinner, Ed.D., M.P.H., who was recently named the first director of interprofessional education at UAMS.

Long also will serve as associate director for interdisciplinary education in the recently established UAMS Center for Dental Education. The new center will include an oral health clinic and postgraduate programs for dentists in advanced general dentistry and oral surgery. Long will assist coordination and development of the growing dental programs at UAMS, including the dental hygiene program, the oral health clinic and dental residency program.

Long earned her doctorate in higher education administration in 1997 from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR). She received a master’s degree in health care administration in 1991 from the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Fla. In 1986, she received a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a certificate as a graduate dental hygienist from The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

She joined the UAMS faculty in 1992 as an instructor in the dental hygiene program. She is now a tenured professor in the dental hygiene program. She has been nationally recognized for teaching, receive a teaching excellence award from the American Dental Education Association in 2001.

From 2009-2011, Long served as director of student affairs in the College of Health Professions with responsibilities that included new student orientation, course evaluation and academic support.

She is an adjunct professor in educational leadership in the UALR College of Education.

UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a statewide network of regional centers; and seven institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute, the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging and the Translational Research Institute. Named best Little Rock metropolitan area hospital by U.S. News & World Report, it is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has more than 2,800 students and 775 medical residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 10,000 employees, including about 1,000 physicians and other professionals who provide care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and UAMS’ Area Health Education Centers throughout the state. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com.