Dr. Douglass Jackson, Clinical Professor of Pediatric Dentistry at the UW School of Dentistry, has been named Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI), pending approval by the UW Board of Regents.
Dr. Jackson will assist Dean Gary Chiodo in developing an EDI strategic plan for the school that seeks to broaden understanding of what must be done to make it truly inclusive and chart the steps to achieve that goal, the dean said. From 2005 to 2008, Dr. Jackson served as Associate Dean in the school’s Office of Educational Partnerships & Diversity, and he has chaired the school’s Diversity Committee since 2016. From 2008 to 2013, he was director of the Center for Diversity and Health Equity at Seattle Children’s Hospital, and he is currently a diversity and inclusion senior consultant and trainer at The Byers Group in Seattle.
“Dr. Jackson is the perfect person to lead our EDI initiatives,” Dean Chiodo said. “This is an associate dean role that he previously held, and his long history with our school positions him to immediately move us forward. He will be our strategic leader and subject matter expert in these areas and connect with faculty, staff, students, and patients. This is critical work being done at a critical time in our history. Ultimately, we will benefit from an increasingly diverse school with a high value placed on inclusivity and equity.”
Dr. Jackson holds BA and DMD degrees from the University of Pittsburgh, an MS in clinical research design and statistical analysis from the University of Michigan, and a PhD in oral biology and neuroscience from the University of Minnesota. He has also served residencies in Pittsburgh and Minneapolis. He is a diplomate of the National Dental Board of Anesthesiology, a fellow of the American Dental Society of Anesthesiology, and a member of the Omicron Kappa Upsilon dental honor society.
He has also served as director of the UW’s Health Professions Academy, a partnership of the UW Schools of Medicine and Dentistry and the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity.
“What motivates me every day to do this work is the realization that we live in a place where talent is equally distributed and opportunity is not,” Dr. Jackson said. “I’m thrilled to work in this new capacity alongside the many people at the school and university who recognize the societal cost we pay by not addressing this discrepancy, and how failing to address it limits our ability to be the best school we know we can be.”