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Mission and Goals

The mission for The Cambridge Institute for Global Oral Health (CIFGOH) is to serve as a study club to exchange and enhance oral health knowledge among health professionals who are member-subscribers & lecturers for CIFGOH and share a mutual interest in global health. The lecturers provide a series of lectures, for the mutual benefit of CIFGOH members-subscribers, and represent general dentistry, dental hygiene, orofacial pain, eight of the nine dental specialties (dental public health, endodontics, oral and maxillofacial pathology, oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics, pediatric dentistry, periodontics, and prosthodontics), and medicine.

Executive Director & Chair, Advisory Committee Member

Dr. David Okuji
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Dr. Okuji received his dental education at the University of California, Los Angeles and pediatric dentistry specialty certification at the University of Southern California. He also has an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley-Haas School of Business and earned a Master of Science degree in health care management from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Okuji  practiced as an associate pediatric dentist in Northern California for 5 years and then practiced for Saudi-ARAMCO, an international oil company for the next 5 years. After repatriating to the U.S., he was the principal of a multi-dentist, multi-specialty practice for 24 years in California.  He currently serves as a Lecturer in Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology, part-time, at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and as the Senior Associate Director-Extramural & Special Projects for the NYU Langone Hospitals-Division of Dental Medicine.

In addition to his health care management experience, Dr. Okuji is an educator and public health advocate. He is also board certified as a Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry, as a Diplomate of the National Board of Public Health, and a Fellow of the International College of Dentists.

Dr. Okuji has been influenced by his participation in the Harvard Business School's Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness model for value-based health care delivery and his primary academic interests are in value-based health care systems and global public health.

Advisory Committee

The independent advisory committee is an objective entity that provides peer review and direction for the program and the provider. A majority of the advisory committee must be dentists who are independent from other responsibilities for the provider. The advisory committee includes objective representatives of the intended audience, including the members of the dental team for which the courses are offered.

CIFGOH's roster of member-lecturers hold faculty appointments at the institutions listed below

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  • A.T. Stills University

  • Boston University

  • East Carolina University

  • Harvard University

  • Marquette University

  • New York University (NYU)

  • NYU Langone Hospitals and Medical School

  • Rutgers University

  • Texas A&M University

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  • Tufts University

  • University of Buffalo

  • University of California, Los Angeles

  • University of Florida

  • University of Nebraska

  • University of North Carolina

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  • University of the Pacific

  • University of Pennsylvania

  • University of Rochester-Eastman Institute

  • University of Texas, Houston

  • University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center

  • University of Washington

  • Virginia Commonwealth University

Dr. Darren Cox
University of the Pacific
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Dr. Cox is Professor of Oral Pathology at the UOP, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry San Francisco, CA and director of the Pacific Oral Pathology Laboratory.  He is a graduate of LSU School of Dentistry (’00).  After a General Practice Residency at Loyola of Chicago Medical Center he practiced general dentistry in New Orleans. Dr. Cox completed his residency in Oral, Head and Neck Pathology at Emory University Hospital, Atlanta, GA, in June 2000 and has been a board certified oral and maxillofacial pathologist since 2001.  Previous academic appointments were at the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine, where he also received a masters of business administration degree from the Katz Graduate School of Business in 2004, and at UCSF. He has served the AAOMP on the nominations committee, the finance committee (chair 2008), and the professional and public relations committee (chair 2014). He has also served on the editorial board of Head and Neck Pathology Journal and reviewer of many professional journals related to his specialty. Since 2015, he is the ongoing secretary/treasurer of the Western Society of Teachers of Oral Pathology and currently serves as the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology’s representative to the Commission on Dental Accreditation review committee. He has authored over 35 peer reviewed journal articles and has worked extensively in the area of Sjogren’s Syndrome through the SICCA study while on faculty at UCSF. At the Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry, he serves as chair of the Interprofessional Education Committee, for which he was awarded the Helix Award for innovation in curricular design.

Dr. Massimiliano Di Giosia
University of North Carolina
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Dr. Massimiliano Di Giosia is a graduate of the University “G.d’Annunzio”, School of Dentistry - Chieti, Italy. He completed a three-year residency program in Orofacial Pain at the University of Kentucky-Orofacial Pain Center, directed by Prof. Jeffrey Okeson, in 2007 and an Orthodontic residency program at the University of Cagliari , Italy, in 2011. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Orofacial Pain and a certified “expert dentist” by the European Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine. Dr. Di Giosia was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina (UNC) in June 2015. He is responsible for clinical activity in orofacial pain, TMD and dental sleep medicine. He also focus on clinical research as well as teaching and supervising the residents of the school’s new orofacial pain residency program. Prior to arriving at UNC he was in private practice - limited to orthodontics, orofacial pain and dental sleep medicine – in Italy and held a position as an Adjunct professor at the University of Cagliari, School of Dentistry, Italy.​

Dr. Archana Viswanath
NYU College of Dentistry
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Dr. ​Archana Viswanath is a Clinical Associate Professor;
Oral & Maxillofacial Pathology, Radiology and Medicine at the NYU College of Dentistry. She received her dental degree from Bangalore, India in 2000 and her Master’s degree from Rutgers School of Dental Medicine (formerly New Jersey Dental School) in 2007. She completed her Advanced Education Training in Orofacial Pain and Temporomandibular Joint Disorders and a fellowship from Rutgers School of Dental Medicine.  Dr. Viswanath is a Diplomate of the American Board of Orofacial Pain. She completed NIH Training Program in Oral and Craniofacial Biology (T-32) focusing on clinical research at University of Maryland Dental School.  Dr. Viswanath’s clinical and research interests are in management of acute and chronic craniofacial pain, with an emphasis on temporomandibular joint disorders, sequela of neurologic injuries and cancer pain.

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