Assistant/Associate Professor of Clinical Dentistry

HERMAN OSTROW SCHOOL OF DENTISTRY OF USC

Department of Distance Learning & Telehealth

Assistant or Associate Professor of Clinical Dentistry

Orofacial Pain and Oral Medicine

Full-Time | Clinical Track | Distance Learning & Telehealth

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Position Overview

This is a cornerstone faculty hire for the Distance Learning & Telehealth division. The successful candidate will assume primary didactic responsibility for a portfolio of online and onsite graduate courses, provide clinical supervision in the OFP/OM clinic, contribute to AI-powered assessment authoring and validation, and support program administration and accreditation. The position offers a structured three-year handoff plan with clear milestones and works closely with the Program Director and existing faculty team.

Course Responsibilities and Handoff Timeline

The following courses are assigned for progressive transfer from the current lead instructor, with full handoff milestones across Years 1–3:

• OFPM #707 Pharmacology (Online): Full transfer by end of Year 2. Online asynchronous, ~23 students, 15 weekly lectures plus VP final.
• DPDH #701 Pharmacology (Onsite): Full transfer by end of Year 2. Onsite, ~31 advanced-education students, 12 weekly lectures plus VP final.
• OFPM #706 TMD & Orthopedics: Full transfer by end of Year 3. Online, ~20 students, 15 weekly lectures plus VP final.
• OFPM #730 Video Case Conferences: Assume 1–2 sections in Year 1, up to 3 of 4 by Year 3. Four small-group sections, 8–10 students each, 2 hrs/week, 8:1 ratio.
• Pre-Clinic Resident Rounds: Co-lead in Year 2; co-lead with Dr. Vistoso by Year 3. Three 1-hour Zoom sessions per week with residents and rotating DDS students.
• Neurogenic Pain #705, Neuroscience #721, Psychology #724, Sleep and Motor Disorders #723: Full transfer by end of Year 3. All online, trimester-based.

Key Responsibilities

1. Online and Onsite Didactic Teaching

• Serve as lead instructor for transferred courses, delivering 12–15 weekly asynchronous lectures per course per trimester, running discussion boards, and administering VP-AI-based final examinations
• Deliver weekly #730 small-group video case conferences (2 hours per section, 8:1 ratio), supporting student case presentations and providing live critique
• Maintain and update course shells each trimester to reflect current evidence and technology integrations

2. AI-Powered Virtual Patient Assessment

• Author new VP-AI cases and pilot-test each case to validate AI scoring accuracy, feedback quality, and analytics for high-stakes final examinations
• Contribute to AI decision-making documentation for transparency, continuous improvement, and accreditation
• Participate in validity and reliability evaluation of VP-AI assessment against traditional formats and the six EPAs

3. Clinical Teaching and Supervision

• Provide onsite clinical supervision of OFP residents and DDS rotation students in the OFP/OM clinic alongside Dr. Vistoso and Dr. Padilla
• Co-lead pre-clinic Zoom rounds (three times per week) with residents and rotating DDS students
• See patients in the OFP/OM clinic, including the Medi-Cal population, and document encounters in the SmartNote EHR

4. Capstone and Portfolio Mentorship

• Serve as primary or secondary mentor for MS Capstone projects including case series, literature syntheses, educational module development, and secondary data analyses
• Support students through IRB submission, analysis, writing, and oral defense

5. Assessment and Academic Integrity

• Proctor AI VP final examinations each trimester, including Zoom-based authentication and coordination
• Perform Verification of Course Completion for assigned courses, integrating final grades across multiple weighted components
• Curate approximately 50 new teaching cases per trimester drawn from the clinic’s 3,000 case database

6. Scholarship and Program Development

• Maintain scholarly output appropriate to a clinical-track appointment, with focus on educational scholarship and clinically oriented publications in Orofacial Pain and Oral Medicine
• Contribute to the program’s national presence through publications, conference presentations, and consultation
• Participate in ongoing refinement of the AI agent stack (RA-AI, TA-AI, VP-AI) in collaboration with the distance-learning team

7. Program Administration and Service

• Participate in admissions review, student progress monitoring, remediation, and final assessment decisions
• Contribute to program-level review, accreditation documentation, and dean-level reporting for the OFP/OM portfolio
• Participate in division, school, and relevant professional-society committees appropriate to rank

Required Qualifications

• D.D.S. or D.M.D. degree from an accredited institution
• Advanced formal training in Orofacial Pain (residency, fellowship, or equivalent)
• California dental licensure or eligibility, to be obtained within a reasonable period after hire
• Demonstrated ability to teach effectively in both clinical and didactic settings with clear, organized communication in synchronous and asynchronous formats
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively in a team-based academic and clinical environment

Strongly Preferred Qualifications

• Diplomate status with the American Board of Orofacial Pain (ABOP), or active candidacy with a clear timeline to certification
• MS, PhD, or equivalent research-oriented advanced degree in addition to the DDS/DMD
• Experience designing and delivering online or hybrid didactic content at scale, including asynchronous lecture authoring, LMS-based course shell management, and competency-based assessment
• Experience with small-group case-conference teaching and virtual-patient or standardized-patient assessment methodology
• Comfort working with AI-enhanced assessment tools and interest in contributing to case authoring, pilot testing, and validation for a VP-AI system
• Familiarity with Oral Medicine content sufficient to cross-cover shared didactic content with the Oral Medicine faculty
• Comfort teaching pharmacology, neuroscience, and sleep medicine as they apply to head, neck, and oral disease
• Experience mentoring graduate or resident capstone and thesis projects

Evaluation and Promotion

Annual review will be conducted by the Program Director in accordance with Herman Ostrow and USC clinical-track policies. Evaluation criteria include teaching effectiveness (student evaluations, peer observation, and module-level outcome data), clinical performance, scholarly contributions, demonstrated mastery of the VP-AI and case-conference systems, and progress against the three-year handoff milestones. The incumbent is expected to be a competitive candidate for promotion to Associate Professor of Clinical Dentistry on the standard clinical-track timeline.