Dr. Claire Werner, full-time faculty member in the Pitt Dental Medicine Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, has been appointed to serve as Pitt Dental Medicine’s Director of Sustainability. In this role, Dr. Werner will work closely with the team at the University of Pittsburgh Office of Sustainability in the Health Sciences (OSHS) to integrate sustainability into the curriculum, decrease the environmental impact of school activities, and foster research in sustainability in the school.
In addition to possessing a clear passion for the environment and an interest in driving change toward sustainability across all areas of the school, Dr. Werner served as a member of the Graduate Student Association Sustainability Committee at her previous institution. Dr. Werner recently shared, “Serving as a faculty liaison for a student focus group, I would welcome student ideas and perspectives and work to generate direct student involvement in sustainability projects. In turn, this could lead to the development of student led volunteer events and research projects. As a team, we could work towards identifying ways to apply sustainability to the field of dentistry.”
As an early action item, Dr. Werner is eager to not only increase awareness of our community’s need to build sustainable models to support our future environment, but she also plans to make resources readily available to drive change with great intention.