Elizabeth Mertz, PhD, MA, a Professor in the Department of Preventive and Restorative Dental Sciences, has focused her career on reducing oral health disparities and improving access to care through healthcare policy and workforce development. She is also a devoted mentor who has helped countless UCSF learners forge their own paths in public health.
Beth Mertz, PhD, MA, Professor in the Department of Preventive and Restorative Dental Sciences
Mertz has seen firsthand the role mentorship plays in guiding learners to public health pursuits. The dental students she works with have many career options and may not initially see a path for success in public health. Given the persistent disparities that exist in health care, she believes it is critical to develop a pipeline of leaders to seek solutions to the problems that perpetuate inequitable care.
In recent years, a number of Mertz’s mentees at UCSF Dentistry have found success in pursuing public health careers. Often it begins with learners expressing specific interests about access to care or how to remove systemic barriers. With their initiative and her mentorship, the learners begin to see career opportunities in public health that hadn’t been on their radar previously.
Stanley Onuegbu, DDS Class of 2024Stanley Onuegbu, DDS Class of 2024, was one of those learners.
"I was struck by the extreme need evidenced by the patients and the dentist’s amazing ability to heal their ailments, often in one visit. Experiences like these drew me to dentistry and gave me a keen insight into the disparity between the needs of vulnerable populations and the available resources. Thus, I have made it my career goal to not only treat patients clinically but also work on issues impacting access to care."
In 2024, Onuegbu received the Zuckerman Fellowship through the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard. This will provide financial support as he completes a Master of Public Health program as well as exposing him to co-curricular experiences to prepare him for leadership in public service.
Katja Morgan, DDS Class of 2022
Katarina (Katja) Morgan, DDS Class of 2022, received an MPH in Health Policy from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2023. She believes that it’s impossible to separate healthcare from the social context.
“Dentistry and medicine do not operate independently from the rest of society. However, in dental school we are trained to diagnose and treat oral health conditions without properly addressing the social factors that lead patients to become sick in the first place. While dentists can be a lifeline for their communities, providers alone cannot transform society without investment at every level of government.”
The intertwined nature of government choices and individual health led Morgan to make a choice that she believes leads to the greatest societal benefit.
“I chose to pursue health policy as a way to bridge this gap between politics and clinical dentistry by promoting policies that reflect the needs of both patients and the dental providers who care for them."
Jean Star, DDS Class of 2017, had been interested in public health prior to enrolling in dental school. In high school, she had volunteered at a mobile dental clinic that provided care in underserved communities. She saw the improvement in patients’ quality of life and thought that dentistry might be a good way for her to help others.
Jean Star, DDS, Assistant Professor in the Department of Orofacial SciencesAfter finishing college at USC, she came to UCSF Dentistry. When she was in her second year of dental school, she began to wonder if there was a way to augment her education.
“Things were becoming highly procedure focused,” Star said. “I had learned how to create a perfect crown, but I wanted to look at other ways that I could expand my role as a dentist in order to benefit patients.”
There was no pathway within the existing dental program that would meet her aspirations at the time. Conversations with Mertz, her mentor, allowed Star to see the pathway to a career in public health.
“I took a leave of absence from dental school to go to Harvard for an MPH. When I completed that, I returned to UCSF and finished my DDS and stayed on at UCSF to complete my pediatric dental residency training.”
Star is now Assistant Professor in the Department of Orofacial Sciences at UCSF Dentistry. She is a pediatric dentist committed to removing obstacles to care for all children, particularly those who are underserved or have special health needs.
She is presently working to incorporate public health training into the UCSF Dentistry pediatric dental residency. Her goal is to provide learners options to work toward a future in public health clinical work or research.
In 2020, Pediatric Dentistry received an HRSA grant that enabled the creation of a Master of Public Health (MPH) track within the residency program. Star has directed this program since its inception and it has seen tremendous uptake by residents, with 13 pediatric dental trainees completing an MPH through this initiative in the past five years.
“In my role, I coordinate the integration of MPH training within the residency, mentor residents through their MPH studies, and assist with placements at community sites,” Star said. “Most residents work with rural and underserved county oral health program/departments of public health to complete a health promotion project as part of their MPH.”
Strong mentorship was an important influence that helped Drs. Star, Morgan, and Onuegbu find the career path that suited them. Their stories illustrate the many benefits of mentorship, particularly creating a new generation of mentors and building our public health workforce.
Morgan credits her mentor with guiding her toward the professional pathway she chose to follow.
“The mentorship I received at UCSF School of Dentistry changed the trajectory of the rest of my life. Dr. Mertz worked closely with me to develop my policy knowledge base and professional network. She facilitated my attendance at policy conferences where I had the opportunity to network with oral health advocates across the country. Most importantly, she challenged me to explore health policy as a career path, even when the professional track within dentistry was not clearly defined. Dr. Mertz’s unwavering confidence in my potential is what encouraged me to bet on myself, and I would not be working in D.C. today if not for her.”
Mentorship similarly encouraged Onuegbu to be more optimistic about working toward his goals.
"I remember reading The Other Wes Moore by the current Governor of Maryland, Wes Moore, where he writes, ‘The expectations that others place on us help us form our expectations of ourselves.’ I believe this to be true, and I feel incredibly fortunate for the mentors I have had in my life. Specifically, at UCSF, Dr. Mertz, Dr. Star, Dr. Taylor, Dr. Govind, and UCSF alumni Dr. Swann and Dr. Alston, have all given me the confidence to pursue a career in public health—one that I am excited about and believe will be incredibly fulfilling."
Onuegbu has been impressed by the abundance of opportunities that a career in dentistry offers but believes that the best way to reach individual goals is to seek out a mentor who can offer advice and guidance that match your specific path.
"Many less traditional routes can be challenging to pursue without a mentor in the field. The earlier you find someone doing work similar to what interests you, the more effectively you can shape your dental school experience to prepare you for that work in the future."
