Gerbert Receives Dental School's 2008 Faculty Research Award

Gerbert Receives Dental School’s 2008 Faculty Research Award Barbara Gerbert is being honored with the Faculty Research Award at the UCSF School of Dentistry’s 2008 Research and Clinical Excellence Day. Gerbert Receives Dental School’s 2008 Faculty Research Award Barbara Gerbert, PhD, is being honored this year with the Faculty Research Award at the UCSF School of Dentistry Research and Clinical Excellence Day. The campus community is invited to hear Gerbert present her lecture on Research and Clinical Excellence Day, which is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 16, 2008, in Cole Hall on the Parnassus campus. Gerbert is professor and chair of the Division of Behavioral Sciences, Professionalism and Ethics in the Department of Preventive and Restorative Dental Sciences at the UCSF School of Dentistry. She is also director of the Center for Health Improvement and Prevention Studies at UCSF. She joined the faculty of the UCSF School of Dentistry in 1985. Her research addresses the role of health care professionals in reducing the barriers to optimal preventive health care, focusing on behaviors that are: • difficult for providers to address and patients to change • sensitive areas that both patients and providers may have difficulty discussing and • known to be important contributors to morbidity and mortality, including risky substance use and sexual behaviors and domestic violence One focus of her research is on how oral health care professionals can best serve patients who are victims of domestic violence. Gerbert developed the Ask, Validate, Document and Refer (AVDR) tutorial, a proven, brief educational program designed specifically to educate dentists about providing an effective response to domestic violence. Gerbert’s research has resulted in more than 100 peer-reviewed publications in prestigious medical and dental journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association, American Journal of Public Health, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, Journal of the American Dental Association and Journal of Dental Education. Gerbert has been funded by six different National Institutes of Health agencies since 1980. She was selected as a Sigma Xi (the Scientific Research Society) Distinguished Lecturer from 2007 to 2009. In 2005, Gerbert was honored with the UCSF Chancellor’s Award for the Advancement of Women. As a member of the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on the Status of Women, Gerbert authored a report, titled “Slow Steps to Change,” which took a critical look at the progress made from 1971 to 2004 in addressing the disparities among men and women faculty at the top-rated health sciences university.