Leading Through A Time of Change

By Jennifer Langham

A member of the faculty at the dental school since 2000, Chávez has practiced in private, community health, long-term care and hospital settings including Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe in her hometown of El Paso, Texas, the Veterans Administration in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the Jewish Home for the Aged in San Francisco and On Lok PACE across the Bay Area where she has directed student rotations. For a decade, she also developed and directed a clinical teaching program for the dental school at Laguna Honda Hospital, a 780-bed long-term care and rehabilitation hospital in San Francisco. Since 2019, she has been the director of the dental school’s Pacific Center for Equity in Oral Health Care, which is focused on addressing the needs of individuals who have limited access to oral health care as well as those with limited access to dental education.

Dr. Cindy Lyon ’86, former associate dean for oral health education, commends Chávez for being a consistent advocate for the underserved and geriatric patient base within the dental school and the community at large. “I admire Elisa so much for her unwavering focus and support of these patients in her clinical work, her teaching and her advocacy,” says Lyon. “She’s wholly committed to bringing information and energy to the care of this population, ensuring that they’re included in priorities and policies.”

I felt that I was at a place in my career where this was a way I could contribute.

Chávez says the Dugoni School of Dentistry has been a great place to pursue her professional interests. “The field of geriatrics is not one of the more glamorous areas of focus in dentistry, but it is endlessly interesting. And, oral health care is so important to provide for this population. Here at the Dugoni School, I have been able to treat this underserved patient population, as well as teach students to provide this important care and I don’t know if I would have had those opportunities at any other place.”

She compares her new role with her decades of scholarship and teaching. “Many of my previous experiences required collaboration, both internally and externally, creating paths where there weren’t any before. In a way, being interim dean is similar: there’s not a road map and it requires us to make the most of opportunities to work together.”

Lyon saw Chávez’s leadership skills in action when they both served on the dental school’s Strategic Planning Oversight Committee, which Chávez chaired from 2016 to 2022. “Dr. Chávez met with us regularly to clarify our goals and how we were measuring outcomes, and she had a diplomatic way of holding us accountable if we weren’t making progress,” Lyon recalls. “She would investigate whether priorities had changed and if we had the resources needed, demonstrating real leadership in moving a large number of people forward on an important set of initiatives.”

In addition to her work as a clinician and educator, Chávez has, for the past 10 years, been a part of The Santa Fe Group, an oral health-focused think tank of which Dr. Arthur A. Dugoni ’48 was one of the founding members. The Santa Fe Group advances oral health equity, dental-medical integration, Medicare dental coverage and oral health policy through advocacy and research. As a fellow, then a scholar and now a board member of The Santa Fe Group, Chávez has been an advocate for the oral health needs of older adults nationwide. “This has opened up opportunities for advocacy, but more broadly it has allowed me to learn from people who are experts in their fields as we all look for ways to improve oral health across the nation,” she says.

Many of my previous experiences required collaboration, both internally and externally, creating paths where there weren’t any before.

Another unexpected occurrence on Chávez’s career path has been her involvement during the last three years with the Pacific Summer High School Institute on the Stockton campus. She has worked with faculty members, staff and dental students to develop a curriculum and programming for the “future dentists” cohort, introducing the dental profession to high school students from across the country, even internationally, during the two-week summer camp. 

“It was a great experience to see the light bulb go on with some of these young and ambitious students, when they realized, ‘Oh, this is cool and something I want to do,’” says Chávez.

Chávez was honored for her mentorship of dental school students in 2023 when she received the university-wide Outstanding Student Organization Advisor Award for her leadership working with first-generation students and students from underserved communities.

The summer experience changed the lives of these young people, says Stan Constantino, associate dean of admissions and student affairs, who explains that several of the students who participated in the Pacific Summer High School Institute have gone on to matriculate into the pre-dental program on the Stockton campus. “I truly credit Dr. Chávez’s mentorship as the spark that motivated these students’ interest in dentistry and in Pacific,” he says.

Chávez was honored for her mentorship of dental school students in 2023 when she received the university-wide Outstanding Student Organization Advisor Award for her leadership working with first-generation students and students from underserved communities, one of many faculty awards she has received. Constantino says, “With all of her clinical and academic responsibilities, she still finds time to mentor students one-on-one, and many of the students she has mentored have graduated and are now practicing in cities across the U.S.”

Chávez sees her time as interim dean, while the search for a new dean is underway, as an opportunity for the whole Dugoni School of Dentistry community to pause and take a fresh look at where the school is and where it’s going.

Constantino observes that Chávez’s skills as a mentor and leader are respected by students and colleagues alike. “She’s not only admired for her wisdom and intelligence,” he says, “but also for that rare ability to listen deeply and connect personally with people.” 

In her first months serving as interim dean, Chávez has employed these listening skills in numerous meetings with stakeholders throughout the dental school and the university, where Lyon says that Chávez has shown herself to be a thoughtful and pragmatic leader during this time of transition. “She acknowledges the challenges we’re up against and makes it about the team rather than about herself,” Lyon says. “I appreciate that she recognizes the uncertainty of the school’s position but also reassures people that as a community we’re going to be okay.”

Chávez sees her time as interim dean, while the search for a new dean is underway, as an opportunity for the whole Dugoni School of Dentistry community to pause and take a fresh look at where the school is and where it’s going.

“This is a chance for us to ask, ‘What are the opportunities we want to continue to pursue? Is this a time to think about something new?’ I want to make sure people feel supported because that’s how we’re going to move forward,” says Chávez.

Jennifer Langham is a regular contributor to Contact Point and other University of the Pacific publications.