Bulletin of Dental Education Article

Effective August 16, Fatemeh Afshari, D.M.D., M.S., assumed the role of the University of Illinois Chicago College of Dentistry’s (UIC COD) first chief dental informatics officer. In this newly established position, she will oversee the clinical information technologies used by the college, serving as a strategic liaison and content expert connecting clinicians, researchers, students and information technology teams across UIC COD, UI Health and the university.

Fatemeh Afshari, D.M.D., M.S.

Dr. Afshari will lead efforts to ensure the college’s electronic health record systems provide effective clinical decision support, optimized workflows, robust analytics and enhanced provider and patient engagement to advance UIC’s institutional goals in student learning, patient safety, clinical outcomes and research.

A member of UIC COD’s faculty since 2009, Dr. Afshari has held multiple leadership roles within the predoctoral program, including teaching faculty, course codirector and course director. Since 2017, she has served as managing partner of the group practice Vivaldi Clinic, overseeing patient care within the clinic as well as the clinical education of nearly 50 students annually. She has spearheaded the development of a comprehensive student dashboard and several axiUm-based modules, including caries risk assessment, after-visit summaries and nutritional counseling, leveraging electronic health record data to support educational and clinical excellence.

In her most recent role, prior to this promotion, as Director of Calibration and Assessment, Dr. Afshari was instrumental in maintaining Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) compliance for the UIC COD clinical education program. She organizes and facilitates faculty training and calibration and oversees the Clinical Objective Standardized Clinical Examination.

Dr. Afshari earned her bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University, a doctorate in dental medicine from Harvard School of Dental Medicine and a certificate in prosthodontics and Master of Science in Oral Sciences from UIC COD. She completed a year-long ADEA Leadership Institute Fellowship, further strengthening her leadership skills.

Her professional engagement includes active service in the American College of Prosthodontists and work as a site visitor for CODA. She has received multiple honors for her teaching excellence, including the 2014 UIC Teaching Recognition Award, 2016 Claude R. Baker Award for Excellence in Teaching Predoctoral Fixed Prosthodontics, 2024 Jon Daniel Award and 2024 UIC Award for Excellence in Teaching.

An accomplished scholar, Dr. Afshari has coauthored more than 35 peer-reviewed papers, contributed to several textbook chapters and serves on the editorial review board for the Journal of Dental Education.

Courtesy of University of Illinois Chicago College of Dentistry

Published on October 8, 2025