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Rita Parma, D.D.S.

Associate Professor

Director of the International Dental Education Program

Dr. Rita Parma is the Director of the International Dentist Education Program, (IDEP). As Director, she is responsible for recruitment, admissions, and training of International Dentists seeking to practice in the United States. She has served an academic role in creating the curriculum for the IDEP Introduction Course and led in the development of the School of Dentistry’s new pre-clinical curriculum as the Introduction to Patient Care Track Leader. Previous to these roles, she served as the Director of Preclinical Operative Dentistry where she developed the Aim High Hand Skills program and a new innovative introductory Operative and Fixed Prosthodontics course that incorporated senior Dental students as peer teachers. Dr. Parma has been in a clinical teaching role for over 20 years as an Attending Faculty on the predoctoral clinic and has served as an Operative Representative and as a General Practice Group Assistant Leader.
Her expertise is in admissions, curriculum development, and evidence-based practice. Dr. Parma has presented her research on early adoption of evidence-based dentistry, curriculum to enhance the development of clinical hand-skills, and predictors of clinical success for admissions at national and international conferences. She has served as president for the American Dental Education Association Section on Operative Dentistry as part of The Consortium of Operative Dentistry Educators.  Rita Parma reviews for the Journal of Esthetic and Restorative Dentistry, Journal of Operative Dentistry, as well as the Journal of Dental Education. She has had an active role as a Champion of Evidence-Based Dentistry for the American Dental Association. She has represented our institution as a delegate to the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) and as a Liaison to the ADEA Commission on change.
As the Daughter of an Immigrant from Mexico, Dr. Parma's passion is working with International Dentists from all over the world and getting to be a part of their journey in fulfilling their dreams here in the United States.