Esra Sahingur, associate dean of graduate studies and student research at Penn Dental Medicine, has been selected as a 2020-2021 fellow in the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program. ELAM, which advocates for women occupying influential leadership roles in academic health centers, accepts 60 candidates each year after a competitive selection process. Dr. Sahingur will begin working on her project in September.

The program focuses on increasing the number of qualified women for executive leadership positions in academic medicine, dentistry, public health, and pharmacy. The one-year fellowship involves leadership training, networking, mentoring, and an Institutional Action Project (IAP). Each fellow in the program develops and evaluates an IAP with the intention of supporting their respective Institution’s initiatives for organizational growth.

ELAM is a core program of Drexel University College of Medicine. Beginning in 1995, the program was developed for women faculty at the associate or full professor level who exhibit the most potential for taking on executive leadership roles at academic health centers within the next five years.

Dr. Sahingur, who is also an associate professor in the department of periodontics, joined Penn Dental Medicine in 2019. After obtaining her DDS from Istanbul University and postgraduate degrees from State University of New York at Buffalo, she maintained a faculty position at Virginia Commonwealth University for 13 years prior to coming to Penn Dental Medicine. During this time, she was recognized for her research program and led numerous projects funded by the National Institutes of Health and other sources, and mentored several students and faculty. In addition, she was a recipient of VCU’s Women in Science, Dentistry and Medicine Award; the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research; and the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award.

A Diplomate of the American Board of Periodontology and an internationally recognized scientist, Dr. Sahingur actively serves academia and the scientific research community as an editorial board member of the Journal of Dental Research and Molecular Oral Microbiology. She is also a standing member of Center for Scientific Review in National Institute of Health, Oral, Dental and Craniofacial Sciences Study Section.