Faculty and Staff | UCLA School of Dentistry

BRIGHT-PD Faculty

Dr. Ramos wearing a white coat with a child on a dental chair in the background

Francisco Ramos-Gomez, DDS, MS, MPH (Principal Investigator) is UCLA Professor and Chair of Preventive and Restorative Oral Health Sciences, board-certified and former Regional Head Start Oral Health Consultant. He conducts research through the NIDCR-UCSF CAN-DO Center to Reduce Oral Health Disparities and has conducted epidemiological surveys and research on early childhood caries (ECC) in San Diego and San Francisco. He has been involved in the Healthy Teeth, Healthy Kids CMS demonstration project in Alameda County and a consultant for the HRSA Bureau of Primary Care Early Childhood Caries Prevention Project and Oral Health Disparities Collaborative focusing on Perinatal and Infant Oral Care. He was the 2009 President of the Hispanic Dental Association and founder of the Multicultural Oral Health Action Committee. A pioneer in designing new strategies, protocols and successful innovative models on the prevention of ECC, Dr. Ramos-Gomez is chair of the Bi-National University of California Oral Health task force, member of the AAPD Scientific Affairs Council and AAPD Perinatal and Infant Oral Health Council, member of the California Oral Health Action Coalition and member of the Executive Committee of the Section on Pediatric Dentistry and Oral Health for the American Academy of Pediatrics. He also is a consultant for the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA).

BRIGHT-PD Staff

Janni Kinsler, PhD is currently the Project Evaluator for the UCLA School of Dentistry’s BRIGHT-PD project. Formerly, she was an Assistant Project Scientist in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research at UCLA. She was also a Lecturer in the Department of Preventive Medicine at USC. She specializes in program development and evaluation. Over the past 17 years, she has been the project evaluator on several national and international grants. Since 2002, she has been an evaluation specialist on several HIV-related programs targeting disadvantaged populations in Los Angeles County using both qualitative and quantitative research methods. She has also evaluated media and IT-related projects using mixed methods and was the evaluation specialist/co-investigator on a grant to help governmental and non-governmental organizations in Los Angeles understand, plan and assess programs to address violent extremism. As a Lecturer at USC, she taught a course on global health research and program evaluation. Her experience in conducting formative research and program evaluation in a variety of settings can contribute greatly to the BRIGHT-PD project. Dr. Kinsler started working for BRIGHT-PD in October 2018.

Stephanie Parkinson wearing a white shirt, and outdoor background

Stephanie Parkinson is the Project Coordinator for the UCLA School of Dentistry, Section of Pediatric Dentistry Residency Program (BRIGHT-PD). Before joining the BRIGHT-PD team, Stephanie taught English as a second language to students in St. Louis and central Slovakia. In addition to working with a diverse population of students, her responsibilities included curriculum improvement and development, fundraising and donor relations, organizing events and presentations, as well as writing and editing for program-related newsletters and websites. She is a graduate of Concordia University, Nebraska with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and minors in Writing and Composition/Rhetoric.