ACD

Mentoring Success Stories

Deborah Studen-Pavlovich, DMD, and Dennis N. Ranalli, DDS, MDS

School of Dental Medicine

As professor and former chair of the Department of Pediatric Dentistry, senior associate dean Dennis Ranalli has taught scores of students, but perhaps none has benefited so completely as his mentee Deborah Studen-Pavlovich. Assigned to Ranalli's instruction group as a first-year dental student, Studen-Pavlovich found that he not only challenged his students—he strongly encouraged them, inspiring her to follow an academic career path in pediatric dentistry herself. Following a position at the University of Detroit Mercy, Studen-Pavlovich was eventually recruited back to the Department of Pediatric Dentistry as an assistant professor and, last year, became chair—taking on the very position her own mentor once held.

For Ranalli, mentorship is "understanding your students can reach higher—you want to get them to do things they don't even know they can do." And as for mentoring her own students, Studen-Pavlovich's philosophy has clearly come from experience: "One can never underestimate the value of a good role model."



Academic careers are lifelong journeys that require professional skill sets to navigate successfully. More » Need a Mentor? » Be a Mentor » Share Your Story »	Mentoring Success Stories Deborah Studen-Pavlovich, DMD, and Dennis N. Ranalli, DDS, MDS School of Dental Medicine As professor and former chair of the Department of Pediatric Dentistry, senior associate dean Dennis Ranalli has taught scores of students, but perhaps none has benefited so completely as his mentee Deborah Studen-Pavlovich. Assigned to Ranalli's instruction group as a first-year dental student, Studen-Pavlovich found that he not only challenged his students—he strongly encouraged them, inspiring her to follow an academic career path in pediatric dentistry herself. Following a position at the University of Detroit Mercy, Studen-Pavlovich was eventually recruited back to the Department of Pediatric Dentistry as an assistant professor and, last year, became chair—taking on the very position her own mentor once held. For Ranalli, mentorship is "understanding your students can reach higher—you want to get them to do things they don't even know they can do." And as for mentoring her own students, Studen-Pavlovich's philosophy has clearly come from experience: "One can never underestimate the value of a good role model."