For immediate use: Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016
At 1:15 p.m. today, Feb. 10, the UNC School of Dentistry will hold a ceremony to remember three inspiring students who left us far too soon. Deah Barakat, a second-year student at the UNC School of Dentistry, his wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, who would have joined him at the dental school this past fall, and her sister, Razan Abu-Salha, an undergraduate student at N.C. State, were the victims of a fatal shooting Feb. 10, 2015.
Day of Remembrance Event Schedule
Please note: times are estimated and may change.
12:30 p.m. Media load-in
1 p.m. Morning classes/clinics conclude at the UNC School of Dentistry
1:15 p.m. Remembrance event begins; Dean Jane Weintraub makes opening remarks
1:20 p.m. Remarks from Council Woman Sally Greene
1:25 p.m. Remarks from UNC Provost Jim Dean
1:30 p.m. Remarks from Kaushal Gandhi, DDS Candidate 2017
1:35 p.m. Moment of silence
1:36 p.m. Introduction of Dr. Mohammad Abu-Salha and Dr. Suzanne Barakat
1:37 p.m. Remarks from the families
1:55 p.m. Closing remarks from Dean Weintraub
Speaker Bios
UNC Provost Jim Dean
James W. Dean Jr. is the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the former dean at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, where he is a professor of organizational behavior. Leadership, organizational change, strategic decision-making, international management, and organizational performance improvement are the focus of his research, teaching and consulting. Dr. Dean served as Dean of the Kenan-Flagler Business School from 2008-2013; Senior Associate Dean from 2007-2008; Associate Dean of Executive Development from 2002-2007; and Associate Dean of the MBA Program from 1998-2002. He earned his doctorate and master’s degrees in organizational behavior from Carnegie Mellon University. He earned his bachelor’s from The Catholic University.
UNC School of Dentistry Jane Weintraub
Dean Jane Weintraub started her appointment at the UNC School of Dentistry in 2011. That marked a return to Chapel Hill for Dean Weintraub; she was a member of the Department of Dental Ecology from 1988-1995. Dean Weintraub returned to UNC from the University of California-San Francisco where she held their first endowed professorship and led UCSF’s NIH-funded Center to Address Disparities in Children’s Oral Health – known as CAN DO. After its first seven-year cycle of funding, the center received an additional seven years of funding totaling $24.4 million, representing the biggest research grant in the UCSF School of Dentistry’s history. Dean Weintraub’s notable honors include her induction into the International College of Dentists, her appointment on the NIH’s National Advisory Dental and Craniofacial Research Council, and the 2010 American Dental Association’s Norton M. Ross Award for Excellence in Clinical Research.
Chapel Hill Council Member Sally Greene
Sally Greene currently is serving her third term on the Chapel Hill Town Council. She served eight years on the council before taking a year off in 2012, then was appointed to fill a vacant seat in January 2013. Upon her reelection in November 2013, she was selected by her peers as mayor pro tem. Sally moved to Chapel Hill in 1987 after a career as a corporate attorney in Washington, D.C. She holds a JD from George Washington University and a PhD in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. From 1998-2003 she worked as a lawyer for the Raleigh firm Fuller, Becton, Slifkin and Bell. Upon her election to the Council in 2003, she continued to work independently as an appellate brief writer in civil cases. She has held adjunct and administrative positions in the School of Law and the College of Arts and Sciences at UNC-Chapel Hill, including the position of associate director of UNC’s Center for the Study of the American South.
Kaushal Gandhi, DDS Candidate 2017 and Spurgeon President
Kaushal Gandhi is a third-year dental student who earned her bachelor’s degree in dental hygiene from the UNC School of Dentistry in 2006. She’s highly active in student organizations, including the American Student Dental Association, Spurgeon Student Government (of which she’s the president), Student Research Group and the Student Health Action Coalition, which provides free care on Wednesday nights to the local community. She traveled to Uganda with one of the school’s international service projects prior to beginning her second year of dental school. Kaushal is also a founding member of the school’s student ambassador group, which has now been named for Deah – the Barakat Student Ambassadors. (Deah was a co-president of the group at the time of his death.)
Reference Information
Deah’s YouCaring video to fundraise for his trip to Turkey
Student-led day of service (DEAH DAY) summary
UNC and School of Dentistry Barakat and Abu-Salha Award fund information
Barakat and Abu-Salha Posthumously Honored with MLK Unsung Hero Award
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UNC School of Dentistry contact: Tiffany Brannan, (919) 537-3260, (919) 264-6277, tiffany_brannan@unc.edu
UNC-Chapel Hill Communications and Public Affairs contact: Jim Gregory, (919) 962-8431, jim.gregory@unc.edu