Oral history interview with Dennis Mitchell, 2016

Biographical Note

Dennis Mitchell is a university administrator and dentist. He grew up in Canada, received his B.A. from Cornell University in 1986, his D.D.S. from Howard University in 1989, and his M.P.H. from Columbia University in 1996. Mitchell oversaw dental practice in Harlem and has researched on oral manifestations of HIV/AIDS and oral health disparities for underserved communities. At Columbia University, Mitchell served as the Senior Associate Provost for Faculty Diversity and Inclusion before being named the Vice Provost for Faculty Diversity and Inclusion in 2015

Scope and Contents

Dennis Mitchell begins the interview by talking about his family and his parents' immigration to from Trinidad and Tobago to Canada. He describes how playing on travel hockey teams was his first introduction to racism, and how he received different receptions as a black man in the United States and Russia. Mitchell then talks about his decision to go to Cornell University and to Howard University for dental school. Mitchell became a doctor in Central Harlem during the middle of the HIV/AIDs epidemic, and he details his experience doing research on oral manifestations of HIV/AIDs. He describes how the perception of HIV/AIDs at the time was that it was a predominately white, gay man's disease. Mitchell worked to change this perception and increase awareness about marginalized people that the disease affected, particularly women and people of color. Mitchell then discusses setting up dental clinics in Harlem. He talks about his transition from practice to the dental school at Columbia and his efforts to create the Minority Medical Education Program. Mitchell also talks about how a natural extension of the Minority Medical Education Program was a program aimed at increasing LGBTQ students in the College of Dentistry, which was the first of its kind at Columbia when created

Subjects

• AIDS (Disease)--United States--History.
• Beckenstein, Jamie, interviewer.
• Clark, Mary Marshall, interviewer.
• College administrators--Interviews.
• Columbia University.--Alumni and alumnae--Interviews.
• Columbia University. College of Dental Medicine.
• Dentists--Interviews.
• HIV-positive persons--Dental care.
• Harlem (New York, N.Y.)--Social conditions.
• Hockey--Social aspects
• Interviews
• Minorities--Medical care--United States.
• Mitchell, Dennis--Interviews.
• Oral histories

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 2016