Juanita Lozano-Pineda, D.D.S., was selected for the Alex Briseño Leadership Development Program.
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Juanita Lozano-Pineda, D.D.S., clinical assistant professor and director of predoctoral dental outreach programs in the Dental School, recently was selected to attend the Alex Briseño Leadership Development Program sponsored by the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Dr. Pineda is in the preventive and public health dentistry division of the department of community dentistry. She is a past recipient of an Executive Research Committee Research Enhancement Funds Pilot Grant from the Health Science Center.

The Briseño course is a six-month leadership development program that runs from April to September with a graduation ceremony in October.

Eye on service
“I am interested in promoting a healthier community in San Antonio, and I wanted to participate in this leadership program to learn more about how the city operates, what it needs, and how to better serve certain populations by networking with community leaders,” Dr. Pineda said.

Dr. Pineda, a native of Brownsville, received her baccalaureate degree from St. Mary’s University in 1983 and was accepted to the Health Science Center Dental School. She graduated with honors in May 1987. After four years in private practice and 14 years at the El Centro del Barrio Community Health Center (now Centro Med), she joined the Dental School faculty part time in 2002 and went full time in December 2005.

Dr. Pineda has distinguished herself through service in the community and on Dental School committees. She has worked with dental students since 1990, first as an adjunct faculty member while at El Centro del Barrio and now in the third-year dental student preventive clinic and in clinical dental rotations to South Texas.

Research program
The Health Science Center pilot grant enabled Dr. Pineda to be part of a study that continues today. The research team seeks to determine whether children treated for asthma are more susceptible to tooth decay than non-asthmatic siblings. “Certainly multiple factors contribute to caries, including diet, oral hygiene and exposure to fluoride,” Dr. Pineda said. “We are comparing siblings because these factors will be most similar among siblings. The primary difference, therefore, will be the treatment for asthma. We anticipate there may be some implications based on side effects of some asthma medications.”

She continues to gather data from 800 children under an expanded grant to Bennett Amaechi, Ph.D., assistant professor of community dentistry.

Developing leaders
The San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, chartered in 1929, is the oldest of the 600 Hispanic chambers nationwide. One of its measurements for success is the development of Hispanic business and academic leaders such as Dr. Pineda.

The Briseño course honors Alex Briseño, who served as San Antonio city manager under four mayors from 1990 until 2001.

For more information, contact Will Sansom at 210-567-2579.

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The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is the leading research institution in South Texas and one of the major health sciences universities in the world. With an operating budget of $536 million, the Health Science Center is the chief catalyst for the $14.3 billion biosciences and health care industry, the leading sector in San Antonio’s economy. The Health Science Center has had an estimated $35 billion impact on the region since inception and has expanded to six campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. More than 22,000 graduates (physicians, dentists, nurses, scientists and allied health professionals) serve in their fields, including many in Texas. Health Science Center faculty are international leaders in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, stroke prevention, kidney disease, orthopaedics, research imaging, transplant surgery, psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, pain management, genetics, nursing, allied health, dentistry and many other fields.