Dental students, alumni, faculty and staff joined a diverse UCSF-wide contingent in celebrating the pioneering life and work of Daniel A. Collins, DDS, MDS, the first African-American member of the UCSF School of Dentistry faculty, at a gala Black History Month celebration in the Kalmanovitz Library’s Lange Room on Feb. 17.
The centerpiece of the evening was a speech by Dr. Collins’ son, Charles M. Collins, MA, JD, President and CEO of the YMCA of San Francisco, urging health professionals to carry forward his father’s work by keeping diversity and inclusion at the center of patient care, research, and education.
Dr. Daniel A. Collins was born in 1916 in Darlington, S.C. He graduated from Paine College in Augusta, Ga. in 1936, and received his DDS from Meharry Medical College in Nashville in 1941. Joining the faculty of the UCSF School of Dentistry in 1942, he earned a master’s degree (UCSF, 1944) and was an instructor, and later an assistant professor, until 1960. The UCSF School of Dentistry named Dr. Collins a Distinguished Alumnus in 1995. He passed away in 2007.
The School of Dentistry further plans to honor Dr. Collins’ memory and legacy as UCSF’s 150th anniversary celebration continues.
Pictured
Charles M. Collins (top photo, second from right) and distinguished guests at the 2015 UCSF Black History Month celebration
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