Dr. David Klingman, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, PNWU-SDM
PNWU-SDM’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Dr. David Klingman, joined the team in May 2023. Dr. Klingman was born and grew up near West Point NY and attended college at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, majoring in Biochemistry and minoring in Linguistics. After completing dental school at UMDNJ-New Jersey Dental School (now Rutgers School of Dental Medicine) and completing two years of hospital based dental residency at University Hospital, Newark NJ, and 5 years as an associate dentist in private practice, Dr. Klingman entered service in the United States Air Force in 2003, deploying in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM. During his service, Dr. Klingman and his family lived in multiple states and on Okinawa, Japan.
Having completed seven assignments, including residencies and board certification in both Comprehensive Dentistry and Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Dr. Klingman has retired after 20 years of military service and brings over a decade of teaching experience, as an Associate Professor at Uniformed Services University and Adjunct Associate Professor at West Virginia School of Dental Medicine, to Pacific Northwest University School of Dental Medicine.
Dr. Klingman has had a particularly strong interest in educational content development and delivery, teacher-learner interaction, and teaching through a mentorship model. When asked, “What do you find most gratifying about the teaching and educational process?” Dr. Klingman responded:
“I’ve come to view teaching in the graduate and postgraduate environments, particularly in medicine, dentistry, nursing, and the health professions, to be most effective in a collaborative environment and through the lens of an interprofessional model, viewing mentorship and coaching as equally if not more important than the physical act of didactic and procedural learning.
With the sheer mass of information and our individual capacity to digest and filter all the information coming to us as healthcare providers, the interprofessional model being considered and employed at PNWU, executed through engagement through community partners who each bring expertise and, of course, the needs of the underserved populations of the Pacific Northwest, drew me to an environment where all the stakeholders will have a role in building the educational platform and enriching the learning environment and improving access to the quality healthcare that every person deserves.”