How do diseases arise in the oral cavity and how are they diagnosed? Those are questions that fascinated Dr. Sara C. Gordon, so she decided to become an oral pathologist. Dr. Gordon recently was hired as an Associate Professor and Director of Oral Pathology Graduate Education for the Department of Oral Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry.
Dr. Gordon most recently had been on the faculty of the University of Detroit Mercy after stints at the University of Western Ontario (UWO) at London, Ontario and DalhousieUniversity at Halifax in Canada. She earned her BS in biology from St. Mary’s University in Halifax; her BA in English and her DDS from Dalhousie; and her MS in pathology from UWO. Earlier in her career, she had a full-time dental practice in Nova Scotia.
At Detroit, she was instrumental “in setting up a comprehensive tobacco cessation and prevention program at the dental school, and participated in one of the largest oral pathology biopsy services in the country,” Dr. Gordon explained. In recent years, she has become increasingly interested in environmental pathology. “I am particularly intrigued by the influence of gender, socioeconomic status, and race on disease development,” she said.
Dr. Gordon is excited about collaboration opportunities at UIC. “I will be working with some clinical researchers whose work I have admired for years,” she said. “Together with them and using the wonderful facilities available at the College and in the Chicago area, I will be able to expand my interest in women’s health issues, particularly environmental pathology and some unique oral diseases that are associated with menopause.”
She also “will be helping to establish a new oral pathology biopsy service at UIC,” Dr. Gordon noted, and “teaching oral pathology to graduate students as well as dental students—a task I continue to love.”
Currently Vice President and President Elect of the CanadianAcademy of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology and Oral Medicine, Dr. Gordon also is on the National Council for the AmericanAcademy of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology.
Chicago
’s great jazz scene is of great interest to Dr. Gordon and her husband, Reg Fendick, as is the lakefront. “We are from eastern Canada and miss the ocean, so the beaches will be a treat,” she said. The couple has an 11-year old daughter, Grace, and the family has two dogs as well.
Dr. Gordon also is an artist who paints in watercolors and acrylics, and recently had a show with her mother, well known Nova Scotian artist Marian Gordon. The show was a fundraiser for a Chinese toddler who requires cleft lip and palate repair. “I am happy to say the show raised all the funds we need for this second surgery,” Dr. Gordon noted. “He will undoubtedly need more surgeries, so I will be using my imagination for further fundraising opportunities.”