Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery announces new chair

The Dental College of Georgia has announced that Dr. Antonia Kolokythas has been named chair of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) effective Jan. 1, 2023.

She currently serves as chair of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and ambulatory director of OMFS and hospital dentistry services at the University of Rochester-Eastman Institute for Oral Health at Strong Memorial Hospital. Kolokythas joined the University of Rochester in 2015 from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Dentistry, where she served from 2008-2015, as an associate professor, program director and director of research in the Department of OMFS. 

After earning a dental degree at the University of Thessaloniki in Greece, she completed residency training in OMFS at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2004, followed by two surgical fellowships in head and neck maxillofacial oncology and reconstruction at the University of Maryland at Baltimore and the University of California at San Francisco.

Immediately after fellowship training, she returned to the University of Illinois as full-time tenure-track faculty. Within six years she was promoted to the rank of associate professor with tenure. During her tenure at UIC, she earned a Doctor of Dental Surgery and a Master of Science in Oral Science. 

The focus of her clinical practice and research is in oral cancer, specifically in early detection and diagnosis. Oral cancer and maxillofacial pathology are the primary foci of her numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals, book chapter contributions and presentations at national and international scientific meetings.

Kolokythas remains active in regional and national professional organizations and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Research and the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Cases. She also serves as section editor for the oral and maxillofacial surgery section for Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, and Oral Radiology. 

In 2008 she was awarded the Faculty Education Development Award from the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons Foundation. In 2014 she received the Faculty Research Award and the DuBrul Faculty Achievement Award at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Dentistry and was named one of the Top 25 Women in Dentistry in Dental Products Report.

In 2015 she was named department chair and program director of the University of Rochester-Eastman Institute for Oral Health Advanced Education OMFS Residency Training Program. Kolokythas was also inducted to the American College of Surgeons in 2016.

She earned a second master’s degree in health professions education at the Warner School of Education at the University of Rochester in 2019. She also completed the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine fellowship program at Drexel University in 2019.

In 2020, Kolokythas was promoted to full professor with tenure in the University of Rochester’s schools of medicine and dentistry. She serves as an examiner for the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and as a content expert in surgical reconstruction for the organization.