Book Contributors
Authors
Dr Sowmya Shetty is a teaching focussed academic at The University of Queensland. Her teaching practice is student-centred and holistic, with a focus on creating and facilitating exciting and innovative T&L initiatives. Her aim is to construct a novice community of evidence-based practice to bridge the theory-practice gap. She has used purpose-built virtual patients, as an underpinning pedagogy and utilised authentic simulation for care planning workshops. She is also a strong advocate for collaborative team-teaching practices, to clearly identify the clinical application of core concepts and to promote and enhance student learning.
In her role as Lecturer in Interprofessional Education at Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences, she coordinates a first year large cross faculty course called HLTH1000 (Professional, People and Healthcare) and currently leads the HaBS faculty Interprofessional Education curriculum. Sowmya is also Discipline Lead for Oral Biosciences at the School of Dentistry.
Sowmya recently led the Early Years Experiential Learning In Dentistry team that won a UQ Awards for Programs that Enhance Learning. Previously, in 2022, Sowmya was awarded a HABS Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (COCSL) for her teaching practice and the support of learning that influences, motivates and inspires students to learn, utilising authentic simulation and engagement strategies to foster critical thinking approaches and motivate dental students towards life-long learning. She is also part of the 2022 award winning UQ Dental Clinical Simulation Team awarded HABS Excellence in Clinical and Professional Skills Education (ECLiPSE) Award for team work in independantly designing and implementing a sustainable, novel dentally relevant emergency training module for year 3-5 BDSc Hons students at UQ.
name: Wei Chen
Dr Wei Chen is a general dentist and is currently studying a Doctor of Medicine at the University of Queensland.
He collaborated on multiple student staff projects with Drs Shetty and Zachar, to co-create new custom designed virtual patients alongside his peers Raewyn and Wei Qi since 2022. The team then worked on this novel resource for early year dentistry students embarking on first clinical placements.
Besides dentistry, Wei enjoys playing chess and programming.
name: Raewyn Huang
Dr Raewyn Huang is a general dentist who graduated from the University of Queensland in 2023.
Since 2022, Raewyn collaborated with Drs Shetty and Zachar to co-design and co-create authentic virtual patients to showcase the communication skills needed for first clinical placements in a public health facility in Brisbane. Alongwith her peers through true student staff partnerships, these resources have come to be embedded in this open education resource.
She currently works in both the private and public sectors.
Outside of dentistry, Raewyn enjoys classical music and is also an amateur bird enthusiast.
name: Wei Qi Zhang
Dr Wei Qi Zhang is a general dentist. She graduated from the University of Queensland in 2023.
Since their fourth year of dental school, Wei Qi, alongside Raewyn and Wei, collaborated with Dr. Shetty and Dr. Zachar on “Communication Essentials in Dentistry.”
Beyond dentistry, Wei Qi finds joy in watching music performances, movies and exploring different corners of the world through travel.
Jessica is a General Dental Practitioner who graduated in 2015 with a Bachelor of Dental Science. She is a Lecturer and Dental Officer at the UQ Oral Health Centre. Jessica has previously worked as an Honorary Dental Officer at Nepean Hospital and as a Dental Officer at Westmead Hospital. Jessica has completed further studies including a Bachelor of Science (Honours), Graduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, a Graduate Diploma in Clinical Dentistry (Surgical Dentistry) and a Master of Clinical Dentistry (Oral Surgery).
She has received numerous research publications, grants and awards including 1st Prize at the IADR Unilever Hatton Competition and IADR ANZ Colgate Research Poster Competition. She teaches and supervises the discipline of oral surgery to the undergraduate dental students. In 2020, Jessica received a Commendation for Substantive Contributions to Student Learning and in 2022, she led the Clinical Simulation team to win an Excellence in Clinical and Professional Skills Education Award by HaBS.
In 2022, she recieved a Commendation in Teaching Excellence award for Programs that Enhance Learning by UQ and was part of the winning team from Dentistry for UQ teaching excellence award for early years experiential learning in 2023.
She has been awarded a Membership of the Faculty of Dental Trainers of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and a Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy due to her commitment to dental education. Her teaching philosophy revolves around providing stimulating learning environments so that her students can develop into well rounded health professionals who can become leaders within the profession and local community, delivering optimum health care.
