Although Sharon Dent, PhD, is new to her role as deanad interimfor the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, she has been a valuable part of the Graduate School since she joined the faculty in 1993. Both her philosophy on mentorship and her focus on the students foster a feeling of security in a new era for the institution.

Dent earned her PhD in Biochemistry at Rice University before pursuing a postdoctoral role at Baylor College of Medicine. After her time at Baylor, she filled a senior staff fellowship position at the NIH. From there, she decided to join the faculty at MD Anderson as an assistant professor and began to make a name for herself in research and education. In 2010, Dent was named the chair of the Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis department at MD Anderson’s Smithville campus. She accepted the dean, ad interim position at the GSBS in April 2022 so that she could learn from former dean, Michael R. Blackburn, PhD, before his retirement at the end of June.

As the deanad interim对于研究生院，Dent将继续专注于支持我们所有的学生和教职员工，尤其是在GSB过渡时期。“我很想听听我们的社区成员在来年将他们视为优先事项的哪些机会和挑战，我期待着了解我们当前的学生和新学生的进来。”

Dent views mentorship as a two-way partnership rather than a rigid hierarchy. From the time she welcomed her first student into her lab at the Graduate School in the mid-1990s, Dent has found that bouncing ideas around with her mentees lends new creative solutions that she would not have thought of otherwise.

“Students are at the frontlines of scientific discovery, and I am committed to helping each of them reach their full potential,” says Dent. Throughout her time at the Graduate School, Dent has had the pleasure of directly training 20 GSBS students, as well as several post-doctoral fellows.

开放式沟通与Dent的成功息息相关。正如我们的学生和教职员工巧妙地与同龄人传达了他们的科学发现一样，她也认为，明确传达思想以及挑战，以积极倾听对学校的发展至关重要。

当她不在办公室时，登特（Dent）通过自然散步并与狗Shadow一起玩耍，从而享受空闲时间。尽管她在过去的几年中并没有太多，但跳舞也是一种使她快乐的活动。