Operational Committee
Dr. Sharon Compton
DIRECTOR, EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH & SCHOLARSHIP UNIT
Dr. Compton’s, PhD, MA (Ed), BSc, DipDH, primary research area includes oral health issues in older adult populations and uses qualitative methods in her research. Compton is involved in various topics in educational research. Her teaching includes undergraduate courses in research and evidence-informed practice.
Dr. Maryam Amin
ASSOCIATE CHAIR RESEARCH
Dr. Amin, DMD, MSc, PhD, is a professor, associate chair of research, and director of the dentistry graduate program at the University of Alberta’s Mike Petryk School of Dentistry, where she also holds the Alberta Dental Association and College Clinical Dentistry Research Chair.
She earned her DMD degree in Iran and completed both her MSc and PhD at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Deeply committed to academic excellence, she also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Health Education and a certificate in "Teaching in Higher Education" at UBC, and was later awarded the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Gies Foundation Scholarship to complete the prestigious ADEA Leadership Institute program.
Dr. Amin's research program focuses on the social and behavioral aspects of oral health, specifically investigating how psychosocial, community, and societal factors influence dental care access among disadvantaged populations. Her lab actively leverages electronic health data and artificial intelligence to identify risk factors, address oral health inequalities, and design innovative public health promotion strategies. As a dedicated educator and administrator, Dr. Amin is deeply committed to fostering the next generation of researchers. She actively mentors and supervises undergraduate, graduate (MSc and Ph.), and post-doctoral students, providing them with advanced, hands-on training in dental public health, health informatics, and clinical research methodologies to prepare them for successful careers in academia, clinical practice, and public policy."
Colleen Starchuk
CURRICULUM MANAGER
Starchuk, MA, BEd, is the manager, curriculum position at the Mike Petryk School of Dentistry. She graduated with a bachelor of education and completed her master of arts with a focus on work, organization, and leadership, and a secondary focus on adult education.
Over the past decade, Starchuk and her team have provided curriculum consultation services and supported blended and online course development for several units including the Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Nursing, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Native Studies, and the Mike Petryk School of Dentistry.
Dr. Arnaldo Perez Garcia
RESEARCHER
Dr. Perez-Garcia, BS, MSc, PhD, is an associate clinical professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta. He holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology, a master’s degree in educational psychology, and both a PhD and a postdoctoral fellowship in medical sciences. Perez is the director of the oral health sciences graduate program at Mike Petryk School of Dentistry and has supervised and so-supervised numerous graduate, undergraduate, and volunteer students. He has extensive experience supporting faculty and graduate students in designing, conducting, and reporting research.
Perez teaches clinical, qualitative, mixed-methods, and review research. He also teaches academic writing, health behaviour research and intervention, and evidence-based practice, with a focus on the critical appraisal of research evidence. He has consistently provided mentorship in research and engaged in faculty development activities to improve teaching and research competencies among faculty members.
Perez has coordinated several multi-site studies and built strong research programs related to patient adherence to therapies for chronic conditions and active learning across health professions education. His areas of expertise include patient adherence, qualitative research, scoping review, evidence-based practice, active learning, curriculum evaluation, and health behaviour. Perez has published over 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals related to health and health professions education and has successfully secured funding for his research programs.
Dr. Hollis Lai
Professor
Dr. Lai, PhD, MBA, MEd, is a professor with the Mike Petryk School of Dentistry and is a university alumnus of the Faculty of Education and the School of Business.
His research interest is in analytics and psychometrics. His team has developed many learning solutions used throughout the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. He co-developed the method for automatic time generation that is now being used by testing agencies around the world.
He splits his time between the Undergraduate Medical Education office and the ERSU. His research interests include developing intelligent applications, learning sciences, and adopting analytic methods in oral health research. His focus within the Unit is to engage in and support educational research, with a focus on quantitative methods, analytics, and machine learning.
In 2024, Lai was recognized with the David Cook Award for contribution to medical education at the University of Alberta and in 2016 was awarded the annual award by the National Council for Measurement in Education.
Dr. Nazlee Sharmin
RESEARCHER
Dr. Sharmin, PhD, MEd, has a PhD in physiology, cell, and developmental biology and a master of education (MEd) in health sciences education from the University of Alberta. She is involved in teaching foundational science at the Mike Petryk School of Dentistry.
Sharmin has received multiple teaching awards, including the Mike Petryk School of Dentistry’s Gibb Teaching Scholar Award, the Dental Students’ Association (DSA) Teaching Award, and the University of Alberta Interdepartmental Science Students' Society (ISSS) Outstanding Teaching Award.
Sharmin’s educational research interest broadly focuses on developing and infusing technologies to improve students’ learning experiences. She is actively involved in research related to educational technology, augmented reality, gamification, whiteboard animations, H5P, artificial intelligence, and bioinformatics. Sharmin is willing to support faculty members in adopting, developing, and evaluating teaching technologies.
Dr. Yuli Berlin-Broner
RESEARCHER
Dr. Berlin-Broner, BMSc, DMD, MSc, FRCDC, FIADT, is a clinician and specialist in endodontics. She splits her time between co-coordinating and teaching undergraduate endodontics (pre-clinical, simulation lab, and clinical), research, and patient care delivery.
Her research interests include the incorporation of micro-computerized tomography (micro-CT) to enhance undergraduate endodontic education, dental trauma, and connections between endodontics and general health. Her focus within the unit is to support educational research and to facilitate collaboration between clinical aspects and foundational sciences.
