Meet HSDM's new Oral Medicine program director

As the new director of the Advanced Graduate Education Program in Oral Medicine at Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) and the Mass General Brigham hospital system, Katherine France is helping prepare the next generation of oral medicine specialists for careers in clinical care, education, research, and leadership.

An experienced clinician and educator who completed her training at the University of Pennsylvania, France now maintains a broad oral medicine practice at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Throughout her career, she has worked across medical and dental settings, bringing a multidisciplinary perspective to patient care and teaching. Her work focuses on how advances in medicine are transforming dental practice while ensuring patients receive safe, evidence-based care.

HSDM spoke with France about what excites her most about leading the residency program, the lessons she's gained throughout her career, and how she sees the field of oral medicine evolving in the years ahead.

What are you most looking forward to in this new role? 

The role of a program director is special because it allows you to build close relationships with residents throughout their professional journeys. You have the opportunity to help shape their lives and careers during such a pivotal stage. I'm especially looking forward to mentoring some of the most motivated, intelligent, creative, and driven future leaders in oral medicine and helping them build careers that align with their individual goals and aspirations.

How has your unique path shaped both your approach to patient care and your vision for training future oral medicine specialists?

I have always loved the variety that an academic dental career affords and believe that each component of my career has shaped my approach to the others. I bring lessons from all of these intersecting arenas into both short- and long-term guidance for the residents and to my overall perspective on how the program can best shape our new specialists, regardless of their own career goals. 

Both medical and dental settings offer unique strengths, and oral medicine is uniquely positioned to bridge the two. Whether through an individual clinician practicing in both environments or through broader collaboration between disciplines, integrating these perspectives ultimately benefits both patient care and education.

How do you see the field of oral medicine evolving over the next decade? 

It has been very exciting over the last decade to see the growth of oral medicine private practice, and I believe we are still only scratching the surface of the practice models and locations that oral medicine can meaningfully contribute to both in private and institutional settings. 

At the same time, we're seeing promising breakthroughs on the horizon to treat a wide variety of the diseases our patients suffer from, from chronic mucosal conditions to oral pre-cancer to orofacial pain, that are either in final stages of development or beginning distribution. I am hopeful that some of these novel agents will meaningfully change the outlook for patients, especially those with severe or treatment-resistant disease, and in turn I believe that will continue to emphasize the importance and potential of oral medicine as a specialty. 

What advice would you give to aspiring oral medicine specialists? 

Oral medicine is a broad, growing, and dynamic specialty that gives thoughtful clinicians the opportunity to build a career that's truly their own. I entered the field in large part due to the true personalization of both diagnosis and treatment inherent to the conditions we treat.

In addition to caring for patients, specialists have almost infinite chances to find their own place in refining their patient population as well as involvement in teaching, research, leadership, advocacy, and other areas. This opportunity goes along with a tight knit community of inspiring colleagues to help you find and reach those goals. 

What's something people are often surprised to learn about you? 

I rarely miss either Bruce Springsteen or the Rolling Stones when they tour!