Tenn endodontics faculty, surveillance officer join faculty

Published on Monday, June 21, 2021

Medical Center leadership is proud to announce the following additions to its faculty and leadership staff.

Josanne (Jan) M. O’Dell, DDS, JD

Dr. Josanne (Jan) M. O’Dell, associate professor of endodontics and associate professor in the Graduate School of Health Sciences at the University of Tennessee College of Dentistry in Memphis, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an associate professor of dentistry and chair of endodontics.

After receiving her BS in biology in 1981 and her MFS in forensic science in 1983 from George Washington University, O’Dell earned her DDS at the University of Colorado in 1990. She then had general practice residency training at VAMC Wadsworth, California. She obtained a certificate in endodontics from the University of Southern California in 1995 and a certificate in implant dentistry from Loma Linda University in 2010. In 2014, she acquired her JD from Trinity Law School.

She joined the University of Southern California faculty as an assistant professor of endodontics in 1995 and became an associate professor of endodontics there in 1996. She concurrently served as clinical faculty and lecturer in the Department of Endodontics at the University of California Los Angeles from 1999-2012. In 2015 she joined the University of Tennessee College of Dentistry as an assistant professor of endodontics and became an associate professor in the Graduate School of Health Sciences in 2019 and has served as interim program director for the Advanced Program of Endodontics there since 2019. She was the sole owner/practitioner of her private specialty practice for 17 years.

A manuscript reviewer for Lasers in Dentistry and editor of Pinnacle from 2010-19, O’Dell has authored or coauthored five peer-reviewed journal articles and one book chapter. She has given four invited presentations at scientific meetings nationwide. O’Dell is an active member of the American Association of Endodontists, the American Board of Endodontics, the College of Diplomats, the American Dental Association and the American Dental Education Association, among many other national professional organizations.

Rinkuben Parmar, MBBS, MD

Dr. Rinkuben Parmar, a surveillance officer in Student Employee Health at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an instructor in preventive medicine.

After receiving her MBBS from Medical College, Baroda, Gujarat, India in 2008, Parmar earned her MD in medical microbiology at the B. J. Medical College and Hospital, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, in 2012. Parmar then obtained her Master’s in Public Health in epidemiology and biostatistics from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2016. She served as a researcher in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at UMMC from 2016-17 before joining Student Employee Health.

Parmar is the author or coauthor of six articles in peer-reviewed publications, one abstract and two research posters presented at scientific meetings. Her research focus was on cytomegalo virus and ZIKA virus.