Following Your Passion and Making a Difference

Dr. Brian Swann graduated from the University of California San Francisco, School of Dentistry. After 30 years in California, immersed in a career that included both public health and private practice, he decided that he could make more of an impact in the public health arena. This decision led him to Boston as the first Joseph L. Henry Fellow in Minority Health Policy. By 2008, Dr. Swann had received certificates in Minority Health Policy (Harvard School of Medicine) and Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology (Harvard School of Dental Medicine). Most importantly, the Harvard School of Public Health conferred a Master’s in Public Health degree and he was presented with the Albert Schweitzer Award because of his ongoing commitment to global outreach.

Currently, Dr. Swann is the Chief of Oral Health Services for the Cambridge Health Alliance where he practices clinical dentistry. He conducts the Oral Physician Program within the General Practice Residency, a concept that expands primary care into the scope of oral health. Dr. Swann has been instrumental with the implementation of a shared appointment model. Fashioned after a similar medical model, this innovative approach to providing dental care was instituted to increase access to oral health services. These shared appointments are currently being utilized for dentures, infant/toddlers, diabetes, and pre-natal.

Dr. Swann is involved with outreach projects in Boston (homeless health care), Jamaica, Haiti and Rwanda. He is also directing a pipeline project for the Wampanaog Tribe on Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod.