NSU Horizons Fall 2017

42 NSU HORIZONS Becoming chief of the dentistry department at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, part of the Miami Children’s Health System, is an honor for so many reasons, according to Gabriela Aurora Rolland-Asensi, D.M.D., who was appointed to the four-year position in December 2015. Rolland-Asensi, a 2003 NSU College of Dental Medicine (CDM) graduate, said her sense of satisfaction comes from seeing the outcomes of medically compromised children who need the services and facilities the department provides at the Miami hospital. But one of her biggest sources of pride is how she received her esteemed position as elected chief of the Department of Dentistry. “My peers here trusted me enough to elect me,” she said, adding that she received 75 percent of the vote. “They decided I would be a good leader, and it was an honor for me.” Rolland-Asensi, president and owner of Miami Children’s Smiles in Coral Gables, had privileges through her private practice at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. That meant she had the hospital’s facilities and equipment at her disposal. “Some of our patients may have special needs, which may require more than a traditional office setting can offer, so this is when we are in need of the hospital’s pediatric dentistry facilities,” she said. She had been familiar with the hospital after being its chief resident, while doing her general practice residency there. She completed her pediatric dentistry advanced edu- cation residency training at the University of Florida (UF). As the elected hospital chief now in the second full year of her term, Rolland-Asensi oversees the operating room for dentists. She is also instrumental in the credentialing process for incoming dentists who want to be part of the medical staff, as well as for those who want to be given privileges to the pediatric dentistry unit. According to Rolland-Asensi, her success in South Florida is due, in part, to the time she spent at NSU’s College of Dental Medicine. Already a dentist when she arrived in the United States in 1993, after graduating from the Universidad Central de Venezuela, she came here with her husband, Jacobo Asensi. The two lived in Boston, Massachusetts, so he could complete his M.B.A. When her husband was offered a job in Miami, the couple relocated to South Florida. Still wanting to be involved in dentistry, Rolland-Asensi volunteered at Miami Children’s Hospital in the dental clinic for several months, and then Alumna All Smiles as Chief of Dentistry at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital BY MICHELLE F. SOLOMON Passion for Pediatrics Gabriela Aurora Rolland-Asensi is a 2003 NSU College of Dental Medicine graduate. ALUMNI PROFILE