Biography

As of 2/1/26: Dr. Ryan Richard Ruff, PhD, MPH, is an associate professor and Chief of the Division of Community Oral Health at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. He is also an adjunct associate professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Dr. Ruff is the PI of the PRISMS lab (Pragmatic Research for Innovative and Sustainable Medicine in Schools), designing pragmatic clinical trials and community-based participatory research studies to increase access to oral healthcare and improve child development. He has received over $22MM in research funding from the NIMHD, NIDCR, and PCORI and published in journals including JAMA Pediatrics, JAMA Network Open, and the Education Policy Analysis Archives. Dr. Ruff is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for JDR Clinical & Translational Research, is an international co-investigator for the National Institute of Science and Technology in Translational Biophotonics, and was named a fellow of the American College of Epidemiology in 2022.