Cynthia Pine, born in British Guiana, spent 10 years in Dundee from 1992 to 2002, during which time she became the first Black female President of both the British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry (BASCD) and the European Association of Dental Public Health (EADPH). Upon leaving Dundee she became the first female Dean of a UK Dental School at the University of Liverpool in 2003.
Cynthia Pine was born in 1953 in British Guiana (now Guyana). Her father, Fred Freeman, was born in Leguan in British Gaiana and was stationed in England during World War II where he met and later married Norah, who hailed from Worcestershire. Cynthia’s older sister Shirley was born in London in 1947 but, due to racial discrimination, the family found it increasingly difficult finding accommodation and employment. In 1952 the Freeman’s decided to try to build a new life in Fred’s home country of British Guiana, and the following year Cynthia was born.
In 1948, to rebuild a post-World War II Britain, the British Government passed the British Nationality Act giving people from the Caribbean the right to live and work in Britain. From that time until 1971 appeals were made to those in the Caribbean to move to Britain to ease labour shortages and restabilise the economy. In 1956 the Freeman’s responded to that call and once again tried to establish a life for themselves in England, this time in Birmingham. Cynthia and her older sister are members of what is known today as the ‘Windrush Generation’.
Education was incredibly important to Fred Freeman, and Cynthia spent summer holidays in the local library among books while her parents worked. In the early 1970s she applied to study Dentistry at the University of Manchester. Graduating in 1976, she was just at the very beginning of an incredible career that saw her lead the way not only as a woman in the field, but also as a Black woman.
With a particular focus on tooth decay in children, Cynthia’s approach and research has always been interdisciplinary, collaborating with specialists in other fields around the world. Having completed her PhD in 1982 at the University of Manchester, she continued at the University, lecturing in Paediatric Dentistry. In 1992 her career path led her to Dundee when she was appointed Senior Lecturer/Honorary Consultant in Dental Public Health at the University of Dundee and NHS Tayside. Four years later she became the first female President of the British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry (BASCD). In the same year she established and became the first President of the European Association of Dental Public Health, as well as becoming the first Black woman to be Secretary-General of the European Organisation of Caries Research (ORCA). While in Dundee she edited the first Community Oral Health textbook (1997), which became the set text for Masters’ programmes within the UK and internationally. She received a research grant from the United States National Institutes of Health for a collaborative study into childhood tooth decay involving colleagues in 17 countries.
She was awarded a Personal Chair by the University of Dundee in 2001, becoming Professor of Dental Public Health. In 2002 she left Dundee to take up a position at the University of Liverpool Dental School, and was appointed as Dean the following year, becoming the first female woman to be Dean of a UK Dental School. In recognition of her services to dentistry she received was appointed the CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2006. Two years later she became Dean of Health at the University of Salford and in 2010 was appointed Pro-Vice Chancellor International. Since In 2013 she became Professor and Honorary Consultant in Dental Public Health with at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, part of the Queen Mary University of London, . In 2018 she was the recipient of the EW Borrow Memorial Award from the International Association for Dental Research. In 2020, she was given a lifelong appointment as Emirata Emerita Professor of Dental Public Health.
In 2019/20 Cynthia was acknowledged as one of only 40 women Professors of African/Caribbean heritage in the UK. Her portrait was taken by photographer Bill Knight and featured in the exhibition ‘Phenomenal Women: portraits of Black female Female professors’ at the Southbank Centre, London, in 2020-21.
We contacted Cynthia in 2024 to invite her to be included in this blog for the Woven Together project. She said, “We fondly remember our 10-year stay in Dundee. We lived in West Ferry, and our two daughters, Mika and Helen, attended Craigiebarns Primary School and Grove Academy. The whole family live near each other now in Essex, Mika is a barrister and Helen, a teacher. Dundee gave them a great start.”
Cynthia continues to work part-time combining dental research studies with a new career as a professional family mediator, applying her knowledge and many years’ experiences of children and families to help resolve differences during family separation.
Written by Carly Cooper
Sources
'Cynthia Pine Masterclass - From S.S.Colombie (Windrush) to Dental Dean', video by the British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrquKI6GgJA
Cynthia Pine Wikipedia page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynthia_Pine
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