Professor Cynthia Pine CBE (born October 1953) is a British Dentistry educator at the London School of Dentistry. In 2003, she became the first woman appointed to head a dentistry school in the UK. She is one of a group of highly successful Guyanese people in Britain ( Michael White of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' refers to them as the "Guyanese mafia"), which includes

Waheed Alli Waheed Alli, Baron Alli (born 16 November 1964) is a British media entrepreneur and politician. He is the co-creator of the television series ''Survivor'' and has held executive positions at several television production companies including the ...

Raj Persaud Rajendra 'Raj' Persaud FRCPsych (born 13 May 1963) is an English consultant psychiatrist, broadcaster and author of books about psychiatry. He is known for raising public awareness of psychiatric and mental health issues in the general media, h ...

, Herman Ouseley and

David Dabydeen David Dabydeen (born 9 December 1955) is a Guyanese-born broadcaster, novelist, poet and academic. He was formerly Guyana's Ambassador to UNESCO (United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organisation) from 1997 to 2010 and the youngest Memb ...

, Keith Waithe and Rudolph Dunbar.

Life

Pine was born in 1953 in Guyana. She graduated from the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The university owns and operates majo ...

with a Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) in 1976 and a PhD from the same institution in 1982, and has an MBA from the

University of Dundee , mottoeng = "My soul doth magnify the Lord" , established = 1967 – gained independent university status by Royal Charter1897 – Constituent college of the University of St Andrews1881 – University College , ...

. She was appointed Dean of the

University of Liverpool School of Dentistry The University of Liverpool School of Dentistry is a dental school in Liverpool, England. It is part of the University of Liverpool. The dental school is attached to an associated hospital, which contains more than 160 dental units, where stude ...

in 2003. She was later appointed as Pro Vice Chancellor, International at

Salford University , caption = Coat of ArmsUniversity of Salford , mottoeng = "Let us seek higher things" , established = 1850 - Pendleton Mechanics Institute 1896 – Royal Technical Institute, Salford 1967 – gained ...

.Cynthia Pine
Power List 2013. Retrieved 24 November 2015. Pine was made a

Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(CBE) in 2006. She has been included in the

Powerlist The ''Powerlist'' is a list of the 100 most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage in the United Kingdom. The list is updated annually and has been published in book format by Powerful Media since 2007. The ''Powerlist'' is ...

of the UK's 100 most influential people of African and Afro-Caribbean descent. Since 2013 Pine has been a professor of Dental Public Health at the Institute of Dentistry,

Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, commonly known as Barts or BL, is a medical school, medical and dental school in London, England. The school is part of Queen Mary University of London, a constituent college of the federal Un ...

, and Academic Lead and Head of the Unit of Dental Public Health since 2014. In 2018, Pine was awarded the EW Borrow Memorial Award at the International Association for Dental Research Conference in London, in recognition of her research in oral health prevention for children. In 2020 a portrait of Pine was included in the exhibition ''Phenomenal Women: Portraits of UK Black Female Professors''.

Family and Early Life

Pine's father was from British Guiana but was studying in the U.S. in 1941 and came to Britain as a G.I. during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. While in Britain, he met Pine's mother and they wed after the war. Inter-relationships were discouraged during this time as racial mixing was seen as a threat to the British national identity. As a result, Pine's father experienced racism in Britain and struggled to find work, meaning it was difficult for the family to find somewhere to live. Eventually, they settled in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

, but as the only Black child in the school, Cynthia was also subjected to racism.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pine, Cynthia Margaret 1953 births Living people British dentists Alumni of the University of Dundee Alumni of the University of Manchester British university and college faculty deans Women deans (academic) British women scientists Black British women academics Black British health professionals Commanders of the Order of the British Empire