Barsley Elected Chair of CSSP Executive Committee

Robert Barsley, DDS, JD, Professor of Diagnostic Sciences and Director of Oral Health Resources, Community and Hospital Dentistry at LSU Health New Orleans School of Dentistry, has been elected Chair of the Executive Committee of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents.

The Council of Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP) is a unique organization representing the breadth of science and engineering research disciplines through its member societies and federations. CSSP member societies are represented by their presidents, presidents-elect, and recent past presidents of leading scientific societies and federations whose combined membership is over a million. Founded in 1973, CSSP has served as a center for national science leadership development, a strong voice in support of science and the premier forum for national science policy development and open, substantive exchanges on current issues encompassing the full spectrum of science, engineering and mathematics. CSSP is committed to "Advancing Leadership in Science and Technology" and to establishing policies and programs that will ensure a bright future for 21st century science.

Barsley is a 1977 graduate of LSU Health New Orleans School of Dentistry and a 1987 graduate of the Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans. He has been a member of the faculty of LSU Health New Orleans School of Dentistry for more than three decades. He has also served as Acting State Dental Director of the Louisiana Office of Public Health and as the Chief Compliance Office for LSU Health Sciences Center.

He is currently the President of the Louisiana Dental Association, a fellow of the American College of Dentists, the International College of Dentists, the Pierre Fauchard Academy, and the Odontology Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Barsley has held numerous officers in various forensic organizations and is a Past-President of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, past Treasurer of the Forensic Science Foundation and is a Past-President of the American Board of Forensic Odontology, as well as the American Society of Forensic Odontology. He was named by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to chair the Odontology Subcommittee of the Organization of Scientific Area Committees under the auspices of the Forensic Sciences Standards Board. He has also served as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Congressional Health Policy Fellow in the office of Senator John Breaux.

He has served as a consultant to numerous coroners’ offices in southern Louisiana and is on staff at the Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office and the Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office. As a member of Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team (DMORT) Region VI, he served an extended tour of duty in the dental section of the hurricanes Katrina and Rita morgues in St. Gabriel and Carville, Louisiana. He was a co-chair of the Odontology section of the Scientific Working Group on Disaster Victim Identification.

Barsley was admitted to the Bar in Louisiana in 1987 and is a former Magistrate Judge for the Ponchatoula City Court. He is member of the Board of Commissioners of the North Oaks Health System in Tangipahoa Parish.