Dr. Mulligan is the Associate Dean for Community Health Programs at the University of Southern California School of Dentistry. She also holds a joint appointment in the School of Gerontology at USC, and is the Director of the Dental Component of the Pacific AIDS Education and Training Center. Dr. Mulligan received her DDS from UCLA, her General Practice Residency Certificate from Rancho Los Amigos Rehabilitation Hospital, and her MS in Gerontology from USC.

Prior to coming to USC, Dr. Mulligan was the General Practice Residency Program Director at Rancho Los Amigos Hospital and on the dental facilities at UCLA, Cerritos College, and West Los Angeles College.

Dr. Mulligan is the Principal Investigator of the NIDCR – funded Oral Component of the Women’s interagency HIV (WIHS) Study, Los Angeles Site, and former Chair of the Oral Working Group for the National WIHS Study. Her research interest includes: salivary glands diseases in HIV positive women, and the aging of the HIV positive women.

She also serves on the Executive Board of the American Society for Geriatric Dentistry and is currently the vice-president of the organization. She previously served as president of the Academy Dentistry for the Handicapped (now known as the Academy of Dentistry for Persons with Disabilities).

During her career at USC, Dr. Mulligan has published widely on a variety of topics related to the care of medically compromised patients and geriatric patients. She has been instrumental in establishing and/or supporting a wide range of experiential community based public health dentistry experiences for dental students and encouraging learning models that are evidence-based and promote critical thinking.

Dr. Mulligan previously practiced dentistry full-time in the western part of Los Angeles. She continues to maintain a part-time faculty practice at USC where she focuses on the treatment of special needs patients.