Tracy Finlayson Receives Drotman Award
On Tuesday, Oct. 28, at the APHA Annual Meeting in San Diego, Tracy Finlayson, PhD, was honored at the APHA Public Health Awards Ceremony
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Tracy Finalyson receives Drotman Award from APHA President-Elect
Cheryl Easley |
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with the Jay S. Drotman Memorial Award. The award honors a health worker or student, age 30 or younger, who has demonstrated potential in the health field by challenging traditional public health policy or practice in a creative manner. Tracy received the award for her work in the area of oral health disparities. Her research and advocacy move beyond traditional approaches to this major public health problem to investigate and address both individual and systemic risk factors. Dr. Finlayson's dissertation research with the University of Michigan Detroit Dental Health Project investigated how low-income African American mothers’ behavioral and psychosocial factors affect the oral health and dental practices of their young children. Several papers based on her dissertation research on oral health disparities have already been published in major public health dental journals, and she continues to tirelessly investigate and publicize the problem. She also currently works with the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Center to Address Disparities in Oral Health (CANDO) on several projects, including studies analyzing dental utilization patterns among Hispanic farmworkers, and children's oral health risk assessment evaluation. Tracy, an Oral Health Section member, in accepting the award, expressed her passion for improving oral health through public health efforts.
Congratulations to Tracy!
Myron Allukian Delivers the 2009 John C. Greene Lecture
Dr. Allukian is an internationally recognized expert in dental public
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Dr. Myron Allukian, Jr. is congratulated by Dr. John Greene (r) on being selected to give the 2009 John C. Greene Lecture for the University of California, San Francisco, School of Dentistry |
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health and the second dentist in APHA's then 118 year history to be an APHA President. He has been chair of the Oral Health Section twice and the only person in APHA's history to be chair of both the Committee on Affiliates and the Intersectional Council. Dr. Allukian's lecture was on: Are You Ready? Dentistry's Challenges: Today and Tomorrow. It was presented on Jan. 24, 2009 at the South San Francisco Conference Center.
Dr. Greene was the first non-physician to be U.S. Deputy Surgeon General and he also served as the Chief Dental Officer for the U.S. Public Health Service. He was the Dean of UCSF Dental School and established it as the top dental school in the country in research funding for at least the past 12 years. He developed the Greene and Vermillion OHI and played a key role in promoting oral health in the United States in addition to being personally involved in preventing the use of spit tobacco by high-profile athletes.
Oral Health Section 65th Anniversary
The Oral Health Section was formerly the Dental Health Section from 1943 to 1991. Since its inception, members have served as leaders
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Scott Presson receives 65th
Anniversary plaque on behalf
of Oral Health Section from
APHA President Linda Degutis |
on APHA councils, committees, and editorial boards. Three Oral Health Section members, John Knutson in 1955-56, Myron Allukian, Jr. in 1989-90, and Caswell A. Evans, Jr. in 1994-95 have served as APHA President.
Each year since 1982, the APHA Oral Health Section bestows the John W. Knutson Distinguished Service Award in Dental Public Health and recognizes eminent contributions to public health and oral health. In 2006, the Section launched the first annual Anthony Westwater Jong Memorial Community Dental Health Student pre-professional and post-professional Awards. (The awards for 2008 are described elsewhere in this issue.)
The Oral Health Section and its members have proposed many resolutions and policy statements that have become APHA policy. Such policies include: Support for the Alaska Dental Health Aide Therapist and Other Innovative Programs for Underserved Populations (2006); Evidence-Based Dental Care (1997); First Oral Health Assessment (1999); Pit and Fissure Sealants (1984); Dental Health in a National Health Program (1977); Fluoridation of Public Water Supplies (since 1955). The most recent policies are Community Water Fluoridation in the U.S. (2008); and Opposition to Prophylactic Removal of Third Molars (Wisdom Teeth) (2008), as referenced in the Newsletter Editorial.
NINETEENTH Annual APHA Public Health Materials Contest
The APHA Public Health Education and Health Promotion Section is soliciting your best health education, promotion and communication materials for the 19th annual competition. The contest provides a forum to showcase public health materials during the APHA Annual Meeting and recognizes professionals for their hard work.
All winners will be selected by panels of expert judges prior to the 137th APHA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. A session will be held at the Annual Meeting to recognize winners, during which one representative from the top materials selected in each category will give a presentation about their material.
Entries will be accepted in three categories; printed materials, electronic materials, and other materials. Entries for the contest are due by March 27, 2009. Please contact Kira McGroarty at kmcgroar@jhsph.edu for additional contest entry information.
NIDCR Funds Centers for Research to Reduce Disparities in Oral Health
(E-Newsletter: Jan. 29, 2009)
In September 2008, the NIDCR again funded Centers for Research to Reduce Disparities in Oral Health. In doing so, the Institute continues its commitment to understanding and eliminating the disproportionate burden of oral diseases suffered by segments of the U.S. population, including the poor, racial and ethnic minorities, and people with acquired or developmental special needs. The Centers for Research to Reduce Disparities in Oral Health are located at:
Boston University
http://www.creedd.org/
University of California, San Francisco
http://dentistry.ucsf.edu/cando/
University of Colorado at Denver
http://aianp.uchsc.edu/cnohr/index.html
University of Florida
http://www.dental.ufl.edu/Offices/TakeTheBite/
University of Washington
http://depts.washington.edu/nacrohd/
At these centers, teams of investigators from diverse disciplines and backgrounds, in partnership with communities, are conducting research on dental caries and oral/pharyngeal cancer. In addition to the Oral Health Disparities Centers initiative, the NIDCR funds numerous and varied types of studies focused on understanding and eliminating inequalities that exist in a wide range of disadvantaged communities and populations. For additional information about oral health disparities research, contact Ruth Nowjack-Raymer, phone: (301) 594-5394, e-mail: Ruth.Nowjack-Raymer@nih.gov