Santa Fe Group Salon

Stephen N. Abel, DDS, MSD

Stephen N. Abel, DDS, MSD, served as principal investigator of several HRSA-sponsored grants addressing the training needs of dental students and improving access to care for special populations including those with developmental disabilities, victims of domestic violence and persons living with infectious diseases. He has developed programs addressing the oral health needs of underserved populations and supported initiatives whereby dentists can better integrate into primary care team models. He served on President Clinton’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS from 1996-2000.

Dr. Abel received his BA degree in biology from Harvard University and DDS from the New York University College of Dentistry. He completed a general dental practice residency at the Eastman Dental Center in Rochester, New York, and was awarded an MS in periodontology from the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry.

Michael C. Alfano, DMD, PhD

Michael C. Alfano, DMD, PhD, is president of the Santa Fe Group. A successful researcher, educator, and business person, Dr. Alfano was also a founder of the Friends of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), Nexus Magazine, and the Santa Fe Group. He is recognized for insightful thinking, for innovative approaches to education and improving communications among the academic, government, and business sectors.

Eric S. Berger

Eric S. Berger serves as a principal at Liberty Partners Group, where he specializes in the development and execution of comprehensive federal and state advocacy campaigns. Previously, he served as a partner at Liberty Partners Group; CEO of the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare, a national coalition of skilled home healthcare agencies; senior vice president of public policy and communications for DaVita, a nationwide provider of kidney care services; and vice president of government relations and public policy for US Oncology, a national network of community-based cancer caregivers and clinical researchers. He also served as senior fellow for strategic initiatives in The Heritage Foundation’s Office of the President, where he supported the transition of the organization’s new leadership.

Mr. Berger also previously served on the professional staff of the Commerce Committee of the US House of Representatives, where he played a central role in advancing Medicare, Medicaid, FDA, health insurance, and other reform legislation. Before his service as a Congressional staffer, he was Virginia’s legislative and policy director for Health and Human Resources, where he assisted in the achievement of Virginia’s landmark welfare reform and family empowerment legislation. His education includes the MA program in public administration at the University of Virginia and a BA in political science and economics from the University of Richmond, which he attended under a University Scholars academic scholarship.

Stanley M. Bergman

Since 1989, Stanley M. Bergman has been Chairman of the Board and CEO of Henry Schein, Inc., a Fortune 500® company and the world's largest provider of health care products and services to office-based dental and medical practitioners, with more than 18,000 Team Schein Members and operations or affiliates in 31 countries. Henry Schein is a member of the S&P 500® and Nasdaq 100® indexes. In 2018, the company's sales from continuing operations reached $9.4 billion. Henry Schein has been a Fortune World's Most Admired Company for 18 consecutive years.

Mr. Bergman serves as a board member or advisor for numerous institutions, including New York University College of Dentistry, the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, the Columbia University Medical Center, University of the People, Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, the University of the Witwatersrand Fund, The World Economic Forum’s Health Care Governors, the Business Council for International Understanding, the Japan Society, and the Metropolitan Opera. Mr. Bergman is an honorary member of the American Dental Association and the Alpha Omega Dental Fraternity. Mr. Bergman is the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the CR Magazine Corporate Responsibility Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2017 CEO of the Year award by Chief Executive Magazine, honorary doctorates from the University of the Witwatersrand, Western University of Health Sciences, Hofstra University, A.T. Still University’s Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health, Case Western Reserve University, and Farmingdale State College (SUNY), and honorary fellowship from King’s College London - Dental Institute and the International College of Dentists.

Stan and Marion Bergman and their family are active supporters of organizations fostering the arts, higher education, cultural diversity, and grassroots healthcare and sustainable entrepreneurial economic development initiatives in the United States, Africa, and other developing regions of the world. Mr. Bergman is a graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, and is a South African Chartered Accountant and a NYS Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

Meg Booth, MPH

Meg Booth, MPH, is the executive director of the Children's Dental Health Project (CDHP), a Washington, DC–based non-profit organization that focuses on removing oral health barriers to family success. Over more than a decade at CDHP, she has built the organization's policy strategy to secure pediatric dental benefits in the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and the Affordable Care Act. She has also led two federally funded national centers and currently serves as a state coach for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Innovator Accelerator Program on children’s oral health to advance value-based purchasing in Medicaid and CHIP. Prior to CDHP, Ms. Booth worked to educate policymakers on child health issues at the local, state, and national levels. She holds a bachelor’s degree in community health education with a minor in women's studies from the University of Northern Iowa and obtained her Master of Public Health degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alison Corcoran, MBA

Alison Corcoran, MBA is the president of the DentaQuest Partnership for Oral Health Advancement and chief marketing officer of DentaQuest. She brings a powerful combination of forward-thinking digital acumen and traditional marketing expertise to DentaQuest’s brand and years of driving change through understanding customers, motivations, and systems to her work at the DentaQuest Partnership. Under her leadership, DentaQuest has launched its new brand platform, Preventistry®, and has united the DentaQuest Foundation and the DentaQuest Institute into one strong enterprise focused on implementing meaningful change strategies.

The DentaQuest Partnership for Oral Health Advancement is committed to revolutionizing oral health to create an effective and equitable healthcare system to enable better overall health and well-being through oral health. Through grant-making, research, and care improvement initiatives, the nonprofit DentaQuest Partnership is driving transformation at the local, state, and national levels in pursuit of DentaQuest’s common mission: to improve the oral health of all.

Before joining DentaQuest, Corcoran served in a number of senior leadership positions for national and international organizations, including Staples, Sears Canada, BJ’s Wholesale Club, and Polaroid. She also founded Corcoran & Associates, a marketing and strategy firm providing consultancy services to companies such as Zipcar and The Princeton Review. She received her Master of Business Administration from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College and her Bachelor of Arts from Williams College.

Patrick T. Courneya, MD

Patrick T. Courneya, MD, is the executive vice president and chief medical officer for National Health Plan and Hospitals Quality at Kaiser Permanente. In this role, Dr. Courneya oversees Kaiser Permanente’s national quality agenda, helps ensure the organization’s members and communities receive the best quality and service Kaiser Permanente offers, and advocates for the advancement of evidence-based medicine and proven innovation for the industry.

Dr. Courneya previously served 10 years as medical director and associate medical director for HealthPartners Health Plan. Additionally, he has played a significant role in advancing healthcare quality and innovation on a national level. He is board certified in Family Practice and was a family practice physician for 25 years. Professional activities include chairing the Chief Medical Officer Leadership Council at America’s Health Insurance Plans and the Medical Directors Council at the Alliance of Community Health Plans. Dr. Courneya was also recently appointed to the California board of directors for the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Dr. Courneya received his undergraduate degree from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota, and his medical degree from the University of Minnesota. He completed his family practice residency at Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, in 1988. He has served as medical leader in various roles at medical group, hospital and health plan levels.

Becker’s Hospital Review recognized Dr. Courneya in 2016 and 2017 as one of 100 Hospital and Health System CMOs to Know.

Chester W. Douglass, DMD, PhD

Chester W. Douglass, DMD, PhD, received his DMD from Temple University in 1965 and PhD from the University of Michigan School of Public Health in 1971. He has published more than 140 papers in refereed journals covering a variety of topics in health policy, oral epidemiology, and dental public health, in which he is a boarded specialist. He served as principal investigator in the New England Elders Dental Study, which produced 19 important papers on the epidemiology of dental diseases in the elderly.
Dr. Douglass’s research also combines dental care policy and financing issues with oral epidemiology research. These studies have demonstrated the increase in need for dental care and decrease in the supply of dentists that will occur over the next 20 years. He is an alumnus of the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship program, past president of the American Board of Dental Public Health, past chair of the board of trustees of the Medical Foundation, and current chair of the DentaQuest Foundation board of directors. He has been a member of several national committees, including the American Dental Association committee for the development of national board exams and the Institute of Medicine Committee on the Future of Dental Education. He was the chief of dentistry and oral surgery for the Cambridge Health Alliance. Dr. Douglass served for 10 years as the editor-in-chief of the Oral Care Report, a summary journal of advances in dentistry that is published quarterly with a distribution of 250,000 dentists in 49 countries in 14 languages. Dr. Douglass served as chair of the Department of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine from 1978 to 2008.

Burton Edelstein, DDS, MPH

Burton Edelstein, DDS, MPH, is professor of Dental Medicine and Health Policy at Columbia University, where he chairs the Section of Population Oral Health at the College of Dental Medicine. He is also senior fellow in Public Policy and president emeritus of the DC-based Children’s Dental Health Project (www.cdhp.org), a nonprofit policy organization that advances the oral health interests of children and their families. A board-certified pediatric dentist, Dr. Edelstein practiced pediatric dentistry in Connecticut and taught at Harvard before relocating to Washington, DC, to serve as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow and Health Legislative Aide to the U.S. Senate Minority Leader. He contributed to the U.S. Surgeon General’s Oral Health in America report, led the Surgeon General’s Workshop on Children and Oral Health, and managed a federal interagency Oral Health Initiative. He has participated in four Institute of Medicine projects, testified before Congress multiple times on dental care for children, and provided support to Government Accountability Office’s dental studies. From 2009 to 2014 he served on the federal Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) that advises Congress, Agencies, and States on Medicaid and CHIP policy. At Columbia, Dr. Edelstein leads an interdisciplinary Early Childhood Caries prevention and innovation study and directs four federal training grants: one for pre-doctoral students that includes the DDS-MPH Scholars Program; one for post-doctoral pediatric dentistry fellows, one for faculty development, and one for AEGD Fellows in the care of people living with HIV/AIDS. His academic and consulting contributions focus on public policies that affect children’s oral health and their access to care. Through CDHP, he has helped secure legislation and regulation for dental coverage in CHIP and Health Reform (ACA) while protecting the dental benefit in Medicaid. His more than 100 publications include contributions to the peer-reviewed dental literature, book chapters, commissioned papers, and policy documents.

Catherine Alicia Georges, EdD, RN, FAAN

Catherine Alicia Georges, EdD, RN, FAAN, was elected by the AARP board of directors to serve as AARP’s national volunteer president from June 2018 to June 2020. The president’s role is filled by an AARP volunteer who is also a member of the all-volunteer AARP board of directors. In addition to her duties representing AARP, Dr. Georges is professor and chair of the Department of Nursing at Lehman College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is president of the National Black Nurses Foundation. Previously, she was a staff nurse, team leader, supervisor, and district manager for the Visiting Nurse Service of New York. She serves on the board of the Black Women’s Health Study and R.A.I.N., Inc. She earned her undergraduate degree from the Seton Hall University College of Nursing, her MA in nursing from New York University, and a doctoral degree in educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Vermont.

David S. Gesko, DDS

David S. Gesko, DDS, is the dental director and senior vice president of HealthPartners. HealthPartners is an integrated, not-for-profit, consumer-governed health system based in Minnesota, providing plan (insurance) services and the entire spectrum of care delivery, including medical and dental care, to more than 1.5 million members. He is passionate about integrating medical and dental care and applying growing evidence-based research to care delivery: “There is significant evidence linking oral health and overall health. As an integrated organization, HealthPartners holds a key role in exploring this relationship and managing the members and patients we serve to deliver optimal overall health.”

Dr. Gesko is involved with several national organizations focused on improving quality in oral health. He has been on the advisory panel for the Institute for Oral Health and currently chairs the Institute for Oral and Systemic Health, sponsored by Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield, Wisconsin. Both groups are working to build national consensus on guidelines for prevention and disease management in oral healthcare and to facilitate implementation of those guidelines into the care, policy, and financing systems.

Dr. Gesko was appointed to a 4-year term by Governor Mark Dayton in 2012 as a board member of the Minnesota Board of Dentistry. During his tenure on the board, Dr. Gesko has held all officer roles, including president. In January 2018, Governor Dayton reappointed Dr. Gesko to the board to serve out an open term.

Anita Duhl Glicken, MSW

Anita Duhl Glicken, MSW, professor and associate dean emerita at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, has over 30 years of administrative, research, and education experience. She was a founding member of the National Interprofessional Initiative on Oral Health (NIIOH) and now serves as executive director. The NIIOH provides backbone support, and is the national voice, for interprofessional integration of oral health into primary care. In 2009, she launched the PA Leadership Initiative on Oral Health, creating a model systems change strategy that engages national organization leaders to work together to integrate oral health across professional education and practice. Ms. Glicken has served on several national expert panels to develop tools and resources supporting workforce research, education, and policy, including the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) 2014 Interprofessional Oral Health Core Competencies for Primary Care Providers and the 2015 Qualis Health White Paper, Oral Health: An Essential Component of Primary Care.

Past leadership roles include president of the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) and president/CEO of the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants Health Foundation, where she worked with HRSA’s National Center for Health Workforce Analysis (NCHWA) to create a database on certified PA practice to inform health policy and workforce planning. Her career as a clinical social worker has focused on healthcare transformation, partnering with others to create innovative education and care delivery models grounded in interprofessional collaboration and health equity. Most recently she was founding project director of an American International Health Alliance contract to build midlevel health workforce capacity in South Africa. Since 2012, she has been an invited member of the US delegation of the International Health Workforce Collaborative. Ms. Glicken is the author of over 100 publications on healthcare education, workforce, and research.

Judith Haber, PhD, APRN, BC, FAAN

Judith Haber, PhD, APRN, BC, FAAN, is the New York University (NYU) leader of interprofessional education and practice, with a special focus on oral-systemic health, collaborating with interprofessional partners at NYU College of Dentistry and School of Medicine, where she co-chairs the NYU Interprofessional Research, Education and Practice (IPREP) Steering Committee. She is the executive director of a national nursing oral health initiative, the Oral Health Nursing Education Practice (OHNEP) Program, funded by the DentaQuest and Arcora Foundations, and the principal investigator on the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)-funded program Teaching Oral-Systemic Health (TOSH). She is the lead author of the landmark 2015 AJPH publication Putting the Mouth Back in the Head: HEENT to HEENOT.

Dr. Haber is a member of the Steering Committee of the National Interprofessional Initiative on Oral Health (NIIOH) and was a member of the HRSA expert panel that developed the 2014 Interprofessional Oral Health Core Competencies for Primary Care Providers. She was a member of the technical expert panel that developed the 2015 Qualis Health White Paper, Oral Health: An Essential Component of Primary Care. She was a member of the Pacific Dental Services Oral-Systemic Health Advisory Board and the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC) National Steering Committee on Shared Principles. She is a member of the DentaQuest Institute More Care Program National Advisory Committee and the New York State Nurse Family Partnership Advisory Board and was recently appointed to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) committee to document progress in oral health since the 2000 Surgeon General’s Report on Oral Health. She received the 2017 Health Equity Hero Award from the DentaQuest Foundation.

Ronald Inge, DDS

Ronald Inge, DDS, is an experienced senior level dental benefits executive with exposure to all aspects of the dental industry. He is chief dental officer/VP of professional services for Delta Dental Plan of Missouri, where his responsibilities include all aspects of development and management of the dental and vision networks. He is the primary liaison with dental and vision providers, including the development and implementation of clinical policies and procedures. He also provides oversight and guidance in utilization management and quality management.

Previously, Dr. Inge was chief dental officer for Western Dental Services and Brident Dental. He provided oversight and implementation of the Western Dental Quality Improvement Plan. He also served as vice president of professional services and dental director for Washington Dental Service.

As past executive director of the Institute for Oral Health, Dr. Inge championed efforts to publicize innovative solutions to challenges to improving oral health. He also served as an associate executive director, Division of Dental Practice, at the American Dental Association (ADA). Before joining the ADA, he was Aetna Dental’s chief dental officer, overseeing Aetna’s dental clinical quality and utilization management programs. He was instrumental in conveying the value of the medical/dental integration and driving initial validation studies related to the integration concept. He gained his knowledge of managed dental care while working in California. He served as the vice president of professional services and chief dental officer for PMI, the managed dental care division of Delta of CA. Before PMI, he served as the senior vice president of provider relations at DentiCare of California. He also has 15 years of private practice experience as a general dentist. He received his DDS from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a bachelor’s in human biology from Stanford University.

George J. Isham, MD, MS

George J. Isham, MD, MS, is senior fellow at the HealthPartners Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His areas of interest include understanding how health is created in populations and how to improve health and healthcare quality and financing.

From 2012 to 2018, Dr. Isham served as an advisor to the board of directors and the senior management team of HealthPartners on health and quality, and from 1993 until 2012, Dr. Isham served as HealthPartners’ medical director and chief health officer, reporting to the CEO and responsible for quality of care and health and healthcare improvement. HealthPartners is the largest consumer-governed nonprofit healthcare organization in the nation, serving more than 1.8 million medical and dental health plan members and more than 1 million patients annually in its hospitals and clinics.

Dr. Isham is also a senior advisor to the Alliance of Community Health Plans (ACHP), a national leadership organization bringing together innovative health plans and provider groups that are among America’s best at delivering affordable, high-quality coverage and care. ACHP’s member plans provide coverage and care for more than 19 million Americans across the country and include some of the most prominent of America’s health plans.

Rita A. Jablonski, PhD, CRNP, FAAN, FGSA

Rita A. Jablonski, PhD, CRNP, FAAN, FGSA, blends clinical research with clinical practice, offering persons with dementia and their caregivers the best of both worlds. She received her BSN from Holy Family College, MSN from LaSalle University, post-master’s nurse practitioner certificate from the University of Pennsylvania, and PhD from the University of Virginia. Dr. Jablonski is an established researcher who has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Brookdale Foundation, the John A. Hartford Foundation, and the US Department of Defense. A former nursing assistant, she is internationally recognized for her pioneering work involving the oral health of persons with dementia who exhibit resistance to care. She is a professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and maintains a faculty practice as a nurse practitioner in the Memory Disorders Clinic, Division of Memory Disorders and Behavioral Neurology. She also authors a blog for family caregivers, www.makedementiayourbitch.com.

Ira B. Lamster, DDS, MMSc

Ira B. Lamster, DDS, MMSc, received his dental degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook (1977), his MMSc from Harvard University (1980), and a Certificate of Special Training in Periodontology from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine (1980). Dr. Lamster served as dean of the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine from 2001 to 2012 and senior vice president of Columbia University Medical Center from 2006 to 2012. From 2012 until 2017 he was a faculty member in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

Dr. Lamster is currently dean emeritus, Columbia University College of Dental Medicine, as well as clinical professor at the Stony Brook University School of Dental Medicine.

Dr. Lamster’s research efforts have focused on diagnostic testing and risk assessment for periodontal disease, the interrelationship of periodontal disease and systemic disease, the oral healthcare needs of older adults, and the future of dental education and practice. His research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, corporations, foundations, and non-governmental organizations.

Robert Lewando, DDS, MBA

Robert Lewando, DDS, MBA, is executive dental director of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA). He previously spent approximately 20 years at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates (HVMA), a multispecialty medical and dental group practice in Boston, where he combined a clinical practice and administrative responsibilities. He was chief of HVMA’s largest fee-for-service dental practice in Boston for most of that time. He maintains a practice limited to periodontology approximately one day per week.

Dr. Lewando has helped develop BCBSMA’s strategy to improve the overall health of its membership through identification of medical conditions where dental care is particularly important. This has led to the development of condition-specific, member-centric dental benefits, the Total Health program.

Dr. Lewando graduated from Tufts University with a BS in chemical engineering. He attended Columbia College of Dental Medicine and received specialty training in periodontics from a combined program between the VA and Harvard School of Dental Medicine. He received an MBA from Boston College. He is the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association voting representative on the Code Maintenance Committee of the American Dental Association that determines future CDT code changes. He maintains a clinical appointment at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine.

Kevin P. Malloy, MPH

Kevin P. Malloy, MPH, is a public health professional and researcher at the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH). Mr. Malloy’s current research focuses on quality measurement and improvement within New York State’s Medicaid program. A native of Albany New York, Mr. Malloy obtained his, master’s degree from the State University of New York (SUNY) Albany’s School of Public Health, with a concentration in epidemiology. His tenure with the NYSDOH has spanned a broad range of public health issues, including communicable disease surveillance, outbreak investigations, hospital-acquired infection reduction, vaccination programs, risk and harm reduction, chronic disease research, and public health policy.

Paul Manos, DDS

Paul Manos, DDS, is dental director for United Concordia Dental. Dr. Manos is an actively licensed dentist for the state of California and graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Dentistry in 1984. After several years in private practice, Dr. Manos was an instructor in clinical periodontology and dental anesthesiology before taking on leadership roles in the administration of dental benefit programs. Dr. Manos has developed and managed dental provider networks, including associated quality assurance programs, in several parts of the United States. He has over 25 years of executive experience in the dental benefits administration industry. In addition, Dr. Manos regularly speaks about the connection between oral health and overall health and has served as the dental advisor for the Orange County Public Schools and as a legislative member of the Westminster Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the San Fernando Valley Dental Society, the California Dental Association, and the American Dental Association.

Anthony A. Miller, MEd, PA-C

Anthony A. Miller (Tony), MEd, PA-C, is professor and director, Division of PA Studies, at Shenandoah University, in Winchester, Virginia. He has more than 40 years of experience in physician assistant education and has held educational leadership positions including associate dean, School of Allied Health, and chair, Department of PA Studies, at the Medical College of Ohio. He was also division head, Health Careers & Natural Sciences, at Cuyahoga Community College. He has been a leader for state and national physician assistant professional associations, serving as president of the Association of Physician Assistant Programs (now Physician Assistant Education Association, or PAEA) and president of the Ohio Association of Physician Assistants. From 2012 to 2016 he was the chief policy and research officer at PAEA and served on the PA Leadership Initiative on Oral Health, and from 2012 to 2014 he was a member of the Virginia Oral Health Coalition’s Steering Committee for the Medical and Dental Collaboration Initiative. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Physician Assistant Education and was editor of six editions of Lange’s Q&A Physician Assistant Examination.

Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell is chairman and chief creative officer for Marketing for Change™. A former journalist and legislative staffer, Mr. Mitchell made his first foray into behavior-change marketing roughly 20 years ago when he was asked to direct the marketing campaign for a new anti-tobacco initiative in Florida. The campaign became “truth” — an effort that transformed tobacco control and got replicated on a national scale after Florida showed the first statewide drop in teen smoking in 19 years.

Since then, Mr. Mitchell has developed and directed dozens of behavior-change marketing campaigns across the globe—first for a large international non-profit and later as a founder of Marketing for Change. Mr. Mitchell has won numerous awards (Emmy, Silver Anvil, Gold Davey, Telly, Addy, etc.) and designed behavior-change campaigns domestically and in Bangladesh, India, Jordan and Tanzania for such organizations as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Florida Healthy Kids Corporation, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

A graduate of Colgate University, Peter also spent a decade as a reporter, including covering Florida for The Wall Street Journal, and served as the policy coordinator for Florida’s Senate President.

Michael Monopoli, DMD, MPH, MS

Michael Monopoli, DMD, MPH, MS, is executive director of DentaQuest Partnership for Oral Health Advancement in Boston, Massachusetts. He leads grant-making activities and coordinates best evidence, community input, and various data sources on improving health outcomes to design and manage strategies for the prevention of oral disease, health systems impact, and community-based solutions to oral health problems.

Dr. Monopoli is a graduate of the Tufts University School of Dental Medicine. He received Master of Public Health and Master of Science degrees from the Harvard University School of Public Health. He also completed a fellowship in geriatric dentistry at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and the Veterans Administration. He served as the dental director of the Office of Oral Health for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

At the DentaQuest Partnership, Dr. Monopoli leads grant-making activities and strategies to advance systems change by supporting a growing aligned national network to improve oral health and promoting health equity. He also works across the DentaQuest Enterprise and with external entities, including federal and state government agencies, academia, other health organizations, and community groups to establish, promote, and provide support to partnerships and collaborations that can impact positive oral health policy nationally. He is a past president of the American Association of Public Health Dentistry (AAPHD).

Linda Niessen, DMD, MPH, MPP

Linda Niessen, DMD, MPH, MPP, serves as dean and professor for Nova Southeastern University (NSU) College of Dental Medicine in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Nova Southeastern University College of Dental Medicine was founded in 1997 and was the first new dental school to open in 25 years in the United States, the first dental school affiliated with an osteopathic medical school, and the first private dental school in Florida. The College of Dental Medicine has focused on caring for underserved children and adults, medically complex, and special needs populations.

Dr. Niessen is a diplomate of the American Board of Dental Public Health and the American Board of Special Care Dentistry. As a clinician caring for medically complex and geriatric patients, she has authored numerous papers in peer-reviewed journals and has been an invited speaker at meetings throughout the world. As a member of the faculty at Baylor College of Dentistry (now Texas A&M University Baylor College of Dentistry), she launched a 2-minute dental news segment, “Dental Health Check,” focusing on oral health, which aired weekly on WFAA-TV (Dallas’s ABC affiliate) for 15 years.

Dr. Niessen has served as president of the Dallas County Dental Society, American Association of Women Dentists, American Association of Public Health Dentistry, Friends of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, and the American Academy of Esthetic Dentistry. She currently serves as a member of the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration Advisory Committee on Training in Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry. She previously served as vice president and chief clinical officer for Dentsply International, where she oversaw global clinical education and professional relations activities. She received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry (Phi Beta Kappa) from the University of New Mexico. She received her dental degree (DMD cum laude), Master of Public Health (MPH), and Master of Public Policy (MPP), all from Harvard University.

Lindsey A. Robinson, DDS

Lindsey A. Robinson, DDS, is a board-certified pediatric dentist and has maintained a dental practice in Grass Valley, California, for the past 22 years. She received her certificate in pediatric dentistry from the University of Florida and her DDS degree from the University of Southern California. She is a past president of the California Society of Pediatric Dentistry and the California Dental Association and served as chair of the California Dental Association Foundation (CDA). Dr. Robinson was a member of the American Dental Association (ADA) Council on Access, Prevention, and Interprofessional Relations (CAPIR) for 6 years, and during her tenure she served as vice-chair for a year and chair for 2 years. As chair of CAPIR she organized and led two access-to-care summits, one focusing on Native Americans. Dr. Robinson has served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Roundtable on Health Literacy as an oral health representative since 2013. She has been a guest editor for six issues of the CDA Journal on a variety of topics, including oral health literacy, perinatal oral health, and medical/dental integration. Dr. Robinson is an immediate past member of the ADA Board of Trustees.

William Scanlon, PhD

William Scanlon, PhD, is a consultant to the West Health Institute. He is also a member of the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission and co-chair of the American Board of Medical Specialties Commission on Continuing Board Certification. He has served as the public member of the American Board of Surgery and on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, the Visiting Nurse Service of New York Board of Trustees, the Patient Access Network Foundation Board, the National Commission for Quality Long-Term Care, and the 2005 White House Conference on Aging Advisory Committee. Until April 2004, he was the managing director of Health Care Issues at the US General Accounting Office (GAO). Previously, he was the co-director of the Georgetown University School of Medicine Center for Health Policy Studies and a principal research associate at the Urban Institute. He has a PhD in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Donna E. Shalala

Congresswoman Donna E. Shalala has spent her entire life fighting to improve the lives of others, advocating tirelessly for women’s rights, civil rights, increased access to healthcare, better education and schools, and a clean and sustainable environment. She is proud to now represent Florida’s 27th District, which includes Miami and surrounding municipalities in Miami-Dade County. Ms. Shalala was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. Her grandparents were migrants from Lebanon who moved to the United States to pursue the American Dream. She understands firsthand the hard work and dedication that defines the lives of immigrants trying to provide a better life for their family, as her grandparents and parents did for her and her twin sister.

Ms. Shalala received her degree in history from Western College for Women and earned her PhD from The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. She served as president of Hunter College of the City University of New York from 1980 to 1987 and as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1987 to 1993.

President Carter tapped Ms. Shalala to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. One of her major accomplishments was placing, in 1979, the first-ever solar panels on the roof of the White House, exemplifying her long-standing commitment to protecting the environment and promoting the use of renewable energy before it was the mainstream thing to do.

Ms. Shalala was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve as the US Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), where she served for 8 years, becoming the longest-serving HHS Secretary in US history. During her tenure at HHS, she fought to create, implement, and oversee the Children’s Healthcare Insurance Program, currently covering more than 7.6 million children throughout the country, and doubled the budget of the National Institutes of Health, securing the highest immunization rates in American history. At the end of her tenure, a Washington Post article described her as “one of the most successful government managers of modern times.” In 2008, the Council on Excellence in Government named her one of the greatest public servants of the past 25 years.

From 2001 to 2015, Ms. Shalala served as president of the University of Miami (UM). During her tenure, UM solidified its position among top US research universities and raised billions of dollars in private support for student scholarships, academic and research programs, and facilities. She continues to serve as the Trustee Professor of Political Science and Health Policy at UM.

In 2007, President George W. Bush handpicked Ms. Shalala to co-chair with Senator Bob Dole the Commission on Care for Returning Wounded Warriors, to evaluate how wounded service members transition from active duty to civilian society. She believes it is our duty as a nation to provide the best care for our women and men in uniform and support our veterans and their families. In 2008, President Bush awarded Ms. Shalala the Presidential Medal of Freedom, our nation’s highest civilian honor, recognizing her “leadership and determination to ensure that all Americans can enjoy lives of hope, promise, and dignity.”

Hugh Silk, MD, MPH, FAAFP

Hugh Silk, MD, MPH, FAAFP, is a professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He also teaches at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM). He is co-author of the award-winning national curriculum on oral health for health providers entitled Smiles for Life (www.smilesforlifeoralhealth.org). He sits on numerous state and national oral health advocacy committees. He is the recipient of the American Association of Public Health Dentistry’s 2016 Public Service Award.

When he is not teaching and seeing patients, Dr. Silk is collaborating with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and HSDM to help develop the new Center for Integration of Primary Care and Oral Health (CIPCOH).

Marko Vujicic, PhD

Marko Vujicic, PhD, serves as chief economist and vice president of the Health Policy Institute at the American Dental Association. Previously, he was senior economist with The World Bank in Washington, D.C., where he focused on health systems reform in developing countries and directed the global health workforce policy program. He was also a health economist with the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. In all these roles, Dr. Vujicic led large-scale strategic initiatives focused on bringing cutting-edge data and research to specific health policy challenges.

Dr. Vujicic has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, such as Health Affairs, The New England Journal of Medicine, and JAMA. He is also the lead author of the book Working in Health. His team’s work has been cited by CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, NOVA, and The Atlantic. He has been invited to provide testimony to federal and state legislative committees.

Dr. Vujicic is adjunct senior fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania, and affiliate faculty at the Center for Health and the Social Sciences, University of Chicago, and the Center for Health Services and Policy Research at the University of British Columbia. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto and a visiting assistant professor at Tufts University.

Patrick Willard

Patrick Willard is senior director, state and national strategic partnerships, for Families USA, overseeing the organization’s work with state and national advocacy partners. He leads a team that brings resources and critical assistance to advance the Families USA healthcare initiatives in the states and federal government. He directs Families USA’s oral healthcare campaign.

During the 2018 elections, he and his team provided strategic campaign and messaging leadership to state healthcare coalitions in Idaho, Nebraska, and Utah for the successful passage of ballot measures to expand Medicaid coverage. His work includes managing the organization’s annual Health Action Conference, which brings more than 500 state and national healthcare advocates to Washington each year to focus on expanding coverage and quality in healthcare and oral healthcare.

Mr. Willard brings more than 25 years of work with federal, state, and local government advocacy and experience. Before joining Families USA, Mr. Willard worked for AARP in Tennessee and Washington, D.C. He also served on the board of the Health Information Partnership for Tennessee, the state’s health information exchange effort, from 2009 to 2012. Mr. Willard holds degrees from Vanderbilt University and Columbia University.

Meet the Speakers

Stephen N. Abel, DDS, MSD

Stephen N. Abel, DDS, MSD

Michael C. Alfano, DMD, PhD

Michael C. Alfano, DMD, PhD

Eric S. Berger

Eric S. Berger

Stanley M. Bergman

Stanley M. Bergman

Meg Booth, MPH

Meg Booth, MPH

Alison Corcoran, MBA

Alison Corcoran, MBA

Patrick T. Courneya, MD

Patrick T. Courneya, MD

Chester W. Douglass, DMD, PhD

Chester W. Douglass, DMD, PhD

Burton Edelstein, DDS, MPH

Burton Edelstein, DDS, MPH

Catherine Alicia Georges, EdD, RN, FAAN

Catherine Alicia Georges, EdD, RN, FAAN

David S. Gesko, DDS

David S. Gesko, DDS

Anita Duhl Glicken, MSW

Anita Duhl Glicken, MSW

Judith Haber, PhD, APRN, BC, FAAN

Judith Haber, PhD, APRN, BC, FAAN

Ronald Inge, DDS

Ronald Inge, DDS

George J. Isham, MD, MS

George J. Isham, MD, MS

Rita A. Jablonski, PhD, CRNP, FAAN, FGSA

Rita A. Jablonski, PhD, CRNP, FAAN, FGSA

Ira B. Lamster, DDS, MMSc

Ira B. Lamster, DDS, MMSc

Robert Lewando, DDS, MBA

Robert Lewando, DDS, MBA

Kevin P. Malloy, MPH

Kevin P. Malloy, MPH

Paul Manos, DDS

Paul Manos, DDS

Anthony A. Miller, MEd, PA-C

Anthony A. Miller, MEd, PA-C

Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell

Michael Monopoli, DMD, MPH, MS

Michael Monopoli, DMD, MPH, MS

Linda Niessen, DMD, MPH, MPP

Linda Niessen, DMD, MPH, MPP

Lindsey A. Robinson, DDS

Lindsey A. Robinson, DDS

William Scanlon, PhD

William Scanlon, PhD

Donna E. Shalala

Donna E. Shalala

Hugh Silk, MD, MPH, FAAFP

Hugh Silk, MD, MPH, FAAFP

Marko Vujicic, PhD

Marko Vujicic, PhD

Patrick Willard

Patrick Willard