Iowa at the 2023 National Oral Health Conference

A large contingent of Iowa Dentistry faculty, students, and alumni attended and presented at the National Oral Health Conference April 17-19 in Orlando, FL. A few highlights include:

• John Warren finished his term as past president of the American Association of Public Health Dentistry (AAPHD).  The AAPHD is the specialty organization for dental public health and is the sponsoring organization for the dental public health board (the American Board of Dental Public Health). Previous AAPHD presidents from Iowa include Hermine McLeran, Rhys Jones and Michelle McQuistan. Previous ABDPH presidents from Iowa include Warren and Steve Levy. 
• Hayley Harvey ('94 DDS, '96 MS), dental director of Broadlawns Medical Center and extramural adjunct faculty for Iowa Dentistry, follows this Iowa legacy and was announced as president of the American Association of Public Health Dentistry for 2023-2024.
• Julie Reynolds was elected as AAPHD secretary for 2023-2024.
• Immediately before the conference, John Warren and Susan McKernan, who is serving as treasurer for the ABDPH,  served as examiners for the Certifying Examination in Dental Public Health prior to the conference.
• Sofía Iribarren, former resident in dental public health and pediatric dentistry, received the Leverett Graduate Student Merit Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dental Public Health for her project, “Synchronous Teledentistry in a University Pediatric Dentistry Clinic: Impact on Access to Care.” This is the second year in a row that Iowa has received the award. The Leverett award is a competition among graduate students and residents from programs around the country. Winners are selected on the basis of originality and design of the project, description of results and conclusions, quality of the results from the project, scientific value of the project, dental public health value of the project, quality of the project presentation, and demonstrated mastery of the subject. Jennifer Sukalski received an honorable mention for her project presentation.
• In addition to Iribarren's and Sukalski's presentations, other student and resident poster presenters included:
  • Gurjot Bhatia, dental public health resident
  • Curtis Garret, second-year dental student
  • Kayla Limberg, second-year dental student
  • Pamela Nwachukwu, PhD candidate in Oral Sciences
  • Jeremiah Poppen, first-year dental student
  • Ala Al Saffer, third-year resident in operative dentistry
  • Mary Tandon, dental public health resident