Oral Health Day 2023

Dr. Rhonda Stephens is a board certified Dental Public Health specialist, currently serving as the Acting Section Chief and State Dental Director for the NC Division of Public Health, Oral Health Section. She is a proud alumna of the University of Michigan, where she earned her dental degree in 2004. She then completed a General Practice Residency in hospital dentistry and MPH degree at Indiana University and subsequently received a certificate in Dental Public Health from the NC Division of Public Health. Prior to relocating to NC, she served 10 years as an FQHC dental director in Indiana.

In her current role at the Oral Health Section, Dr. Stephens provides direction and general oversight to the development and implementation of the state’s dental public health programs and services. She also directs the Division’s Dental Public Health Residency Program to educate and train future dental public health specialists. In her time with the Section, Dr. Stephens has secured and administered grant funding, most often to support oral health workforce development initiatives in collaboration with partners across the state. She has also had the opportunity to work with the NCDHHS Historically Marginalized Populations Workgroup on equity-driven pandemic response efforts, and now co-chairs efforts to strengthen public health workforce capacity through training and other supports. Dr. Stephens is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc, National Dental Association, American Dental Association and the American Association of Public Health Dentistry, for which she serves as co-chair of the Council on Educational Affairs. Outside of public health, she loves food of all kind, outdoor festivals, action-sci fi movies and her 14-year old Westie, Sasha.

Raydiance Swanston is the Health Program Manager for Mecklenburg County Health Department’s Dental program. She has an extensive background in healthcare management, policy, and public health. Before joining the health department, she served as Director of Customer Success for one of North Carolina’s largest MSP’s. The organization helps healthcare providers find innovative solutions for serious problems, such as health care costs, inadequate patient safety, insufficient data, and properly manage and redirect health care investments. A native of St. Croix U.S. Virgin Islands, she is an industry leader with nearly 15 years of prior experience providing internal direction to dental offices on dental public health initiatives. She has led groundbreaking work on quality and equity for the county’s dental program, leading the school health expansion initiatives, community partnerships and the save a smile program which covers the cost of in office sedation and extensive treatment for the uninsured. Raydiance was recently named by Pride Magazine as one of the “Best of the Best 2023”.

She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maryland, and a master’s of public health degree from the Benedictine University.

Ms. Betsy Lee White, RDH, BS, FSCDH, completed her AAS degree in dental hygiene at Guilford Technical Community College in 1995 and her B.S. studies at the University of North Carolina School of Dentistry in 1997. She holds a Fellowship in Special Care Dentistry from the North Carolina Dental Hygiene Academy of Advanced Studies and a Fellowship in Special Care Dental Hygiene from the Special Care Dentistry Association. Her commitment to special care populations has been the center of her entire career. In 1994, Betsy joined Dr. Bill Milner in his part-time practice and together, they created Access Dental Care. Access Dental Care has grown over twenty plus years and is now serving over one hundred fifty skilled nursing facilities, group homes for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, PACE programs across the state of North Carolina, a regional HIV/AIDS program and a community program for the older adults in New Hanover County.

In 2015, Betsy was the recipient of the Sarah Bradshaw Award from Special Care Advocates in Dentistry. She served as President of Special Care Advocates in Dentistry in 2016-2017. She is currently serving on the NC Institute of Medicine, Medicaid Payment Transformation Committee and Special Care Dentistry Association’s Taskforce on Dental Coverage in Medicare Taskforce.

Stephanie J. Wroten, BSN, MS, LNC serves as the Chief Operations Officer at Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center. She is a registered nurse with expertise in nursing leadership, healthcare business strategy, health information systems optimization, revenue cycle management and quality management. Stephanie is astute in building team-based healthcare infrastructure to support sustainability and growth. She is a graduate of La Salle University (BSN) and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Master of Science (MS) in Forensic Medicine. She has also studied healthcare quality and compliance at Jefferson School of Population Health and completed the Legal Nurse Studies certificate program at Manor College. Stephanie has a Master of Science in Nurse Education from Gwynedd Mercy University (MSN). Stephanie has worked extensively with Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) and underserved populations to improve healthcare delivery systems, quality of care, and patient outcomes. She believes in progressive health center transformation by employing a team-based care approach. Stephanie is a 2020 graduate of North Carolina Homegrown Leaders program.