Oral Health Day 2023
Challenges and Opportunities
for the Dental Team
Register for Oral Health Day 2023
About Oral Health Day 2023
In recent years, advocates have made significant policy and regulatory advances, changing the landscape for the safety net dental team. During Oral Health Day 2023, public health experts will discuss advances made, challenges that persist, and opportunities that lie ahead for North Carolina dental professionals.
Keynote Speaker
Kathy Colville, PhD, MSW, MSPH
President and CEO
North Carolina Institute of Medicine
Kathy Colville is the president and CEO of the North Carolina Institute of Medicine. The NCIOM is an independent agency chartered by the NC General Assembly that works collaboratively with stakeholders from across the state to identify and build consensus around actionable solutions to the health challenges facing North Carolina. This work ties together the throughlines of Kathy’s work and values, fostering policy and system change, integrating health and social care, and grounding it all in commitment to connected, inclusive and caring communities.
From 2014 to 2021, Kathy led Cone Health’s (Greensboro, NC) Department of Healthy Communities, working to connect clinical services and community assets to promote equity and access to the healthcare and living conditions that foster long and healthy lives. The Healthy Communities team led innovative work in urban and rural communities, including the first CDC-recognized Diabetes Prevention Program in NC, partnering with Greensboro Housing Coalition on the BUILD Health Challenge to promote healthy homes.
Kathy holds a Bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature from Brown University and Masters Degrees in Social Work and Public Health from UNC Chapel Hill. She will be awarded her PhD in Public Administration at NC State University in a few weeks and is a fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Research Leaders program.
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Kathy Colville, PhD, MSW, MSPH
President and CEO
North Carolina Institute of Medicine
Kathy Colville is the president and CEO of the North Carolina Institute of Medicine. The NCIOM is an independent agency chartered by the NC General Assembly that works collaboratively with stakeholders from across the state to identify and build consensus around actionable solutions to the health challenges facing North Carolina. This work ties together the throughlines of Kathy’s work and values, fostering policy and system change, integrating health and social care, and grounding it all in commitment to connected, inclusive and caring communities.
From 2014 to 2021, Kathy led Cone Health’s (Greensboro, NC) Department of Healthy Communities, working to connect clinical services and community assets to promote equity and access to the healthcare and living conditions that foster long and healthy lives. The Healthy Communities team led innovative work in urban and rural communities, including the first CDC-recognized Diabetes Prevention Program in NC, partnering with Greensboro Housing Coalition on the BUILD Health Challenge to promote healthy homes.
Kathy holds a Bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature from Brown University and Masters Degrees in Social Work and Public Health from UNC Chapel Hill. She will be awarded her PhD in Public Administration at NC State University in a few weeks and is a fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Research Leaders program.
Panelists and Moderator
Rhonda Stephens, DDS, MPH
Acting Section Chief and Dental Public Health Residency Director
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Oral Health Section
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, MPH
Health Program Manager
Mecklenburg County Government
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.
Betsy White, RDH, BS, FSCDH
Chief Operating Officer
Access Dental Care
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
Chief Operating Officer
Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center
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.
Hugh Tilson, JD, MPH | Moderator
Director
North Carolina Area Health Education Centers
Hugh Tilson is the Director of the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers (NC AHEC) Program and Associate Dean and Assistant Professor in family medicine at the UNC School of Medicine. Mr. Tilson has extensive experience in health care, including particular experience in hospital and provider issues, health policy development, and North Carolina’s Medicaid Transformation.
Over the course of more than 20 years, Mr. Tilson served in roles of increasing responsibility at the North Carolina Hospital Association. He first joined the organization in 1996 as director of legal and regulatory affairs, eventually becoming the group’s executive vice president and chief operating officer and ultimately spending a year as interim president. Upon his departure, he was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine by Governor Roy Cooper for his proven record of extraordinary service to the state. Most recently, he operated Tilson Solutions, offering strategic planning, public affairs, and other consulting services to a range of clients.
As director of NC AHEC, Mr. Tilson provides overall direction for the statewide program, oversees the organization’s budget and program office, manages health workforce planning and development initiatives across a range of health professions, fosters collaboration among academic programs and organizations across the state, and represents the organization on the state and national level.
Mr. Tilson is a graduate of the University of North Carolina and the UNC School of Law. He holds a Master of Public Health from Harvard.
Agenda
9:55 a.m. |
Oral Health Day 2023 Webinar Opens |
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10:00 a.m. |
Welcome and Introductions |
10:10 a.m. |
Bringing it all back: 2022 Equity Summit Findings |
10:20 a.m. |
Keynote Speaker Introduction |
10:25 a.m. |
Keynote Address |
10:55 a.m. |
Panel Discussion |
11:45 a.m. |
Speaker Q&A |
11:55 a.m. |
Closing and final remarks |