George Appointed to National Oral Health Group
Mary George, an associate professor in the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Dentistry’s Department of Dental Ecology, has been appointed to a national committee that will study the effectiveness of the U.S. oral health care system and offer recommendations for a possible future federal oral health initiative.
The Institute of Medicine, the “health arm” of the National Academy of Sciences and an adviser to the nation on health issues, is leading the study through its Board on Health Care Services and in collaboration with the Board on Children, Youth and Families.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration is sponsoring the study.
The committee will issue a report on its findings. Members had their first meeting in late March and will have additional meetings throughout the year.
George, a former director of Allied Dental Education Programs at the School of Dentistry, has been involved in projects focused on oral health among adults with disabilities and on access to care for local immigrant populations. She is a past recipient of the Pfizer/American Dental Hygienists’ Association Excellence in Dental Hygiene Award. She has also received the American Dental Education Association/Sunstar Americas Inc./Harry W. Bruce Jr. Legislative Fellowship, in which she worked within the association’s Center for Public Policy and Advocacy, among other federal legislative responsibilities related to dental education.
Her other previous American Dental Education Association experience also includes membership on the Commission on Change and Innovation in Dental Education and on the ADEA President’s Commission on Improving the Oral Health Status of All Americans: Roles and Responsibilities of Academic Dental Institutions.
