Working

by Kristen Romanowski

Kneka Smith, RDH, BS

When Kneka Smith, RDH, BS, was an undergraduate, she took an internship with the Maine Department of Human Services that changed the vision of her career. "I became interested in health policy, health care systems, access to care, and health literacy--issues that are still near to my heart," she says. "My passion for public health was ignited through this internship."

In her new role as adjunct instructor at the Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health (ASDOH), Smith is now helping to stir a passion for public health among would-be dentists. ASDOH, Arizona's first and the nation's newest dental school at the A.T. Still University of Health Sciences in Mesa, aims to graduate not only excellent clinicians, but also community leaders and managers of public, not-for-profit, and private sector oral health organizations. "To truly make a difference in the health of the nation," Smith says, "we need to have health care providers with skills beyond those related to clinical dental care."

After earning her bachelor's degree in 1995 from Westbrook College in Portland, Maine, Smith went on to serve not only as a clinician, but also as an educator, researcher, consultant, and administrator. Although for six years she carried the title of Arizona's chief officer of oral health at the state health department, she feels her most significant identity has been as an "agent of change."

The ASDOH curriculum, which offers a doctor of dental medicine (DDM) degree and a certificate in public health management, trains its students with an eye on underserved communities. "It's an integrated model that utilizes a lot of community-based clinical training during the fourth year," ASDOH dean, Jack Dillenberg, DDS, MPH, says.

Smith, in addition to teaching courses in periodontology, epidemiology, and public health, will be responsible for integrating public health principles across the curriculum. "In my experience, I have found that most practicing dental hygienists and dentists really do not understand public health," she says. "The principles of public health--assessing needs of a community, developing policies to improve health, and implementing programs--are skills all of our students will need as they transition out of dental school."

In their fourth year, ASDOH students rotate through clinical placements in community health centers, Indian Health Service facilities, and veterans' hospitals. A significant number of ASDOH's first graduating class ('07) will begin their careers working in similar settings, Dillenberg says. Graduates who go into private practice, he expects, will do volunteer work on the side.

To even get an interview at ASDOH, Dillenberg says, prospective students must have demonstrated backgrounds in community service. "That is equally important to us, if not more so, than GPA or dental aptitude test scores, in terms of the type of student that we want to bring into the school and nurture and then to graduate," he says. "Someone who wants to make a difference and give back to the community as part of their clinical practice."

With her exemplary service as the "Healthy Arizona 2010" oral health team leader and advisory committee member for the March 2004 "Status of Adolescent Health in Arizona" report, Smith has the right stuff to help train a new generation of clinically skilled and compassionate oral health care professionals. "I miss being directly involved with the politics required for system change," Smith says. "However, I do enjoy trying to incorporate and translate the knowledge, skill, and resources of the public health system into the dental school environment."

And, even though she misses her former colleagues, she says, "It is wonderful to go to work each week. They are truly focused on providing a quality education to students and being role models to the dentists of tomorrow."

This edition of Working was prepared by Kristen Romanowski.