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ADEA MDFD Award to Fund Four Dental Hygiene Academic Community Partnerships

Posted on Wednesday, October 9, 2013

 

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2013 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The W. K. Kellogg Foundation has awarded a $400,000 grant to the American Dental Education Association Minority Dental Faculty Development (ADEA MDFD) program to enhance the formation of academic and community partnerships for dental health professionals, and ultimately reduce oral health disparities for vulnerable children and communities.

The new grant follows W.K. Kellogg Foundation's $200,000 grant to expand the program's critical efforts to improve diversity among populations of dental students and faculty in 2012, and a $2.4 million grant to initially fund the ADEA MDFD program from 2004 to 2010.

"We are grateful to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for the many years of support of this program," says Jeanne C. Sinkford, D.D.S., Ph.D., ADEA Senior Scholar-in-Residence. "To date, ADEA MDFD has already created a partnership network of 12 universities and their communities with the goal of increasing diversity in all students and while developing leadership in new dental faculty."

With the funding, ADEA MDFD plans to extend support, over the next two years, to four additional institutions with dental hygiene programs to partner with pilot schools in their communities. The partnerships will promote best practices in community outreach, leadership development, lessons learned in academic mentorships, and underrepresented minority student recruitment.

"Not only will these new partnerships add quality to the academic programs while enhancing the health and well-being of their community partners," comments ADEA Executive Director, Richard W. Valachovic, D.M.D., M.P.H., "but the inclusion of dental hygiene programs will produce a cadre of individuals for allied dental program leadership."

The ADEA MDFD program's mission grows from surrounding research showing that minority patients are more likely to seek care from minority dentists, and similarly, that practitioners from underserved areas often return to those areas to practice. Those findings inspired Growing Our Own: The ADEA Minority Faculty Development Program: A Manual for Institutional Leadership in Diversity, a 126-page publication identifying best practices to recruit and retain underrepresented minority faculty.

About the W.K. Kellogg Foundation

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer, Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.

The Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Mich., and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special emphasis is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally, are in Mexico and Haiti. For more information, visit www.wkkf.org.

About the American Dental Education Association

The American Dental Education Association (ADEA) is the voice of dental education. Its members include all U.S. and Canadian dental schools and many allied and advanced dental education programs, corporations, faculty, and students. The mission of ADEA is to lead individuals and institutions of the dental education community to address contemporary issues influencing education, research, and the delivery of oral health care for the health of the public. ADEA's activities encompass a wide range of research, advocacy, faculty development, meetings, and communications, like the esteemed Journal of Dental Education, as well as the dental school admissions services AADSAS, PASS, DHCAS, and CAAPID. For more information about ADEA, visit www.adea.org.







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