Delta Dental Awards $200,000 to Society of American Indian Dentists to Drive Greater Diversity in the Oral Health Workforce
The program, Telling the Story of a Path to Dentistry, aims to recruit American Indian/Alaska Native dentist role models to inspire more youth to consider oral health professions
[OCTOBER 12, 2023] – The Delta Dental Institute announced the inaugural award recipients of the Delta Dental Oral Health Diversity Fund. Among the awardees, Society of American Indian Dentists (SAID) received $200,000 to launch Telling the Story of a Path to Dentistry: Connecting AI/AN Dentists with AI/AN Youth, which will address the lack of dentist role models in American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities.
Volunteer AI/AN dentists, armed with tailored materials, will present to Native students in their community high schools, sharing their unique journeys to becoming dentists, and inspiring more Native youth to consider and work toward a career in dentistry.
“We are focused on addressing the lack of dentist role models in American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities by providing presentations and materials in our community high schools. Our members will tell the story of their journey to becoming a dentist. This project is driven by a vision to increase AI/AN representation in the dental profession. Evidence shows that oral health parity will help reduce barriers to oral health care in all Tribal Nations,” said Society of American Indian Dentists Board President, Cristin Haase, DMD, MPH (Cheyenne River Sioux).
As part of their Driving Greater Diversity in the Oral Health Workforce campaign, Delta Dental has awarded over $700,000 to fund innovative programs that inspire school-aged children from historically underrepresented groups to pursue careers in oral health.