Dr. Leon Assael is Professor and founding Dean of the California Northstate University College of Dental Medicine. He is adjunct Professor of Preventive and Restorative Dentistry in community health at University of California San Francisco. Previously he served as Dean of the University of Minnesota from 2012-2017 which has the first US dental school-based dental therapy program.

A graduate of Columbia University, Dr. Assael earned his doctor of dental medicine from Harvard University School of Dental Medicine. He holds a certificate in medical management from the Gatton School of Business, University of Kentucky. He completed his residency in oral and maxillofacial surgery at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Assael serves on many professional organizations including the American Dental Association and the Hispanic Dental Association. The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons awarded Dr. Assael and the Board of Trustees a special recognition award in 2010. He is the recipient of the national Gies award for vision from the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) and is the past chair of the ADEA Board of Directors.

Over 37 years, Dr. Terry Batliner has worked in many roles - dental entrepreneur, scientific investigator, health care management professor, dental insurance executive, senior level administrator in the VA and Indian Health Service, dental school associate dean and private practice dentist. For more than ten years, he has been an active advocate for the expansion of services to people living in native communities, inner cities and rural areas through the use of dental therapists. 

Dr. Frank Catalanotto is a graduate of the College of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and completed a post-doctoral research fellowship in pediatric dentistry at Harvard School of Dental Medicine and Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston. During his long career in dental education and research he has been on the faculty of five dental schools. Dr. Catalanotto is the co-author of more than 110 scientific publications and has been the principal investigator or co-investigator for numerous federal, state and foundation grants.

Dr. Catalanotto has been active in dental education, research and advocacy organizations for much of his career. He served on the American Dental Education Association Board of Directors as vice-president for Deans and as President of ADEA from 2002-03, representing all of dental education. Many of the other organizations he has served on have a focus on improving access to care for all. His academic and professional interests include community-based dental education, ethics/social responsibility, oral health disparities and racial equity, advocacy for health care reform and access to dental care. In addition to the above topics, Dr. Catalanotto’s current advocacy efforts are focused on the new emerging oral workforce models.

Dr. Frank Catalanotto is the former dean and currently a professor in the department of community dentistry and behavioral science at the University Of Florida College Of Dentistry. His opinions are his own and do not necessarily represent the official viewpoints of any organization with which he is affiliated, nor the official views of the college.

Dr. Caswell Evans Jr. recently retired from his position as the Associate Dean for Prevention and Public Health Sciences at the University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC) College of Dentistry. He also served as the Executive Editor and Project Director for Oral Health in America: A Report of the U.S. Surgeon General. Dr. Evans was previously the Director of Public Health Programs and Services for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. Prior to that, he was director of the King County Division of the Seattle-King County Department of Public Health.

Dr. Evans is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences and is currently co-chair of its Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education. He is a past president of the American Public Health Association, the American Association of Public Health Dentistry and the American Board of Dental Public Health. Dr. Evans is President of the Institute of Medicine of Chicago and Chairman of the DentaQuest Foundation’s Board. He also serves on the Chicago Board of Health and the board of the Children’s Dental Health Project.

Dr. Todd Hartsfield is a graduate of Loyola Dental School. He served two years as a U.S. Army dentist, including a tour in South Vietnam. While in Vietnam, he started a dental training program for Buddhist monks at the Buddhist Center in Qui Nhon. Dr. Hartsfield’s 48-year career has included private practice in rural Louisiana and Canada, public health dentistry and dental education. He spent 20 years in northern Canada training, supervising and working alongside dental therapists in isolated northern communities. As the Dental Director for the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona for 5 years, he trained Tribal members to develop and implement oral health promotion/disease prevention programs, such as dental sealants, fluoride varnish and xylitol gum, in addition to providing care in IHS/Tribal clinics.

Dr. Hartsfield was an Assistant Professor of Clinical Dentistry at the Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health (ASDOH), Associate Clinical Director at Dental Care West, a private practice model clinic that is part of ASDOH, and full time faculty in the Advanced Education in General Dentistry Residency Program for 9 ½ years. He currently provides dental care for the underserved and special needs patients 3 days a week at Southeast Community Health Systems, a Federally Qualified Community Health Center in Zachary, LA.

Dr. Lawrence Hill is the executive director of the American Association for Community Dental Programs and currently serves on the Governing Council of the Ohio Public Health Association and the Board of Directors of Universal Health Access Now-Ohio. He served as the dental director for the Cincinnati Health Department and volunteer executive director for a United Way partner dental care nonprofit organization for over 30 years, during which he developed one of the largest community based dental programs in the country.

Dr. Hill served as Chair of the Oral Health Section of the American Public Health Association, a member of the Governing Council of APHA, was president of the Ohio Association of School Based Health Centers and a founding board member of both the National Network for Oral Health Access and the US National Oral Health Alliance. He was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to a three year term on the National Health Service Corps National Advisory Council. He is a recipient of the American Public Health Association John W Knutson Distinguished Service Award in Dental Public Health, the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors Distinguished Service Award, and the United States Public Health Service Chief Dental Officer’s Exemplary Service Award and numerous other recognitions.

Dr. Hogan completed her dental education at Marquette School of Dentistry in 2002. After graduation she moved closer to her Alaska home roots to settle and fulfill a National Health Service Corp obligation in Bellingham, WA. Dr. Hogan worked for SeaMar, one of the largest non-profit community health clinics in the Pacific Northwest, for over 10 years. During that time her passion for access to care issues introduced her to many new paths including the ADA’s Diversity in Leadership Program, the Steering Committee of the Whatcom County Oral Health Coalition, and Membership Chair for the Mount Baker District Dental Society.

Dr. Hogan has volunteered to screen at Migrant Camps, for the Smile Mobile, for Project Homeless Connect and piloted programs such as Placksmakin’ Preschoolers, a Volunteer Hygiene Program, and a symposium on Prenatal Oral Health. She encourages dental students to consider public health dentistry as a career and has mentored/taken on externs yearly.

For the past 8 years, she considers herself to have found the dream job working for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community in La Conner, WA where she has expanded her clinical skills and gained amazing administrative support to address current problems in the field. As Dental Director of the Swinomish Clinic, Dr. Hogan is helping lead the effort to address the oral health crisis in Indian County by supervising the first Alaska-trained dental therapist in the Lower 48 States to provide basic oral health services.  

Dr. Hogan is a strong advocate for well rounded dental teams utilizing dental therapists and expanded function dental assistants as well as recognizing the importance of culturally competent care and diversifying the dental profession.

Dr. Ana Karina Mascarenhas is the Associate Dean of research at Nova Southeastern University’s College of Dental Medicine. Dr. Mascarenhas has a B.D.S. degree from Goa College and Hospital in India and also holds a M.P.H. and Dr.P.H. degrees from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, with an emphasis on oral epidemiology. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Public Health and Fellow in Dental Surgery of the College Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. She has held positions at The Ohio State University, Columbus and Boston University’s Goldman School of Dental Medicine where she was the Graduate Program Director for Dental Public Health, and the project director for Boston University’s Robert Wood Johnson Community-Based Dental Education Program. She also held an appointment at Forsyth Institute, Boston, Massachusetts.

Dr. Mascarenhas served as the President of the American Board of Dental Public Health, President of the American Association of Public Health Dentistry, CODA Commissioner, is the recipient of numerous research grants and contracts at the institutional, state, foundation and federal levels and has over 60 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Romero was born and raised in the Espanola Valley and is a product of the Espanola School System. He attended New Mexico Highlands University (BS), the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry (DDS), the University of New Mexico (MPH), and the University of California at San Francisco where he completed a Dental Public Health Residency Post Graduate program.

Dr. Romero has had an exciting dental career in dental public health. He began public service with the State of New Mexico as Chief Dental Officer for the NM Department of Corrections, a position that oversaw expansion of prison dental clinics and staff in Grants, Las Cruces, and Santa Fe. Dr. Romero then served as staff dentist at the Las Vegas Medical Center providing dental services for the mentally ill, adolescent and long-term care patient populations. Dr. Romero previously served as State Dental Director with the NM Department of Health, managing the Office of Dental Health Under his watch, the first statewide oral health survey was conducted to assess the oral health status of New Mexico’s Children.

Dr. Robert Russell serves as the Public Health Dental Director for the State of Iowa, Department of Public Health. He joined the organization in 2005. Bob earned a B.S. degree from Grand Valley State University in 1981, a Doctor of Dental Surgery from Loyola University of Chicago in 1988, MPH in Public Health from the University of Michigan School of Public Health in 2002, MPA in Public Administration in 2019 and Certification in Public Management CPM, in 2017. He is a member of the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors, the National Network for Oral Health Access, the American Dental Association, the Iowa Dental Association, and the American Association of Public Health Dentistry. 

Dr. Russell was recently appointed a Fellow of the American College of Dentists, and to the Pi Alpha Alpha International Honor Society for Public Administration and a Fellow to the International College of Dentists in 2019. Bob resides in Des Moines where he also serves on the Board of Directors and President of the Region VII Head Start Association, the Board of Directors of the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP), the Iowa Hawk-I Advisory Committee, the Free Clinics of Iowa Advisory Committee, and the Lifelong Smiles Dental Coalition. 

Dr. Karl Self joined the faculty of the University Of Minnesota School Of Dentistry in 2006 and in January of 2010, he was selected to be the director of the newly created Division of Dental Therapy. In addition to managing all aspects of the implementation of this program, he is engaged in teaching dental, dental therapy, and dental hygiene students. His current research efforts are focused on the implementation of dental therapy in Minnesota. His general research interests include team-based care, access to care, and global health.

Dr. Self earned his DDS degree from the University of Minnesota’s School of Dentistry, and a MBA from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. He has been engaged in a variety of dental practice types including private practice and large group practice, yet he has spent most of his professional life in a community clinic. Dr. Self also served as a consultant for the Department of Human Services’ Medical Assistance program, director of Diversity and Inclusivity for the School of Nursing, and executive director of a Federally Qualified Healthcare Center in Minneapolis. Dr. Self serves on the board of a number of non-profit dental focused organizations and has been involved in improving oral healthcare in Africa.