Lasting Impressions | Fall 2016

NSU COLLEGE OF DENTAL MEDICINE © 5 Fighting such inequities is at the core of Mascarenhas’ public health study and career. “She is wonderful, completely dedicated, and her commit- ment to serving the kids is outstand- ing,” said Kim Greene, executive director of the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation. “NSU’s College of Dental Medicine is a wonderful partner. I never have to worry about the quality of the dental component. If there are glitches, we communicate immediately and get problems solved. She has also managed to bring in a lot of other funding and partners for her projects, which has spread beyond the nine school clinics we serve in Miami- Dade County.” Peter Gorski, M.D., of e Chil- dren’s Trust, which provides health care services to all Miami-Dade public schools, including the adoption of the sealant and preventive dental training, agrees. “I know her to be a very compassionate and diligent profes- sional,” said Gorski, who serves as the organization’s chief community health and child development and innovation o cer. “She and her sta members have trained 191 nurses in 145 schools in evaluating for dental disease and the application of uoride varnishes.” According to Gorski, the kudos for Mascarenhas don’t end there. “She has not just trained the nurses and le them on their own,” he added. “She and the NSU sta members have been available for coaching or for any kind of assistance that has been needed. What they have done has been very impressive.” Mascarenhas pursues public health advocacy through several organizations. She is board certi ed in dental public health, serves as secretary/ treasurer of the American Board of Dental Public Health, as a board examiner, on the editorial board of the Journal of Public Health Dentistry , and as a statistical consultant for Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, and Endodontics . She is past president of the Ameri- can Association of Public Health Dentistry, a current commissioner on the Commission on Dental Accredita- tion, and the recipient of numerous research grants. She also previously chaired the Health and Human Resource Administration Independent Review Panel and has served on study sections for the National Institutes of Health and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. “I have no free time,” Mascarenhas said with a laugh. She also is a guest lecturer, maintains various leadership responsibilities in her role as associate dean, and completed stints as division chief of primary care and developmen- tal sciences at NSU. In addition, she recently completed a project that develops national competencies and curriculum in dental public health, which is one of the nine specialties in dentistry. Work never seems to stop. Even during a discussion about the chil- dren’s project, a call comes in—a minor emergency regarding an equipment delivery by her sta members to a Miami school. She has to deal with it, rescue the e ort, and then return to the interview. Currently, Florida is ranked 49th in the country in terms of dental health, making this work even more vital. “Preventive dental health for children yields dividends for a child’s entire life and reaches far beyond oral health,” said Linda C. Niessen, D.M.D., M.P.H., M.P.P., dean of NSU’s College of Dental Medicine. “Preventive dental health improves children’s ability to learn, and they miss fewer days from school,” she added. “Good oral health also im- proves their overall health and self-esteem. is project for schoolchil- dren is a critically important program for South Florida and the College of Dental Medicine. Who knows? We might even be recruiting the next gen- eration of dental students.” The NSU team in action: Studies have shown that dental health affects students’ academic achievement.