Dental Hygiene Notes
Master’s degree student receives national scholarship
Megan Bilbee, who received a Master of Science in Dental Hygiene from the School of Dentistry this spring, was awarded a national scholarship earlier this year from the American Dental Education Association.
The 2020 ADEA/Crest Oral-B Scholarships for Dental Hygiene Students Pursuing Academic Careers includes $2,000 toward tuition as well as a stipend for travel to the Procter & Gamble Research Center in Mason, Ohio. The scholarship supports dental hygiene students who are pursuing education beyond an associate degree and who show a commitment to pursuing an academic career in dental hygiene. The scholarship process requires a personal statement from candidates detailing their experiences, influences and decision-making that demonstrate a firm commitment to becoming an allied dental faculty member, along with letters of nomination and recommendation from various faculty in the DH program.
Bilbee’s master’s thesis examined the “Impact of Academic Degree on Health Care Provider Perceptions of Interprofessional Collaboration.”
Megan Bilbee
Faculty member leads national organization
Chris Farrell, an adjunct clinical lecturer in the Dental Hygiene program, is the new president of the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors (ASTDD).
ASTDD is a national non-profit organization representing the directors and staff of state public health agency programs for oral health. Organized in 1948, it is one of 20 affiliates of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. ASTDD formulates and promotes the establishment of national dental public health policy; assists state dental programs in the development and implementation of programs and policies for the prevention of oral diseases; builds awareness and strengthens dental public health professionals’ knowledge and skills by developing position papers and policy statements; provides information on oral health to health officials and policy makers; and conducts conferences for the dental public health community.
Farrell is Oral Health Director for the Michigan Department of Community Health. She is responsible for an array of statewide oral health care and education programs and previously was a policy specialist in the Medicaid program at MDCH, where she has worked since 1988. She has been an adjunct faculty member at the School of Dentistry since 2010 and currently teaches in the online MSDH program. She is a past-president of the Michigan Dental Hygienists Association. She holds a bachelor’s degree in dental hygiene and a master’s degree in public administration, both from U-M.
Chris Farrell
