Natalia Chalmers, D.D.S., M.H.Sc., Ph.D., is a board-certified pediatric dentist, oral health policy expert, and public health advocate who brings more than 20 years of clinical, research, industry, and regulatory experience to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in her role as chief dental officer in the Office of the Administrator. Previously, Chalmers served as a dental officer at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. She has devoted her career to transforming scientific and health care data and information into actionable insights to address equity, improve care, and better inform policy and funding. Chalmers completed her doctor of dental surgery degree at the Faculty of Dental Medicine of the Medical University of Sofia, a residency in pediatric dentistry at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry, a Ph.D. in oral microbiology from the Graduate Partnerships Program of the University of Maryland School of Dentistry and the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), postdoctoral fellowship at the Forsyth Institute, and clinical research fellowship at NIDCR/NIDCR.

Chalmers holds a master’s degree in clinical research from Duke Medical University and a certificate in drug development and regulatory science from the University of California San Francisco School of Pharmacy. Her research has translated into action, improving oral care and advocating for the role health policy can play across the lifespan—particularly when it embraces dental well-being as a facet of care for the whole person.

Mark Deutchman, M.D., is a professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, School of Dental Medicine and School of Public Health. He is associate dean for rural health at the University of Colorado and has served as director of the Colorado Area Health Education Centers system. He practiced family medicine in rural Washington State for 12 years. Since leaving rural practice he has been developing programs, conducting research, and teaching medical students, residents, and fellows with an emphasis on preparation for rural practice, maternity care, interprofessional collaboration, and oral health integration. He has served as an author for the Smiles for Life national oral health curriculum, helped found the Cavity Free at Three program in Colorado, and worked with the Medical Oral Expanded Care program. He completed medical school at the Ohio State University and family medicine residency in Spokane, Washington.

Olga S. Ensz, D.M.D., M.P.H., is a clinical assistant professor and director of community-based outreach with the University of Florida College of Dentistry (UFCD) Department of Community Dentistry and Behavioral Science. Ensz is a Florida native and a triple-gator, graduating from the University of Florida with her B.S. in nutrition in 2011, her D.M.D. degree in 2015, and a master of public health degree in 2018. She is currently pursuing a part-time residency in dental public health at the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. Ensz has a strong passion for dental public health, interprofessional education, and oral health promotion and disease prevention in vulnerable populations. She currently oversees the department’s school- and community-based dental outreach programs in Alachua and Collier counties and supervises dental students as they provide preventive dental services for pediatric patients at high risk for oral health problems. Ensz is the chief UFCD representative on the UF Health Sciences Center Interprofessional Education Committee, and currently serves as an Area Health Education Centers program liaison for the college.

Paul Glassman, D.D.S., M.A., M.B.A., is the associate dean for research and community engagement at the College of Dental Medicine at California Northstate University in Elk Grove, California, and professor emeritus at the University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry in San Francisco. He has served on many national panels including the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Committee on Oral Health Access to Services, which produced the IOM report Improving Access to Oral Health Care for Vulnerable and Underserved Populations.

Glassman has had many years of dental practice experience treating patients with complex conditions and has published and lectured extensively in the areas of hospital dentistry, dentistry for patients with special needs, dentistry for individuals with medical disabilities, dentistry for patients with dental fear, geriatric dentistry, and oral health systems reform. He has a long career working with special populations in a variety of practice and community settings. Glassman has been principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on over $32 million in grants and contracts over the last 30 years, focused on community-service demonstration and research programs designed to improve oral health for people with disabilities and other underserved populations. Glassman is a pioneer and has led the national movement to improve oral health using telehealth-connected teams and Virtual Dental Homes. Glassman has also been prominent in advocacy efforts on state and national levels for health system reform to improve oral health systems for a wide variety of underserved groups.

Michael Helgeson, D.D.S., is one of the founders of Apple Tree Dental, an innovative nonprofit organization that operates nine Centers for Dental Health and delivers onsite care in collaboration with more than 150 urban and rural organizations including Head Start Centers, schools, group homes, hospitals, medical clinics, and nursing facilities. In 2020, Apple Tree opened a Center for Dental Health within the Mayo Clinic Health System campus in Fairmont, Minnesota, and in 2023 it added the ADT Center for Dental Health in Minneapolis. He serves as Apple Tree’s chief executive officer, managing a professional staff of more than 280, which delivered more than $44 million worth of dental care during 2023. Apple Tree’s community collaborative practice model has been replicated in North Carolina, Louisiana, and California and has received recognition from the surgeon general, the American Dental Association, and the Robert Wood Johnson and Kellogg foundations. In 2017, he was included in a list of the 32 most influential people in dentistry published by Incisal Edge, and in 2019, the American Association for Community Dental Programs selected Helgeson for the John P. Rossetti Community Oral Health Impact Award in recognition of his leadership at the local, state, and national levels.

Helen Lee, M.D., M.P.H., is a tenured associate professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, with adjunct appointments in medical education and pediatric dentistry, University of Illinois Chicago. Lee is the director of the College of Medicine’s Medical Scholars Program, which is a guaranteed B.A. to M.D. program with an undergraduate student body of approximately 145 students. As director, Lee manages a unique education curriculum designed to prepare an elite group of undergraduate students for a career in medicine.

Lee’s research has focused on populations, outcomes, and factors that contribute to care at the intersection of medicine and dentistry. Prior work has relied on health services research methodology. Currently Lee and her co-principal investigator (PI), Dr. Joanna Buscemi, are developing and testing a behavioral intervention in a clinical trial. Lee is the co-PI of an NIH/NIDCR (funding period 2022–2029) UG3/UH3 award (UG3DE032003), “Testing a Multibehavioral Intervention to Improve Oral Health Behaviors in the Pediatric Dental Surgery Population.” Lee’s work has been supported by the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research, UIC CCTS KL2, and the Department of Anesthesiology, University of Washington T32. Lee is board certified in anesthesiology and pediatric anesthesiology.

Kaz Rafia, D.D.S., M.B.A., M.P.H., serves as chief health equity officer, executive vice president of CareQuest Institute for Oral Health. In his role, he spearheads strategic initiatives to foster and advance engagement and access to integrated oral health care for the underserved and underrepresented communities. Rafia also drives the organization’s efforts to elevate the integration of oral health and overall health care through the oversight of the health improvement and grantmaking teams.

Rafia brings over 2 decades of experience in successful startups, academia, managed care, government, and nonprofit organizations. Prior to CareQuest Institute, Rafia served as the state dental director for the Oregon Health Authority, where he set the equity-centered State Oral Health Strategic Plan focusing on population health measures, health care workforce development, optimization of the value-based care coordination model, and telehealth. Previously, Rafia was the director of operations for the Partnership for International Medical Access–Northwest, building sustainable long-term international partnerships with culturally diverse authorities and leaders to better understand and serve their needs. Rafia was also a founding partner of Rafia Dental, a clinical associate professor at Oregon Health & Science University, and a clinic director at Kaiser Permanente. Rafia holds a doctor of dental surgery degree from the Ohio State University, a master of business administration degree from University of Illinois, and a master of public health degree from Johns Hopkins University.

Leah Stein Duker, Ph.D., OTR/L, is an occupational therapist and assistant professor in the Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of Southern California. Her research focuses on the broad-ranging effects of environmental factors on stress, well-being, and engagement during challenging health care encounters and the efficacy of tailored environmentally based interventions to alleviate these challenges. For the last 15 years, her work has explored the oral health challenges experienced by children with disabilities and their caregivers, as well as the benefits of adapting the environment to improve dental care for these populations (e.g., children with autism spectrum disorder).

Stein Duker is currently funded by a NIH/NIDCR UG3/UH3 grant to explore the efficacy of adapting the sensory environment of the dental office to decrease behavioral and physiological distress in children with and without dental fear and anxiety. Her research interests include autism, sensory processing, multisensory environments, and both traditional wired and innovative wireless techniques for measuring psychophysiological stress and anxiety. Her work has examined care in a variety of settings, including dentistry, primary care, oncology, emergency medicine, and mobile health (mHealth). In 2021, she was a recipient of the American Occupational Therapy Foundation’s A. Jean Ayres Award for commitment to research-related development or testing of occupational therapy, especially in sensory processing.

Randi Tillman, D.M.D., M.B.A., is currently the executive dental director for the Health Care Services Corporation, which consists of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans for Illinois, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Montana. Prior to this position, she spent 5 years as the chief dental officer at Guardian. She has a D.M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from Columbia University. Tillman has more than 35 years of business experience in dental insurance, managed care, and health economics.

In addition to her career in the dental benefits industry, Tillman spent 10 years in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, in health economics and outcomes research. In recent years, her focus has evolved to issues related to utilization management, wellness, and medical–dental integration. Tillman has served in multiple leadership positions over the course of her career. She served as a board member of the Gies Foundation for the Advancement of Dentistry for 7 years and was also the principal investigator for a grant from the National Institutes of Health, during her tenure as an associate professor at the Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery. She has been a member of the American Association of Dental Consultants for over 20 years and is president-elect for 2024–2025.

Betsy Lee White, RDH, B.S., FSCDH, completed her A.A.S. degree in dental hygiene at Guilford Technical Community College in 1995 and her B.S. studies at the University of North Carolina School of Dentistry in 1997. She holds a fellowship in special care dentistry from the North Carolina Dental Hygiene Academy of Advanced Studies and a fellowship in special care dental hygiene from the Special Care Dentistry Association. Her commitment to special-care populations has been the center of her entire career. In 1994, White joined Dr. Bill Milner in his part-time practice and together created Access Dental Care. Access Dental Care has grown over 20-plus years and serves over 180 skilled nursing facilities, group homes for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) programs across the state of North Carolina, a regional HIV/AIDS program, and a community program for the older adults in New Hanover County.

White received the Sarah Bradshaw Award from Special Care Advocates in Dentistry, and she is the 2023 corecipient of the NC Council on Developmental Disabilities Holly Riddle Distinguished Service Award. She is currently serving on the NC Institute of Medicine, Medicaid Payment Transformation Committee; All Ages, All Stages NC Overall Health and Well-Being Taskforce; and Special Care Dentistry Association’s Task Force on Dental Coverage in Medicare.