Class IX: 2019-2020
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Jennifer Adhima is the Associate Director of Project Eagle, an early childhood program of the University of Kansas Medical Center that provides direct services to pregnant women and families with young children in Wyandotte County through Early Head Start Home Visiting, Educare Kansas City, ABC Home Visiting, and the Connections Comprehensive Early Childhood Screening and Referral Program. In her current role, Jennifer is responsible for providing program leadership in the areas of human resources, community engagement, student and volunteer management, and communications. Jennifer also serves as an adjunct professor for the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare, teaching social work policy and advocacy practice to senior BSW students.
Jennifer graduated from the University of Kansas with a Master’s Degree in Social Work. As a social worker who believes wholeheartedly that the most effective way to make lasting change for children and families is through policy and advocacy action, Jennifer is eager to be part of the Dental Champions work that will benefit all Kansans, especially the youngest and most vulnerable Kansans. Jennifer resides in Lawrence with her husband and daughter.
Stephanie Augustine is a dental hygienist who was born and raised in Hutchinson, KS. She graduated from the Wichita State University School of Dental Hygiene in 2000. She is dedicated to providing excellent care to her patients and working hard to help them achieve and maintain good oral health. Stephanie also enjoys getting to know her patients personally and has found that this makes hygiene appointments much more comfortable and positive.
In 2004 she earned her Extended Care Permit II and in 2006 she began working part time for Reno County Head Start and Early Head Start. She has developed and overseen the dental program which includes performing dental screenings and fluoride varnishes for children in the school setting as well as in their homes and following up to make sure that any needed dental treatment is completed. She also works with prenatal mothers to teach them to better care for their own oral health as well as their baby's. This work is particularly important to Stephanie because not only is she an employee of Head Start, she is also a former Head Start kid.
Outside of work she and her husband have a daughter who is a high school art teacher, a son who is studying to be a dentist and a daughter-in-law who is going to chiropractic school. She loves watching her kids pursue their dreams and is very proud that they all have a passion for helping others
Dr. Branson serves as the Director of External Rotation Sites for the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Dentistry. She is licensed in dental hygiene and has a PhD in education from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. Her expertise in dental public health is documented with a certificate in public health from the University of Iowa and numerous experiences in the field. She holds the rank of full professor and has 40+ years of experience in dental education. She has served as a Board Director for oral health coalitions, faith-based community health centers and state dental hygienists’ associations. She has been a program developer for numerous public health programs, the most notable being a state-wide fluoride varnish and screening project which reaches over 90,000 children per year. She has been funded by regional grant agencies to provide oral health promotion programs and health care delivery in long term care facilities. Dr. Branson has presented numerous continuing education programs and develops on-line programs for the dental industry.
Dawn Cubbison is a Community Development Coordinator for Aetna Better Health of Kansas where she is responsible for facilitating and implementing outreach activities, special events, programs and presentations to support member education and health plan awareness within the Medicaid population and the community. Previously she held positions as a Community Resource Coordinator/Recruiter for KVC Behavioral Healthcare and as Area Manager for ECKAN Head Start.
She has a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from Ottawa University. She is actively involved in her church and community. She lives in Ottawa with her daughter and son.
Carrie Elting is a Registered Dental Hygienist at All Smiles Dental Care in Minneapolis, KS. She has been a practicing hygienist since graduating from Central Community College in Hastings, Nebraska in 2006. Carrie has volunteered at Kanas Mission of Mercy (KMOM) events over the course of her career. She also enjoys volunteering at local schools to provide preventive dental health education. She has completed various SPEAR Dental Education courses.
Originally from Cozad, Nebraska, Carrie moved to Salina with her husband in 2007. She is the mother of two inspiring daughters, Anistyn and Carlyn. Carrie is compassionate about her community and faith, and enjoys sharing her gifts at First Covenant Church Salina, where she leads pre-school worship, and is the coordinator of the Adopt-A-Family ministry which provides holiday meals and Christmas presents to families in need. She wishes to pursue her certification as an Myofunctional Therapist and is very excited to be part of Class IX.
Debra Meisenheimer is a Senior Professional Relations Representative for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas. In her position she maintains ongoing relationships with professional providers concerning contract, reimbursement, documentation and educational issues. As part of a team she helps develop provider manuals and workshops.
Debra graduated from the University of Kansas with a B.S in Journalism; Friends University with an M.S. in Total Quality Management. She also completed Leadership Exploration Blue University at BCBSKS.
Debra is a certified procedural coder with the American Academy of Professional Coders.
She resides in Pratt, Ks with husband with whom she shares two adult daughters.
Trina Morgan is the West Region Assistant Director for Healthy Families at Kansas Children’s Service League. Healthy Families is a home visitation program for families with children prenatal to age 3. Trina spent the first fifteen years of her early childhood career working in Washington state helping family child care providers conduct preschool programming. She then moved home to Kansas in order to raise her own children near family. Trina worked in the Early Head Start and Head Start programs for over 13 years in both teaching and administrative capacities. Trina then moved into Healthy Families where she supervises five of the programs across the state. Trina has spent her entire career working in non-profit early childhood programming. She deeply believes spending time and money in the first five years is vital to everyone’s well-being.
She has a Bachelor of Art in Interdisciplinary Child Development from Western Washington University. She has a Master of Education in Organizational Leadership from Newman University.
Trina lives in Goddard, Kansas with her two sons. The family is very involved with horse shows and love spending time with their horse Kenji.
Stormy Newell grew up in central Missouri where she graduated from Missouri Valley College with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology with a minor in Chemistry. She then attended University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry and graduated with her Bachelors of Science in Dental Hygiene. Stormy now resides in Kansas with her husband, Brock, and currently works as the dental practice manager and dental hygienist at Heart of Kansas Family Health Dental Clinic in Great Bend. The clinic is a non-profit organization that provides dental, medical, and behavior health services to the underserved population. After moving to central Kansas, Stormy obtained her extended care permit (ECP III) and is very passionate about getting out and serving the community. She has participated in several different outreach programs including: Kansas Missions of Mercy, Feeling Good About Your Smile, Teeth for Two, and has worked in local health fairs as well as provided school screenings. Stormy aspires to help her community and state by continuing to reach out and serve those with limited access to dental care. In her free time, Stormy loves traveling and spending time with her family. She also enjoys spending time at the lake, camping, reading, singing, and loves learning.
Shawn Oprisiu is a Registered Dental Hygienist and has worked in a variety of dental settings; education, private practice and public health. She is currently working at Southwest Boulevard Family Health Care, a non-profit clinic, which provides medical, dental and mental health services for the underserved population. She is the Outreach Specialist for the Dental Outreach Program FHC Smiles, a mobile dental clinic in the Kansas City Area School District.
Immediately after graduating from dental hygiene school in Michigan from Ferris State University in 1998, she began working in a private practice. She has been licensed in 5 states and has lived in more houses than she can remember! She has been in Public Health for the last 5 years and actually taught it at Manhattan Technical College in Kansas in 2016. She has coordinated the Give Kids a Smile’s free clinic in her career and volunteered at IMOM, KMOM, MMOM over the years. She obtained an Extended Care Permit (ECP III) with the state of Kansas in 2017 where it helps to bridge the gap of those without dental care, serving those in need.
She thoroughly enjoyed teaching students and aiding them in preparation for their upcoming careers as hygienists and hope to one day get back into teaching. In the future, she plans to assist with the expansion of the dental outreach program in KCK and expand into Churches and other Community lead areas. Furthermore, she is continuing her education with obtaining a Masters Degree in Public Health.
Currently, she lives in Baldwin City (just outside Lawrence) with her husband, Brian and son Geno and 15 Chickens, 2 Dogs and 1 Rabbit.
Susan Shelite is the Manager of the Sedgwick County Health Department’s Children’s Dental Clinic. This position allows Susan to have a working knowledge of the barriers to care many patients face when trying to find dental services. The Children’s Dental Clinic provides services at no cost to the families that are eligible, and creates ways to reduce barriers to care for the uninsured children of Sedgwick County through the volunteer dentists that work in the clinic and the relationships the health department has with area FQHC’s.
Susan has filled many roles in the dental field from assisting and clinical hygiene to clinical hygiene instructor and dental assistant program administrator. After earning her Associate and Bachelor of Science degree in Dental Hygiene from Wichita State University and a Master of Professional Studies in Public Health and Administration from Fort Hays State University, she wanted to find a way to use her passion for public health in a professional capacity. Susan has found a way to use her passion to impact the citizens of Sedgwick County through her position at the Sedgwick County Health Department and working with area FQHC’s and other organizations to reduce barriers to care in the community.
Shannon Uehling is the manager of marketing and communication for Sunflower Health Plan, one of the three Kansas managed care organizations that administer KanCare. Sunflower also introduced its Allwell Medicare Advantage and Ambetter (health insurance marketplace) products in 2018. A big part of Shannon’s focus is on how to better help Kansans access health care and other social needs. To that end, she has helped to develop Sunflower’s farmers market and Double Up Food Bucks initiatives, which help provide fresh fruits and vegetables to low-income Kansans.
She is working to learn more about social determinants of health and how investments in people’s environments, housing, education, opportunities and safety can impact their health and lower healthcare costs.
Shannon lives in Kansas City, where she stays busy volunteering, doing home-improvement projects and raising her active boys, Kieran and Quinlan, their cat, Piggy, and dog, Kita.
Alice Weingartner is the Director of Community Development for GraceMed’s Topeka clinics. GraceMed is a federally qualified health center with 16 locations in South Central and Northeast Kansas.
Prior to joining GraceMed in 2016, Alice was with the Shawnee County Health Agency and held positions in several areas including Community Relations and Public Information, Emergency Preparedness and Operations and as the Community Health Center Director.
In July 2016, GraceMed assumed the operations of Shawnee County’s Community Health Center and Alice became the Regional Operations Director and assisted with bringing the clinics online. Following the completion of a feasibility study to determine support for a local capital campaign to develop a new hub clinic, she moved into the Director of Community Development role. While fundraising and development is a primary focus of her work, she also relies on her knowledge of the community to identify opportunities for collaboration.
Alice graduated from the University of Charleston, West Virginia with a BA in Mass Communications and a MEd from Wichita State University. She is a 2017 Leadership Greater Topeka graduate, a member of Southwest Topeka Rotary and serves of the Board of Directors for The Villages, Inc.
Meagan Williams is the lead dental hygienist and outreach coordinator at E.C. Tyree Health and Dental Clinic. She is originally from Manhattan but currently lives in Wichita with her dog, Angel. In her free time, she enjoys traveling and spending time in the outdoors.
Meagan’s passion for oral health took off after participating in Kansas Mission of Mercy (KMOM) in 2013 and solidified in the years participating after. She graduated from Wichita State University in May of 2018 with a Bachelor of Science degree in dental hygiene. From her experience at KMOM she knew her efforts were needed in public health.
Shortly after graduating, she started at E.C. Tyree Health and Dental Clinic. As outreach coordinator, she works with USD 259 schools and nurses to provide preventive care to children with Medicaid or no insurance. Meagan has recently been working towards obtaining her Extended Care Permit to assist in closing the gap in access to care for school-aged children. Along with her roles at her clinic, she also serves as an adjunct faculty at Wichita State University. In this role, she work with dental hygiene students to increase their clinical skills as well as their awareness to the many roles a dental hygienist can have.