Project Advisory Group

Dr. Vujicic is Chief Economist and Vice President of the Health Policy Institute at the American Dental Association (ADA), where he is responsible for overseeing all of the Association’s policy research activities. Prior to joining the ADA, he was Senior Economist with The World Bank in Washington D.C. where he directed the global health workforce policy program. He was also a Health Economist with the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Vujicic is the lead author of the book Working in Health and has written several book chapters on various health policy issues. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and has worked on broad health care reform issues in Africa, East Asia, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe.

Phillip Thompson has served as NNOHA’s third executive director since June 2014. National Network for Oral Health Access was founded in 1991 by nine community health center dentists concerned about the decline of oral health programs in the nation’s community health center program. Today NNOHA has nearly 4,000 members in all 50 states, composed of dentists, dental hygienists, university, government, and foundation experts committed to strengthening the oral health safety net. NNOHA has a national cooperative agreement with HRSA to provide training and technical assistance to health center oral health programs. In 2019, 18,715 community health center FTEs treated 6.4 million dental patients. Mr. Thompson’s prior experience includes serving as a chief financial officer for a community health center in Denver, Colorado. Before joining the CHC world he worked in administration leadership at hospital and home health organizations in Colorado and Alabama. He has a Master of Science in Health Administration from Trinity University in San Antonio.

Ms. Battrell has served as the Executive Director of the Chicago-based American Dental Hygienists’ Association (ADHA) since July 2005. She is the first RDH and the first former ADHA President to serve in this position. As Executive Director, Ms. Battrell represents ADHA to governmental bodies, educational institutions, other related associations, and corporate partners. She also oversees various staff programs—from membership recruitment to consumer awareness—as well as comprehensive responsibilities for all elements of ADHA’s operation.

Julie Hawley, PhD is the Director of Analytics and Evaluation at the DentaQuest Partnership for Oral Health Advancement. Dr. Hawley comes to DentaQuest with extensive experience in evidence-based healthcare, medical/dental research & analytics, implementation science, scientific publishing, association leadership, and advocacy. Dr. Hawley served as the executive director of the American Association of Public Health Dentistry, and has had leadership roles in evidence-based healthcare with the American College of Chest Physicians as well as the American Dental Association. Dr. Hawley received her PhD from Harvard University’s Biological and Biomedical Sciences program, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco.

Denice Stewart, DDS, MHSA, is Chief Policy Officer at the American Dental Education Association (ADEA), leading the Office of Policy, Research and Diversity. ADEA’s members include all 76 U.S. and Canadian dental schools, over 800 allied and advanced dental education programs, 66 corporations and more than 20,000 individuals. Previously, Dr. Stewart served as Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs and Professor of Community Dentistry at the Oregon Health & Science University School of Dentistry. She received her DDS at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Dentistry, completed a General Practice Residency at Wilmington Medical Center (now Christiana Medical Center) in Delaware, and obtained a Master’s in Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Dr. Stewart has held several leadership positions in ADEA as a member: Chair of the Annual Session Program Committee (2014, 2016), Chair of the ADEA Leadership Institute Alumni Board, and officer roles for the ADEA Section on Clinic Administration. In 2014 and 2016, she received a Chair of the ADEA Board of Directors Citation for service to dental education. Prior to entering academia, Dr. Stewart practiced dentistry in both a private practice and a community health center and was dental program administrator for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

Dr. Paul Glassman is the Associate Dean for Research and Community Engagement at the College of Dental Medicine at California Northstate University in Elk Grove, CA and Professor Emeritus at the University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni, School of Dentistry in San Francisco, CA. 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 on Improving Access to Oral Health Care for Vulnerable and Underserved Populations. Dr. 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. Dr. Glassman has been PI or Co-PI on over $30 million in grants and contracts over the last 30 years devoted to community-service demonstration and research programs designed to improve oral health for people with disabilities and other underserved populations. Dr. Glassman is a pioneer and has led the national movement to improve oral health using telehealth-connected teams and Virtual Dental Homes.

Currently, Dr. McKernan is a Research Fellow in Residence at the University of Iowa Public Policy Center where she collaborates on healthy policy research with a multi-disciplinary team. Her research explores the role of dental workforce in mediating oral health disparities among traditionally underserved populations. At the University of Iowa College of Dentistry, Dr. McKernan is involved in clinical and didactic teaching and research mentoring with predoctoral and dental public health graduate students. Dr. McKernan received her DMD from the University of Florida and completed her MS in Dental Public Health and a PhD in Oral Science (with an emphasis in health services research) at the University of Iowa. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Public Health and is an active member of the American Association of Public Health Dentistry, where she serves as Co-Chair on the Council on Education. Dr. McKernan serves on the Advisory Committee for the Iowa Dentist Tracking System and, for over 10 years, has used data from that system to conduct workforce research exploring longitudinal trends in workforce distribution and adequacy.