ADEA’s Jeanne C. Sinkford, D.D.S., Ph.D., to Receive Herbert W. Nickens Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges

“Dr. Sinkford is a trailblazer in the health care community who uses her natural ability to see the big picture to enhance lives. Her work has improved the access to oral health care for many, created new paths for students and educators in dental education, and continues to demonstrate the important connection between oral and systemic health. ADEA congratulates her on receiving this prestigious award,” said ADEA President Ronald J. Hunt, D.D.S.

A consummate coalition builder, Dr. Sinkford is esteemed nationally in the dental and philanthropic communities, enabling her to leverage human talent and financial resources to realize the Association’s mission of delivering oral health care for the improvement of the health of the public. As an Associate Executive Director and Director of the ADEA Center for Equity and Diversity, her work has provided numerous opportunities for women and underrepresented minorities in dental education through innovative faculty development and pipeline programs that include the ADEA/W.K. Kellogg Access to Dental Careers Program and the ADEA/W.K. Kellogg Minority Dental Faculty Development Program. She is also the creator of the ADEA International Women’s Leadership Conference that will be held for the fourth time in 2010 in Salvador, Brazil.

Among many appointments to committees on national health initiatives, she has served as a member of the Sullivan Commission: Diversifying the U.S. Healthcare Workforce Advisory Committee, the National Advisory Board for the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Program, and the National Advisory Research Council. In 1972, she was appointed to the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Ad Hoc Advisory Panel, where she interviewed the surviving subjects of the study and advised the Assistant Secretary for Health and Scientific Affairs regarding existing policies to protect the rights of patients participating in health research conducted or supported by the U.S. Department of Health. Most recently, Dr. Sinkford was named to the National Institutes of Health Advisory Committee on Research on Women’s Health of the Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH).

Dr. Sinkford has the distinction of being the first female Dean of a U.S. dental school. She was appointed Dean at Howard University College of Dentistry (HUCD) in 1975 after serving as an Associate Professor and Associate Dean. She had been a member of the faculty since 1958, when she graduated first in her class from HUCD. She was awarded a M.A. in 1962 and a Ph.D. in 1963 from Northwestern University and completed a residency in Pedodontics in 1964 at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.