Award for Excellence Honorees Announced

The 2014 American Dental Hygienists’ Association (ADHA) Award for Excellence in Dental Hygiene was given to Dimensions of Dental Hygiene’s Editor in Chief Jill Rethman, RDH, BA, and Joyce Bartle Flieger, RDH, MPH, during the ADHA Annual Session on June 22 in Las Vegas. Sponsored by Johnson & Johnson Healthcare Products, the award honors dental hygiene professionals who challenge the present to create a better future.

Rethman has made significant contributions to the profession through her wide range of experience, including positions in publishing; serving on the Sunstar Foundation’s board of directors and the American Academy of Periodontology Committee on Dental Hygiene; and involvement in organized dental hygiene on local, state, and national levels— most recently, as president elect of ADHA. “I’m humbled by this recognition and inspired to continue to represent our profession in a meaningful way,” Rethman shares. To read some of Rethman’s remarks from the ceremony, see her Editor’s Note.

Flieger has served the dental hygiene profession for the past 40 years. She has held various teaching, public health, and leadership positions throughout the Midwest and Southwest. While working with the Arizona Department of Health Services, she helped create a new practitioner—the affiliate practice dental hygienist—and secured grants to fund the use of teledentistry throughout the state. Today, Flieger directs the Cochise County First Smiles program in Sierra Vista, Arizona.

The awards were presented during a luncheon held at Caesar’s Palace that also honored outgoing ADHA President Denise Bowers, RDH, PhD, and welcomed 2014-2015 President Kelli Swanson Jaecks, MA, RDH.

From Dimensions of Dental Hygiene. September 2014;12(9):12,14.