Global Oral Health Award Established

Michele Leonardi Darby, BSDH, MS, has established an award bearing her name. Darby, who taught at Old Dominion University (ODU) Hirschfeld School of Dental Hygiene in Norfolk, Virginia, for more than 39 years, has introduced alongside her husband, Dennis, the Michele Leonardi Darby Global Oral Health Award. The fund, to which the Darbys have contributed $25,000, will focus on preparing dental hygienists and dental hygiene faculty to become competent in cross-cultural environments, with the ultimate goal of improving global oral health.

Darby is an eminent scholar and professor emerita at ODU, a Fulbright scholar, the coauthor of the seminal textbook Dental Hygiene Theory and Practice, and a 2013 recipient of Dimensions of Dental Hygiene’s The Esther Wilkins Lifetime Achievement Award. Contributions can be made by contacting ODU Major Gift Officer Manisha Harrell at: m1sharma@odu.edu.

From Dimensions of Dental Hygiene. December 2014;12(12):12–13.