Oral Health America Recognizes Hazel Harper for Volunteer Work with Underserved
Oral Health America Recognizes Hazel Harper for Volunteer Work with Underserved Hazel Harper, DDS, MPHOral Health America (OHA) tapped Washington, D.C. area dentist Hazel Harper, DDS, MPH, to receive this year’s Marvin Goldstein Outstanding Volunteer Award. The award was presented June
Oral Health America Recognizes Hazel Harper for Volunteer Work with Underserved
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| Hazel Harper, DDS, MPH |
Oral Health America (OHA) tapped Washington, DC area dentist Hazel Harper, DDS, MPH, to receive this year’s Marvin Goldstein Outstanding Volunteer Award. The award was presented June 5 at the launch of National Smile Month, a partnership between OHA and the International Dental Health Foundation.
Harper co-founded the Deamonte Driver Dental Project, based in Greenbelt, Md, and serves as the organization’s project director. The project works to increase children’s access to dental care and early intervention. The local area narrows its focus to the identification and treatment of children in Prince George’s and neighboring counties who do not have dental insurance, are underinsured, and/or have not received dental care.
“While many others besides Hazel have worked on the Deamonte Driver Dental Project, those individuals have been legislators and other public servants. All of Hazel’s work has been on a volunteer basis,” says Beth Truett, OHA President and CEO.
Currently the project serves 2,000 children.
Harper, a graduate of Howard University, balances her work as project director with the daily responsibilities of private practice.
About the Marvin Goldstein Outstanding Volunteer Award
Goldstein’s family escaped from Russia to avoid the horrors of the Holocaust. Goldstein, himself, eventually became a dentist and relocated to Atlanta where he set up a practice he hoped would help make a statement of acceptance. Martin Luther King and family were among Goldstein’s patients.
Goldstein also had a hand in establishing the Atlanta Braves professional baseball team by opening a hotel that welcomed African Americans, providing a location that would house black players who traveled with visiting teams.
