Moderated by Carmen R. Nevarez, MD, MPH

Carmen R. Nevarez, MD, MPH is a public health thought leader with over 44 years of experience, served as senior vice president at the Public Health Institute for 25 years. She directed the Center for Health Leadership & Impact from 2011 to 2023 and founded Dialogue4Health.org. Currently a senior advisor, Nevarez supports programs like the Overdose Prevention Network and National Leadership Academy for the Public's Health, advancing health equity and collaborative leadership. Her diverse experience spans public health departments, community health centers, and national organizations. Nevarez has contributed to the national health conversation as past-president of the American Public Health Association and past-chair of the Langeloth Foundation. She practiced medicine part-time for 40 years in low-income settings and is now principal of CRN Health Consulting LLC.

Elizabeth (Beth) Mertz, PhD, MA is a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Dentistry and associate director for research at Healthforce Center. She is affiliated with the UCSF Center to Address Disparities in Children’s Oral Health (CANDO), the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies. Dr. Mertz’s research encompasses a broad range of health care workforce, health policy, and health services research topics. She holds a BA from the University of Southern California, a MA from the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and a PhD in medical sociology from the University of California, San Francisco.

Patrick Smith, DMD, MPH is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Public Health, with a range of professional experiences as a clinician, educator, and researcher. As an Associate Professor at UIC College of Dentistry, he develops course content and partnerships with community-based organizations that advance the service-learning curriculum. In addition, Dr. Smith is the PI of a funded research project with the American Cancer Society that is developing educational tools that promote oral cancer prevention among Black men. His scholarly publications and presentations center on advancing oral health equity in dental education, addressing the effects of racism on oral health policy and program development, and improving access and quality of dental care to underserved populations. Dr. Smith remains clinically active as a general dentist on the south side of Chicago, and serves in various capacities on campus committees, as well as within local, state, and national dental organizations.

Mary Otto is a Washington, D.C.-based independent journalist and author. She began writing about oral health at The Washington Post, where she covered social issues, including health care and poverty. In 2007, she wrote about 12-year-old Deamonte Driver, a Maryland child covered by Medicaid who died after suffering complications from a dental abscess.  The death of the boy spurred state and national reforms. After leaving the Post in 2008, Otto spent an academic year studying oral health at Harvard as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow; more recently, she served as a 2023-2024 Visiting Journalist Fellow at the Russell Sage Foundation. She is the author of the book "Teeth: the Story of Beauty, Inequality and the Struggle for Oral Health In America" published in 2017 by The New Press.

Disclosure: These speakers do not have any relevant financial relationships to disclose.