Biography: Ms. Terri Chandler, RDH- Future Smiles Founder/Executive Director
Ms. Chandler is the definition of an exceptional dental professional, and her passion for
helping at-risk populations has made her a pioneer in school-based dental hygiene
programs in the state of Nevada. At graduation from the College of Southern Nevada
Dental Hygiene Program in 1999 she received both the Leadership Award and the
Community Oral Health Award. In the thirteen years since her graduation, Ms.
Chandler has continued to be a compassionate leader in her dental hygiene profession.
Ms. Chandler has been a constant leader in her professional organization locally,
statewide and nationally, too. In 2006, Terri was awarded the Southern Nevada Dental
Hygienists’ Association’s Outstanding Dental Hygienist Award for her excellence in
leadership and professionalism. As a member of the Dental Hygiene Advisory
Committee for the Dental Hygiene Program at the College of Southern Nevada for the
past seven years, and as its Chair for 2009-2010, Ms. Chandler has advocated for the
maintenance of the highest educational standards in order to ensure the most
competent and safest dental hygiene care for the public.
On the state level, she has served as Speaker of the House at four different meetings of
the Nevada Dental Hygienists’ Association’s House of Delegates. Most noteworthy is
her national contributions as she has served on the American Dental Hygienists’
Association’ s Committee on Annual Session and she has attended ADHA’s Lobby Day
in Washington, D.C. In 2006 Ms. Chandler represented the State of Nevada by
traveling to Capitol Hill as a participant in ADHA’s Lobby Day. There Ms. Chandler
represented oral health advocates who desired to address the unmet oral health needs
of Nevadans with the Nevada Senators in Washington to discuss possible solutions to
Nevada’s and our Nation’s access to oral health care issues.
Ms. Chandler’s history as an oral health advocate began in 1998 while she participated
in legislative efforts to improve the oral health of Nevadans as well. Through the
Concerned Citizens for Water Fluoridation she worked tirelessly as a participant in the
successful grass-roots campaign that supported water fluoridation. Legislation passed
in the 1999 state legislative session made Clark County the first in the state to have a
fluoridated public water supply.
Ms. Chandler’s commitment to public health dental hygiene is unparalleled. She has
been deeply involved in the planning and execution of virtually every Give Kids A Smile
Day, Sealant Day, screening event, or fundraising event for oral public health in Clark
County since her arrival here. Her organizational skills have been instrumental in the
success of many community outreach events, and she is also the first one to volunteer
to directly provide care at these events as well. Her compassion for the at-risk
population is obvious, and her energy and enthusiasm for planning and promoting
events to treat the neediest in her community never dies.
Ms. Chandler has worked as the Nevada State Oral Health (NSHD) Coalition/Sealant
Coordinator since 2004, and in that capacity has become an expert in public dental
health issues. As she gained experience in facilitating communication and coordination
between Nevada’s oral health coalitions, she helped identify and secure funding for,
Seal Nevada, a school-based sealant program that utilized public health endorsed
dental hygienists to deliver care to at-risk patients in public schools using mobile dental
equipment. Her duties as the state’s coalition coordinator were wide ranging and
complex, and helped sustain a diverse framework of public oral health programs, and
supported the development of new programs to provide dental care to our state’s
neediest residents.
Most recently, she dedicated all of her efforts to the creation of Future Smiles, a nonprofit school based oral health program that addresses the unmet health needs of K-12
students. She serves as the Founder/Executive Director of Future Smiles, which
partners with the Clark County School District. Since inception in 2009, Future Smiles
has provided preventive oral health services to more than 3,000 at-risk children in
school setting.
Without the vision of Ms. Chandler the at-risk children being served by Future Smiles
would, more than likely, not have the necessary health intervention to prevent or end
pain, poor nutrition as a result of dental disease, peer taunting due to ugly mouths
caused by tooth decay, and most importantly, the drain that oral disease imparts on
academic performance in at-risk children. Historically, these children show an inability to
learn and lack initiative to contribute to their education.
These oral health needs are addressed due to an innovative approach that provides
school-based oral health care coinciding with the support and professionalism of her
team members composed of highly qualified public health dental hygienists. In the
absence of Ms. Chandler’s efforts to spearhead Future Smiles, thousands of Southern
Nevada children would not have the benefit of professional dental care; nor the life
lessons that oral health education can instill in an at-risk population fostering health,
well-being and successful adulthood.
A healthy child can be a happy child. A happy child can be a successful child. A
successful child can become a contributor to the community. This circular logic is what
Ms. Chandler and her organization, Future Smiles, is embracing. The roots of this
movement have been planted. Ms. Chandler should be recognized for her courage,
fortitude, outstanding contributions and determination to position good oral health for all
children as criteria for Nevada.